July 2022

Dear friends, family, and constituents,

Much has occurred since our last newsletter communication and outreach to you has been partially stifled by my tough bout with Covid. As I stated on my personal FB page, if we’ve been in physical contact recently, please pay attention to your body even if you don’t show symptoms. Get a professional PCR test as my 3 home kits showed negative results. It wasn’t until I was frantically gasping for air and my subsequent emergency room visit that I found out I was really sick.

I was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease as a side effect of a new variant of Covid. The ER doctor said it should last a maximum of fourteen days, so forgive me if I’ve had to cancel appointments or meetings. The ER staff said a serious variant is on the rise in Oakland as the virus mutates and people’s guards are down. This message is for people to keep wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing. Mutating Covid strains and Monkeypox are on the rise in Alameda County right now so please do your part to stay safe. 

Regarding the first half of the local legislative cycle, it’s been heavy. Much of the Council's attention has been consumed with developing legislation for the November municipal election and crafting Oakland’s mid-cycle budget. Both tasks were unusually complex this year because of the record number of ballot initiatives to review and the mid-cycle funds available from Oakland’s Covid-19 stimulus allocation. As a result, this newsletter has many updates and I hope you get a chance to read through all of the items.

As always, in service and solidarity,

Councilmember Carroll Fife

Items In This Newsletter

1. New Social Housing In Oakland May Become A Reality

2. On The Path To A Black New Deal In Oakland

3. Municipal Ballot Measures Passed This Month

4. Reflections On The Emerald New Deal - A Live With Chaney Turner

5. Reflections On Public Safety And Crime In Oakland - A Live With The Mobile Assistance Community Responders Of Oakland (Macro) Program And The Anti Police-Terror Project

6. Community Summer Block Party - Saturday July 30th

7. West Oakland Farmers Market Continues Every Sunday

8. The Roll Out Crew School Supply Drive

9. Affordable Homeownership with the Oakland Community Land Trust

10. Chapter 510 - Supporting Children To Write, Perform And Publish

11. Free Mattress Recycling

Legislation and Updates

1. New Social Housing in Oakland: 13,000 Low-Rent Units May Become A Reality

Last month, I introduced legislation that would allow Oakland voters to decide in the November municipal election whether the City of Oakland should have the authority to develop, construct, or acquire up to 13,000 low rent housing units in the City. Under Article 34 of the California constitution, low rent units can NOT be built without voter approval. Authorization is the first step, after which we can find the funding and define the implementation.

Below, you can read more about social housing, what it is, why it’s important, and how Article 34 figures into all of this. I will be continuing to share information throughout this year. This will be a big moment for Oakland and we will need to build the movement to make it a reality.

What is social housing?

Housing that is built with the support of government funding in order to create non-market, affordable housing opportunities.

Why is it important?

The real estate market has failed the majority of working class people, evidenced by past industrial-era exclusionary practices, the 2008 foreclosure crisis as well as its ongoing effects. Homes have become investments that lay vacant while many Oaklanders have been priced out of their communities.

60% of Oaklanders are renters. 51% of renter households make less than half of the Area Median Income (AMI), an alarming condition where many tenants are rent burdened - meaning they pay more than 1/3 of their income on housing, partly due to record high costs of living and stagnating wages. Access to low and very-low income housing is critical to ensuring that a growing number of Oakland residents are not plunged into homelessness.

Many major cities with similar geographies, such as Vienna, Singapore and Hong Kong, have been able to mitigate housing shortages by turning a quarter or more of their housing stock into municipally owned & managed housing - creating a floor for not only the most vulnerable, but also middle-income individuals & families.

WHERE DO YOU FIT IN WHEN IT COMES TO AREA MEDIAN INCOME?

A single person in Oakland earning $76,750 per year is low income according to the California Housing & Community Development Department.*

*Source: https://www.hcd.ca.gov/docs/grants-and-funding/inc2k22.pdf

So why don’t we have more social housing in Oakland?

California’s lack of affordable housing reflects a racist history where in 1950 California voters approved a measure that added Article 34 to the California Constitution which prohibits the development, construction, or acquisition of publicly funded low-rent housing projects without majority approval by the voters of a city or county.

It was a reactive measure to the Federal Housing Act of 1949 which banned explicit racial segregation in public housing. By making public housing projects harder to build, predominantly white voters chose to effectively ban public housing instead. You can read more about Article 34 and its dark history in this LA Times article.

Social Housing is not the public housing of the past.

1930s federal policy subsidized builders who mass-produced White's Only communities & pushed Black Americans, BIPOC and low-income individuals into public housing "projects" that were designed to fail. This "failure by design" has impacted public perception of government-sponsored housing. Left to its own devices, the private market has continued to segregate, marginalize and ignore the needs of far too many in need of housing. This must change.

How do we move past this racist history that impacts all Oaklanders? What can you do?

I have put forward a ballot measure for the November election that would authorize the City of Oakland to develop, construct, and/or acquire up to 13,000 low-rent housing units in the City. Talk to your friends, family and neighbors about all the above and the importance of social housing. Ask them to vote yes on this item in November. You can share information on this ballot measure on social media with this Instagram post and this Twitter post. And stay tuned for more information on how you can become a part of the campaign this summer and fall!  

2. On The Path To A Black New Deal For Oakland

In June, the City of Oakland published a report in response to my call for an analysis of the economic impacts on Black Oaklanders due to the policies and programs of the New Deal Era in the 1930s-60s and urban renewal in the 1950s-60s. The report found that the economic impact of racist housing policies in Oakland has cost Black people in Oakland between $4.9 and $5.2 billion dollars. This figure does not include a wide range of other impacts including lack of school funding, job opportunities, income gaps, etc. 

Based on demolished houses in West Oakland alone (which is only one metric to consider), Black families could have cumulatively built wealth from between $3 to $3.2 billion dollars. This would be equivalent to $29,519 to $31,081 for every current Black resident of Oakland. The report also said that a fund of $10 million to remedy this would only provide sufficient income for sixteen families, which would not be nearly enough to make amends. 

Beyond housing, the report also looked at an income gap calculation. In 2017, based on the U.S. Census, white people over 15 had an average income of over $49,000, and Black people over 15 had an average income of under $24,000. The difference would be over $15,000 per Black person over 15 in Oakland.

We often look at today’s social challenges as disconnected from the past; disconnected from history, but we are the cumulative embodiment of what came before. The economic disparities we see today are primarily a result of decades of discriminatory policy. The New Deal Era and urban renewal resulted in Black Americans being excluded from social support systems that instead subsidized the lives and futures of white suburbanites and further deepened the divide created by enslavement, segregation and a host of race-based legislation.

This racial impact analysis is the first step in pushing the City and other institutions to bear responsibility in rectifying the harm caused by these policies and practices. It also highlights that there is a need to put concentrated effort in defining exactly how we ameliorate the harm which the impact analysis will address. We need to allocate resources and time to concretely define that harm and develop a path to realize resolution. We cannot assume solutions will magically materialize, nor that this work will be well received. It is painful and challenging work, but as Dr. Martin Luther King said,“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but (one) must take it because conscience tells (them) it is right.”

In response to this report, I have requested the city spend $150,000 of this year's budget surplus to continue this research through a formal race and equity impact analysis. The goal of the analysis is to define the concrete strategy and funding amounts required to implement a Black New Deal for Oakland. It’s time we right this historic wrong. 

3. Municipal Ballot Measures Passed This Month

This month, City Council passed a few more measures that you should expect to see in November: 

1. Extending the Just Cause For Evictions Ordinance: Tenants living in multi-unit rental buildings have tenant protections under this ordinance EXCEPT FOR buildings built after 1995. This ballot measure will amend this ordinance to include tenants in buildings built after 1995, educators and families with children, and those who seek month to month lease renewals.

2. Reauthorizing the Infrastructure Bond currently known as Measure KK: Without this initiative, Oakland will run out of funds for transportation projects in 18 months and will not have new funding for affordable housing from the state of California until 2024. We need these public funds to maintain and create affordable housing and our city’s infrastructure, and I additionally hope to find ways to allocate funding for social housing.

3. Create Access To Public Financing For Oakland Election Candidates: Far too often, money drives election outcomes and skews the political process. This ballot measure will authorize a public funding source for $25k grants to support the ability of less resourced candidates to run campaigns. Support for the Public Financing ballot initiative means that not having the funds to donate to one's chosen candidate(s) will be a thing of the past. This new campaign financing tool is a major step toward expanding equity, transparency and engagement in the local electoral process and I am proud to have contributed to its early organizing efforts. I look forward to spreading the word about the initiative this summer and for a big win in the fall. 

4. Reflecting on the Emerald New Deal and Cannabis Equity with Chaney Turner

This past month, I went Live with Chaney Turner to discuss the issues with the Emerald New Deal (END) and what cannabis equity could look like.

The main takeaways from the Live were that while the organizing energy around the END is important, the actual policy lacks definition that we hope future drafts will improve upon. Policy that stands the test of time is hashed out in the details that we choose to include now, some of the areas we identified were:

-> The END will pull dollars from Oakland’s General Purpose Fund, a source that already covers certain desires of the END, such as trash collection and blight abatement. By moving these funds to the END and using 15% of that 1% for its own overhead, we actually lose much needed funding for the issues we are correctly observing.

Part of the reason trash collection and clean up in areas of East and West Oakland are problematic is the related to the deep vacancies in the City’s Public Works Department, the inability to retain existing staff, and the residual effects of rampant poverty, none of which would be addressed by the END.

In addition, some of these services such as trash collection don’t touch on the harm created by the War on Drugs in a deep manner. We need to research concrete and highly correlated solutions, whether it looks like targeted mental health services or youth programs.

-> The END allocates 50% of its funding to unknown non-city partners. Without defined selection, oversight and evaluation of these partners, we find ourselves giving public funds to private hands and further hollowing out our public institutions. Decades of handing over public services and institutions into private hands has shown us that ordinary people are often the ones who pay the price in this transition through reduced and/or inconsistent quality and accountability.

-->Impact on City Budget

• The END proposal would remove all cannabis tax revenue from the General Purpose Fund without replacing them with other money. 

• This would result in a permanent shortfall of about $8-10 million each year. As cannabis revenues grow or shrink, so would the respective hole in the budget.

• The shortfall would particularly impact departments that rely heavily on the General Fund including many essential and frontline services. 

• The new fund would contract out to private businesses to provide services, undermining job quality in Oakland and avoiding public accountability. 

-->Impact on Equity

• The services on the chopping block from the loss of general fund dollars would be precisely the ones most critical to addressing the disproportionate impact of the Drug War on Black, Latino and Indigenous communities: housing and homelessness, health care access and drug treatment programs, job training and placement and reimagining public safety.

• The majority of Oakland city employees are people of color who live in the city. They would bear the brunt of these cuts and job losses.

• Cannabis industry tax rebates, which have already reduced cannabis tax revenue to the city by 50%, would be maintained under this proposal even though they permit the majority of workers in the industry to live outside Oakland, be paid low wages, and have no access to healthcare.

-> And ultimately, it was not cannabis that motivated the War on Drugs and the revenues generated from cannabis should not be the source to address it. It was a policing apparatus and “justice system” that continues to incarcerate Black and Brown individuals disproportionately that caused the immense and ongoing harm of the so-called drug war. A policy that seeks to heal and repair harm needs to address the role of law enforcement in that war.

The greatest share of taxpayer dollars funds the police department in Oakland and our communities still do not feel safe. Imagine if hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into creating healthy communities versus under-serving them and using law enforcement to pick up the pieces. What if MACRO was funded to operate throughout the city 24 hours a day and 7 days a week? Plans to repair the harm should come from those who initiated that harm, and as Documentary Filmmaker Stanley Nelson said, “The war on drugs funded policing back then, and it continues to fund policing today.” 

I truly hope the conversations and organizing energy that the END has inspired can build towards policy that has deep and long lasting effects. The above are a few brief reasons why I did not vote in favor of the legislation at this time, but I am in conversation with the grassroots organizers who worked on the END to see how we can partner on drafting strong legislation that addresses the very real issues they are fighting for. If you'd like more context and missed my Live with Chaney Turner on Cannabis Equity, you can listen back on Youtube.

5. Reflecting on Public Safety and Crime in Oakland With MACRO and APTP

When I look in the news and hear stories of crime exponentially increasing, I see a disconnect with the actual crime data the Oakland Police Department reports weekly. The crime data shows that violent crime has actually decreased by 12% from last year and by 4% against the last 3-year average, with some increases in theft. This discrepancy between what we hear in the news and what we see in actual data, as well as the difference between the kinds of crime communities are committing, reflect the deeper conditions and societal relationships the US operates upon.

Crime is scary. And if one has been a victim of crime, it’s a very jarring and traumatic experience that should be acknowledged and addressed. At the same time, crime has often been the medium through which individuals of oppressed classes have engaged when no other avenue for accessing resources and protesting social conditions have been available to them. The fact that violent crime has gone down while theft has gone up is an indicator that there are many among us who are struggling to access resources and have turned to crime for reprieve at a time when our government has failed to provide essential services such as stable housing, healthcare and quality education in the face of rampant income inequality.

The institution of policing has historically arisen to protect the interests of wealthy property owners against the protesting masses who demand fair compensation for their labor. In the present, wages have stagnated and the chasm between the rich and poor is at its worst than any time since the 1920s. Over the last 30 years, the top 1 percent has seen a $21 trillion increase in its wealth while the bottom half of American society has actually lost $900 billion in wealth, reflecting a massive transfer of wealth from those who have too little to those who have too much. It’s unsurprising that in Oakland the crime categories we’ve seen increases are in resource theft.

People are going to protest hunger and oppression no matter how militarized the police become or how severe the punishment. It is only when we create opportunities for oppressed classes to express their desire for change in the social structures we live in that we will see crime go down. Decades of police-terror in the United States should be enough evidence to show that simply policing has never resulted in crime decreasing. In the past year, Oakland has had fewer police officers on the streets and we’ve actually seen violent crime go down.

It’s not necessarily a harder or even a more nuanced conversation to identify long-term solutions and investment that truly uplift communities, versus end of the line punishment through policing. If you follow the work of Dr. Nikki Jones and listen to her presentation at the Black New Deal Symposium, the research and data exists. It’s only hard for those who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo prison system that uses the free labor of inmates;  police unions who overspend their budget at the expense of our parks, streets and city services; and the politicians who get bullied by wealthy and powerful interests into perpetuating this failed system.

Last month, I spoke with Elliot Jones, the Program Manager at Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO) Program, and James Burch, Policy Director at the Anti Police-Terror Project, about the above and much more. If you’re interested in taking a listen, you can find the recording on my Youtube page. This conversation around public safety is going to heighten leading up to the November election and I hope to keep making time to return to real data, research and solutions.

Events

6. Community Summer Block Party - Saturday July 30th

This Saturday, Care 4 Community (C4C) will be hosting a West Oakland community block party where I will be speaking about the Black New Deal and other active initiatives. I welcome any and all constituents to attend, ask questions and share thoughts, as well as connect with each other.

7. West Oakland Farmers Market Continues

The West Oakland Farmers Market continues every Sunday from 10am-2pm on Peralta between 18th and 20th. If you haven’t been, you can catch a sneak peak of the market through the video below where I speak on the opening day and visit with the vendors.  

You can find more information about the market on their website here and follow them on Instagram here.

8. Roll Out Crew (ROC) School Supply Drive

Even though it’s summer time, some of West Oakland’s hardest working community groups are gearing up for the school year. Please support the Roll Out Crew’s efforts to make sure our kids have what they need to get off to a successful school year!

Community Resources

9. Affordable Homeownership with the Oakland Community Land Trust

My OakCLT family is showing Oakland residents what a community can be when we invest in housing as a human right and not a commodity. Check out these flyers to find out how to register for an info session.

10. Chapter 510 - Supporting Children to Write, Perform and Publish

I recently got a chance to visit with Chapter 510, a wonderful organization here in Oakland that mentors and teaches children to write, perform and/or publish. Learn more about them in the video below of my visit! And you can also check out their website at: https://www.chapter510.org/

11. Free Mattress Recycling

Did you know that mattresses are recyclable in California and there are three easy ways to do so at no cost? Watch the brief videos below or visit www.byebyemattress.com to learn more.