It's a major win for affordable housing advocates. After Oakland residents staged a prolonged strike, an apartment building is being handed over to them.
About two and a half years ago, Maria Montes De Oca and a number of her Oakland neighbors stopped paying rent in protest after the cost of their apartments on 29th Avenue more than doubled.
Montes De Oca said the rent increase had her "very stressed." She added that payments from working were usually not enough to pay such high rent.
Montes De Oca told NBC Bay Area Friday that she is no longer worried about whether she will be able to stay in her home. The rent strike worked after the landlord decided to sell the building, and the tenants are turning into building owners.
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With financial help from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and the Oakland Community Land Trust, the tenants all bought the 14-unit apartment building for $3.3 million using city bond funds.
“Now, we have a home that is secure for my family and our family and we won’t have the fear of being harassed or having the rents increased on us,” Montes De Oca said.
“We can hold and steward property effectively and make sure that it remains affordable. It’s a completely different trajectory to make sure that low-income families will always have a place to live,” said Steve King, Executive Director of the Oakland Community Land Trust.
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Tenants now own a share in the land trust that purchased the property, allowing them the same rights as homeowners.
King explained that rents will be regulated through the city of Oakland.
“Rents will be stabilized, they will be affordable in perpetuity, and they won’t have to worry about the year over year rent increases that were displacing tenants in that building,” he said.
It’s a hope in housing that Montes De Oca said she never thought it was possible.
“After having fought for six years for this, it feels great,” she said.
Residents are planning an event to celebrate their victory Saturday. Advocates hope the tenants' victory will be used as a model to continue to use throughout the Bay Area.
