HOUSING JUSTICE

Housing is a Human Right

We are the richest state in the richest nation on the planet. It’s time we recognize and affirm that housing is a human right. It is our responsibility to provide accessible and permanent housing solutions for our unhoused population. To push Oakland towards this goal, I plan to:

• Institute aggressive city-wide affordable housing requirements and labor standards for any and all new developments.

• Convert existing empty housing into deeply and permanently affordable housing.

• Incentivize small landlords to keep their property long-term affordable through subsidies and/or tax relief.

• Increase ownership in the flatlands by both: a) subsidizing home loans in areas historically affected by redlining, and b) working with local Community Land Trusts to remove property from the volatile market and curb displacement by creating long-term stable housing. 

• Advance a debt forgiveness and rent abatement policy, paired with mortgage relief. We need more affordable housing at 0-25% area median income (AMI) to give everyone shelter as they get back on their feet—not just those who can afford 75% AMI.

• People who are currently unhoused should be given temporary housing through hotels, RVs or small homes, and be granted services such as a job pipeline (into positions funded, for example, by a Black New Deal). Oakland must be replete with affordable and equitably managed housing so that people transitioning back into housing have a safe place to land. 

• We also need to take care of our unhoused neighbors now, providing people experiencing homelessness with shelter, mental health support, and hygiene services.

It will take a strong and principled leader to make city leadership commit to policy changes that will affirm that housing is a human right. I’m ready to take on that fight.