Tell the City to put their money where their mouth is
Now is the time to tell Oakland City Council to put their money where their mouths are. Oakland is at the height of gentrification and displacement. Market-rate development is pushing long-term residents out of our homes; jobs aren’t paying nearly enough to match the cost of living, and every day, we see more and more tents popping up as the number of houseless people grows. When over 12,000 seniors and families are applying for 71 units of affordable housing and our immigrant members forced to leave their communities month after month, it is clear that the City is not doing enough.
We need you to call your Councilmember and tell them:
It’s time to fund proven anti-displacement and homeless prevention strategies: counseling, legal services, and emergency housing funds. I need you to ensure that all of ReFund Oakland Coalition’s Budget Priorities are included in the final budget.
| Council President Larry Reid (District 7) 510-238-7529 | CM Dan Kalb (District 1) 510-238-7001 | CM Abel Guillen (District 2) 510-238-7002 |
| CM Lynette McElhaney,(District 3) 510-238-7003 | CM Annie Campbell-Washington (District 4) 510-238-7004 | CM Noel Gallo (District 5) 510-238-7005 |
| CM Desley Brooks (District 6) 510-238-7006 | CM Rebecca Kaplan (At-Large) 510-238-7308 |
Last year, with over 30 volunteers and thousands of signatures and phone calls, we passed Measure JJ: Protect Oakland Renters. What we need to make these protections real is funding for frontline housing defenders—housing counselors and lawyers—as well as emergency housing funds to help cover residents’ rent during a financial set-back or for security deposit.
Support the ReFund Oakland Coalition’s Community-Labor Budget Proposal by signing this petition:
An ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure: it costs $500 to keep a family in their home versus $500,000 to build a new housing unit or $100,000/person to provide homeless wrap-around services, and most of all, we can prevent human suffering and trauma from losing one’s home and slipping into homelessness or displacement.
We are calling on the City to truly reinvest in our communities. The Mayor and City Council need to redirect money from the budget items that criminalize our residents and reinvest that funding back into public services. They need to push developers to create housing and jobs that will actually benefit long-time Oakland residents and address the houselessness crisis. Instead, the Mayor and City Council want to fill budget gaps by selling public lands to build luxury housing.
