Community & Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Community Economic Committee meeting of today, October 14. The time is now 01:32PM, and this meeting has come to order before taking roll. I will provide instruction instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda. If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit your speaker card, please fill one out and turn it into my self before the item is read into record. Online speaker requests were due twenty four hours prior to this meeting making a time yesterday at 01:30PM.

Speaker cards will no longer be accepted ten minutes after the meeting has began, making that time 01:42PM. With now, we would now proceed to take roll. Council member Fife?

Present.

Thank you. Council member Ramachandran is excused and on her way. Council member Unger? Here. Thank you. And chair Brown? We have three members present, one excused. Council member Ramachandran? Present. We have four members present altering the roll call. Thank you. Moving to item one. Moving to the council members announcements. Chair, do you have any announcements for today?

Yes. Well good afternoon everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for community and economic development committee. Most of today's agenda items focuses in on housing, protecting tenants, supporting small property owners, and strengthening programs that keep Oakland Oaklanders housed. So I know that there's been a lot of conversation and passion around these issues and so just really want to affirm that this committee is deeply committed to fairness, transparency and preventing displacement.

And many of the items were previously budgeted in our recent budget. And so council members, madam clerk, I will also like to change the order and take item number five last on our agenda.

Thank you for your announcements. Noting item five will be last on the agenda moving to item one, approval of the draft minutes from the committee meetings held on July 22 and September 30.

I'll make a motion. You have a second?

Second. Thank you. We have a motion made by chair Brown, seconded by council member Fife to accept the approval of the draft minutes of the committee meetings held on July 22 and September 30 as is on roll. Council member Fife? Aye. Thank you. Council member Ramachandran?

Aye.

Council member Anger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to accept approval of the draft minutes of the committee meetings held on July 22 and September 30 as is moving to item two, determination to schedule outstanding committee items also known as your pending list. And you do have two speakers.

Okay. Thank you so much. I have nothing on this. Colleagues, administrator Lake.

Thank you. Betsy Lake, assistant city administrator. There are no changes from the administration to the schedule at this time.

Okay. Excellent. So we can hear from the public speakers.

Moving to the first public our public speakers, Ralph Katz and Miss Asada, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. And you have two minutes. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Ralph Kantz. I wanna know when you're gonna schedule the issue about house flippers and slumlords in this city, and how they're ripping off the city for millions of dollars. I've sent you the email, I sent you the email, I sent you the email. Mister Unger is the only one who responded. He's actually the only elected official in city that has responded to that email. The mayor's office won't respond. Nobody will respond. Why? You're in a you're in a budget trouble. I've identified millions of dollars that you could go collect. It's easy to chase it down. It's really easy. I did a whole bunch of work on the house flippers. We're just starting now on the Slumlords. What do you find with the Slumlords?

You find like oh, 1421 89th Avenue, where there's pigeons in the attic, and the tenant had to file a complaint with the city last week about all the problems. And you find out the owner of it lives in a five bedroom, three bath house in Fremont, it's called an executive home, and it's worth over $2,000,000. And he owns two airplanes, and he owns all kinds of other properties in Oakland. He's ripping off the city. He's ripping off his tenants, and the city is doing nothing.

Absolutely nothing. And the house flippers is so out of control. They don't pull permits, Which is costing the city, probably on those houses, more money than you get in the transfer tax. Which would mean, I think you would be all over that. And you're not. I can't even go away to say thank you for your email for expressing your concern. Other than mister Unger. Nobody in this city will do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Unger. This gentleman is very credible. He's been around a long time. He's very vested in what he believes, and he's very knowledgeable about what's going on in our city and I hope we give him some respect when he brings issues before you.

I'm concerned about the fact that people have invested themselves in doing businesses in Oakland, but they're not able to maintain those businesses. And what's happening that causes people to go into business and not being able to stay in business for a substantial amount of time. That is linked to this incident of this family in San Francisco, the husband and wife taking their lives and taking the lives of their children. What was connected to what possibly caused this to happen, they had businesses in Oakland. The lady had two coffee shops and that went out of business and there is an existing, I think, auto repair business that the husband owned.

But their house went into foreclosure. They had credit card debt over $15,000. What's happening when people are in business in our city and they can't stay in business? And we need to develop a process to help people stay in business because a lot of businesses are going into foreclosure as well as homeowners. Lastly, I'm asking that any reports that come out that have an economic identification of African Americans that it distinctly separates African Americans from Africans or blacks.

Because we have, and I'm seeing a lot of employment of people who look like me but they're not African Americans. And I'm glad they have jobs. But we need to look at the two separate groups because I think they're doing a little bit better than we are in this city.

And

that's all the public speakers? Excellent. Just need a motion on this item.

So moved. Second. Second.

Thank you for that. We have a motion made by council member Unger, seconded by council member Ramachandran to accept the termination of schedule. He signed up for through the chair to the public speaker, you signed up for a open forum.

We will hear from the public speaker during open forum. Thank you.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Angra, seconded by council member Ramachandran to accept the termination of scheduled outstanding committee items as is. On roll, council member Fife?

Aye.

Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Council member Unger? Aye. And chair Brown? Aye. The motion passes with four ayes to accept the termination of scheduled outstanding committee items as is moving to item three. Receive and file an annual report of the rent adjustment program for fiscal year twenty four through twenty five. And you do have five speakers for this item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. So I believe on this item we will be hearing from is it Jessica Leavitt? And she is in the Zoom.

Good afternoon. Yes. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, chair, members of the committee, members of the public. I'm Jesse Lovett, assistant manager for WRAP, and I'm joining to present WRAP's annual report for, fiscal year 2425. K Top, I believe you have a PowerPoint presentation. Would you be able to bring that up?

It is being displayed.

Excellent. Thank you so much. I'm not seeing it on my screen, but I will will figure that out. Are we at the overview slide? And if not, can we advance to that slide, please?

Through the chair too, Jessica. You can pin the chamber's window view to view the PowerPoint.

If I can figure that out.

It's hover over the chamber's square, and there should be three dots to pin the chamber's profile through

the chair.

Thank you so much. I am not seeing that, but I can certainly just go ahead, with it. So if we could move to slide two, which is the overview chair, excuse me, the overview slide. In today's presentation, we'll cover a few things. I'll talk about how WRAP fits within HCD's overall work and strategic framework.

I'll talk about Oakland's primary rental housing laws, how WRAP, works to help implement those laws, WRAP's finances, and looking ahead, our continuing priorities as we move forward. Staff recommends that city council receive and file this report. Next slide, please. And can we go to the slide that says the three P's framework, please? So as I'm sure you've all seen before, HTD's conceptual structure for the work of the department is this three P's framework, preservation, protection, and production.

That really means preserving existing affordable housing, producing new affordable housing, and protecting Oaklanders in their current affordable housing from displacement. Just as a quick aside, Oakland's new anti displacement strategic action plan is gonna be coming to CED, I believe, next month. So there'll be more on that. If we could go to the next slide, please, and then to the slide that says rental housing laws. So in terms of where WRAP's work sits, we're really in that protection bucket.

So the rental housing laws that I'm going to talk about next really seek to address the displacement impacts of rentals to Oakland's rental housing market, and RAP, does its work to implement and enforce those housing laws. Next slide, please. And if we could go to the slide that says wrap and forth laws. So the ordinances that are listed here are the main ones that govern the relationship between property owners and Oakland tenants. There are seven listed.

I'm only going to talk about three in the interest of time, but I'm certainly happy to talk more about others if anybody would wish. The rent adjustment ordinance is obviously the biggie. It regulates rents and provides for a petition process for owners and tenants to resolve disputes over rents, conditions of the property, or other issues that fall under the ordinance. The just cause for eviction ordinance regulates evictions, and it sets out the, requirements imposed on property owners who are seeking to terminate a tenancy. And the rent registration ordinance regulates the annual registration of residential rental properties.

Oh, thank you. I see it on my screen now. Okay. Next slide, please. And the next slide.

So I'm going to talk about how WRAP does the work required of it under these laws. Just to kind of, set a little stage for this, the structure that WRAP, uses, the structure that we have in place that is reflected on this slide, reflects a shift from a passive enforcement model to an active enforcement model. A passive enforcement model offers really limited outreach and is really just reactive in terms of enforcing regulations. The active enforcement model uses really extensive outreach to let people know about the rights and their requirements, maintains full records through required reporting of, for example, initial rents in the rent registry and eviction proceedings, and actively enforces the law rather than just reactively. To implement this model, RAP is divided into four units.

The administration policy unit provides the leadership and the management of the program overall. The community engagement and enforcement group provides really comprehensive counseling services, on all of those different laws that, were in the previous slides. They're available to answer questions from tenants, owners, and the public. They also hold workshops on the main questions and the main information that people need to get. The hearings unit is our quasi judicial unit that adjudicates disputes related to rent conditions of the property, other things that may come up under the rent ordinance.

And then finally, the rent registry unit is the one that implements the rent registry ordinance. It lets owners know about the requirements to register. It supports their ongoing compliance through outreach to owners and technical assistance, and they, of course, also maintain the rent registry itself. Next slide, please. So we wanted to just share some of the numeric, metrics from the annual report for last fiscal year.

Starting with petitions, there were 328 filed last year. The main grounds so the main reason that, tenants file petitions were about decreased housing services and for owners were to pass through capital improvement costs. We are also required by the Just Cause ordinance to receive eviction notices. And just a a quick note on that, that's the first step of an eviction process. It doesn't mean that it will lead to an eviction, but if a owner is seeking to terminate a tenancy, they're required to submit what we call an eviction notice.

It's a tenancy termination notice to wrap. Over 5,000 of those were received by wrap last year. The vast majority, I think it's 90%, were related to failure to pay rent. In terms of our community engagement, we participated in 30 workshops and community events and held well over 4,000 counseling sessions. Next slide, please.

So just a few of the highlights we wanted to give about our work last year. We increased our in person services. We since April 2025, we've been staffing what we call the housing resource desk on the Ground Floor Of 250 Frankagawa. And the idea is to provide information and resources to members of the public in person. The desk staff have assisted an average of about 30 people a month, mostly regarding housing questions, but we've also found that people come in and we're able to help them with referrals or questions about other city functions like planning and building and business tax.

In addition to the desk in person support, RAP housing counselors are also available for in person appointments during the time the desk is open, which is, four hours each day, Tuesdays and Thursdays. In terms of the second bullet, strengthening WRAP's fiscal sustainability in partnership with the finance department, we've been working we worked in in the last fiscal year even more with the, revenue management bureau, which is is the group responsible for WRAP fee collection to enhance the compliance with fee payment. We also, sought and city council approved in July 2025 an annual per fee per unit fee increase from a $101 per unit to a 137. And then, just still on that or excuse me. On the third bullet in terms of improving compliance with program requirements.

So, again, we we worked with the revenue management bureau to increase compliance with the fee payment, obligations, and we've also prioritized other efforts to improve compliance. And and one example is amendments were passed by city council on December 2024 that prohibit owners from issuing a rent increase or evicting a tenant pursuant to a no fault eviction if they're delinquent on business taxes. And then the final bullet on this slide is refers to our partnership with the community based legal service providers, Centralegal de la Raza and EBRA, that provide representation for the parties at wrap hearings or wrap appeal hearings, which we call wrap proceedings. And I'm not gonna talk about that too much because you guys have a couple items on your agenda related to that in the immediate future. Next slide, please.

And next slide. So RAP is funded by a cost covering fee that's set by council. As noted, that was waived in July. It will go into effect January 2026. Property owners are required to pay the fee every year for each rental unit.

They can pass through half to the tenants, and Oakland's finance department manages the collection process. Next slide, please. So this table shows WRAP's annual revenue, expenditures, operating surplus and deficit, and the surplus and deficit of the WRAP fund balance level since fiscal year twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. So as you can see, revenue went up last year. That's not due to the fee increase as it's not in effect yet until January 2026.

We attribute it primarily to the collaborative efforts we've been engaging in with the revenue management bureau to improve collection. And, let's see. Next slide, please. And the next slide. So, this is the kind of our notes on on as we look ahead, and look to move forward on an ongoing basis for the coming year and and moving forward.

We want to, of course, continue to meet tenant and property owner needs for wrap services, and this will involve focusing on addressing our staff shortages, retention and training, and our efficiency, and also on continuing to offer legal representation to parties through our community partnerships. In terms of we we want to provide continue to provide support to owners who are, you know, trying to navigate, compliance with the wrap fee and the rent registry requirements, and and that really will look like trying to understand better what barriers there are in place to compliance and figuring out strategies we can use to either reduce or just fully eliminate those barriers. We want to continue to ensure RAP's financial sustainability. As I mentioned, the the fee increase that went into effect or, excuse me, that was approved in July is a huge, huge part have kind of a multipronged strategy to ensure we can provide the full level of services necessary to implement the housing laws we're responsible for. So that includes continuing to collaborate with the finance department.

It means rightsizing the costs allocated to the wrap fund that don't come from HCDs, for example, the city attorney costs, and it means controlling wraps cost to the maximum extent possible. And then finally, we want to continue to increase the, rent registry functionality and really use that data to better serve tenants, property owners, and the city as it develops rental housing, policy. We are one example in in this area, we are currently working with the vendor to be able to display a little bit more information in the public facing portal, so to be able to display initial rent and current rent in the public search of the website. And that concludes the report. I am certainly available for any questions.

Excellent. Thank you so much. We can hear from the public speakers.

Thank you, chair. When I call your name, please approach the podium in no particular order. State your name for the record. You have two minutes. If you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. Masasada? Samuel Revey? Emma Nalenda? Emily Wheeler, Derek Barnes, Gerlene Kaur. And if I mispronounce your name, I do apologize.

And you can line up in no particular order. If I called your name, you may approach if you're in the podium, you may approach the podium. If you're in the chamber, excuse me.

And then just to be clear, this is for folks who have signed up for item number three.

Good afternoon council members. My name is Gerlene Carr and I serve as the wrap representative under the small property owner representation services program with EPRA. Over the course of this program we've developed a strong and productive partnership with the Rent Adjustment Program and this collaboration has allowed us to efficiently guide property owners through the compliance process and connect them to appropriate resources for support. Through regular communication and coordination with RAP staff, we're able to ensure that owners receive clear, consistent information on registration fees and city requirements. This has significantly reduced confusion among applicants and members and improved compliance outcomes for us across the board.

The partnership between SBORS and RAP demonstrates how coordinated efforts between the city departments and our organization and community partners can streamline the process and enhance their education and ultimately helps us create a transparent and well regulated environment for owners and tenants. Thank you for your time.

Good day.

Calling in our in person speakers once again, miss Asada and Samuel. Samuel Rami.

Please state your name. Samuel. Okay. Thank you.

It's Zach now. In view of Collins v Loan Depot, Oakland City v Simon Property, m a b b o a, TWK Inc v The United States. I am requesting that there be an open

Through the chair, to our public speakers, you did not sign up for this item. Signed up for open form.

I have it right here.

It's open form.

Says two, three, and four. Please check. This is number three. This is item three on the of the city commission. Please start the time again.

Please go ahead and put two minutes on the clock. We'll allow you to speak for two minutes. Thank you.

It says two, three, four, and five on this sheet. Make sure that this is valid.

Thank you so much.

And on this sheet that it was originally sent, it does state right here, agenda items on all of them. Please refrain. Let's go back to our original. In Collins v Loan Depot, Oakland City v Simon Property, m a v POA, TW Inc v The United States, I request in view of Perry v Arnold Schwarzenegger that there be a requestment against the Williams Act, the RIFA Act, and the PACT Act as a requestment against land assessments based on domicile. In the view of the state applicable applications of alternative housing, land assessments in the view to the view of day to day management be investigated.

I ask in Perry v. Arnold Schwarzenegger that there be an internal compliance and an audit under the Sunshine Act against the city. I ask that the city admit that Donald Fraser is Heather Williams Preston in Preston v The United States, that by not introducing city, attorneys at the appellate court, that the city is under bankruptcy law under chapter 13 and is fiduciarily negligent based on the view of the flyers, that they are refusing to justify that, so that way then it is in constant tort tied to their performance packages tied to their salaries. When that is wondered compared to individual businesses, I ask that there be an internal investigation into the Assurion. I do agree with the view to the Rent Stabilization Board.

I do agree to the wonderment of the Rent Act, and I do ask that it be wondered to mental health court as well. I do have an issue that we do not teach alternative housing models. The fifth wheels, an igloo, and the ability to buy vacant land isn't seen as domicile. Thank you.

It it it stayed on my mind for a long time when a young lady in a wheelchair came here to try to get you to help her because she had the right to live in a housing situation under the authority of the housing authority. She was unable to get her accommodations, which called for her to have a two bedroom accommodations for her caregiver and herself. They refused to give it to her, and she had to relocate to Berkeley. So my question is, how does RAP accommodate the over 2,500 tenants who are under the management of the housing authority of Oakland? They have over 20 pieces of property with with, like I said, 2,500 units.

And when you're talking about tenant protections, evictions, do they implement that? Do they have an opportunity to go to wrap to see if they can challenge evictions? Do they have move out protections? Do they have the opportunity to have community engagement hearings? The Oakland Housing Authority is an independent public agency created by the city ordinance responsible for providing housing for low income residents.

The city of Oakland and its department of housing and community development monitors what the whatever is going on with the Oakland housing authority. So how are those residents who live in those over 20 housing properties that are your properties, how are they accommodated the same way the individuals who go to wrap, are they included? That's a question. And if they're not included, how do how are their issues addressed if it's not

Excellent. Does that include conclude our public speakers? Okay.

Let me make super short. Good afternoon, CEO. My name is Samuel Ramey. I'm with California Open Unit of the Homes with Mental Health Outreach for independent independent living. You got disabled people homeless. It's wrong. In the constitution, this will be taken care of. Man, upon the prop 63, George Bush junior did that. He said, long as his prophecy is in fact, as long as any person come up middle disabled, they got money for them. Your funds never go down. It goes up. Housing is in there. But y'all don't know what politics is the policy. We gotta separate this. Everybody's not the same.

Everybody's not affordable. Everybody's got no income. But you don't build a house from top down. You build a house from bottom up. That's the problem. And if you're nonprofit, they ain't going for people low income, they're going affordable. So what they did, they took low income money and built affordable housing. How could it be so? And they nonprofit. They have a problem with this. That's why they won't come see me. I'm a regional Oklahoma's union. I put all these none a lot of these nonprofits I have put together over the last forty years. And you see, I know what I'm talking about. So we gotta separate this and quit putting a photo of over low income because you put it over senior system, worked all in life.

That's the fault for this country. That goes on a low income. This is a low income community, the city of Oakland. So how come here making 6 figure is low income? I can only get 5. I can't live up high. They can't live high. It's wrong. Now you're trying to go middle income. Good. Just did it right. Low income gonna stay here. So your money funding underhood is low income. They're not gonna be on that unaffordable. Can you put low income here? For senior citizens, disabled veteran comes first. Your citizens come first. America first? Who who who we at? I built this country.

Moving to our Zoom speakers, starting with Emma Nalinda. You may unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Thank you for granting me this time. Good afternoon, committee members and city staff. My name is Emily Nilanda, and I am a program I am the program and administrative support specialist at East Bay Rental Housing Association. So for these sports contracted period with the city, EBRA has engaged a total of a 118 rental housing providers with 66 qualifying for direct assistance for the sports program. The data that we have collected shows that the majority of those who are assisted are residing Oakland, at least over 80%, and most operate between two and four units with at least one third reporting incomes below 50,000.

So this represents the city's very small, often underserved community based housing providers. While initial RAF funding for the program technically ended in October 2024, Ever remained committed to keeping the program minimally operating through 2025 until our contract is renewed. So that active marketing and outreach efforts, we've continued to see steady demand for support with rental registration, business license, property compliance, hearing readiness, and mediation preparation. This support has helped improve compliance and communication between housing providers and renters. The SPOS program has allowed us to connect housing providers with no cost legal support when needed, and this early assistance has prevented disputes from escalating, reducing petition backlogs, and supporting housing stability overall.

Now while our total outreach numbers have increased, the data also shows that many small housing providers still face challenges navigating complex rental regulations, so continued investment in education and early intervention will be key to maintaining compliance and protecting stable tenancies across the entire city of Oakland. Thank you for your time.

Moving to our next Zoom speaker, Emily Wheeler. You may unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Hi.

My name is Emily Wheeler. I'm with the Oakland Tenants Union, and I just wanted to comment in support of the rent adjustment program, which provides really critical services to Oakland tenants and landlords. And I hope that Oakland will continue investing in this really unique and amazing program. I also just wanted to give a shout out to two of my favorite people from that program, Victor and Allison. Thanks for everything that you do. And that is it for me. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

That concludes your public speakers for item three.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Colleagues, any questions or comments for our presenter? Council member Fife.

Yes. Is the staff here?

Via Zoom. Oh.

So through the through the chair to staff, I was wondering about the vacancies on the wrap board, and I was wondering what is needed to expeditiously fill those seats, and are they attached to any particular council districts?

I'm not am I am I okay. I think I'm talking. Thank you so much to the chair for that question. So we we work with, the mayor's office to get the appointments done, and I actually am not sure right now what vacancies we have. So I'll have to get back to you on that, and what the districts are. It's excuse me. It's not it's not by district, but it's it's by position. So people who are property owners, people who are tenants, and then people who are neither is the way it's represented on the board, not by district. And I'm not sure what we need right now but I'd be happy to return to you with that answer.

Excellent. That sounds good and I know the report lists lists it as the vacancies being for alternates And so if there's any assistance needed from the council members in helping to support that, happy to help. I did have a real quick question from the report where it outlines just like the the hours that community members can receive services. And can you just clarify because I know that it mentioned how the counseling is available Tuesday, Thursday at the appointed time. And then on the website it does list that the hours of operation are currently Monday through Friday and I just wanted to confirm that that is the case for the resource desk.

Thank you for the question. Yeah. The resource desk is available Tuesdays and Thursdays from let me confirm. It's four hours, ten to twelve and one to three on both of those days. Counseling is done over the phone, over Zoom, all the days. But the in person counseling is done and the resource desk, so supporting people who walk in who have general housing questions is only on those Tuesday and Thursday time slots.

Excellent. And so I think my my flag and definitely double check the website but when you go on to the website it lists that the hours are Monday through Friday, nine to four. And so just wanna make sure that, you know, community members have the accurate information if they are showing up to that resource counter.

Thank you so much. I will check that right away.

Council member Ramachandran.

Thank you. I'm heartened to know that the fee collection is going smoother, and, I wanted to understand what the coordination is between WRAP and the business tax office and how we can make sure we're collecting. And then secondly, do we have an approximate number of what percentage of fees are currently being collected of that owed?

Thank you so much. Through the chair, I'm actually going to recommend that we pull Victor Ramirez up if he is available and in the room because I think he could speak more to the particular collaboration that we've been doing, with the office. But I know that we have been identifying units that are captured in the rent registry and trying to kind of compare lifts and make sure that all the ones that we know of are captured, are identified, are reached out to, and it's been going well. I'm not sure what the percentage is. I believe the second part of your question is what is the percentage of units that we believe we have we are receiving the wrap fee for.

Is that correct? Yes. I think that I will need to talk to mister Ramirez to confirm. I apologize. I don't remember that off the top of my head right now, but I can certainly get back to you on that.

Also, I'll make a motion to enter into a special meeting.

Second.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Ramachandra and seconded by chair Brown to enter into a at 02:13PM, excuse me, to enter into a special city council the city council meeting. On the roll, council member Fife? Aye. Thank you. Council member Roma Chandra? Aye. Council member Anger?

Aye.

And Chair Brown? Aye. Due to the presence of council council president Jenkins, we have now entered into a special city council meeting and adjourned of the community and economic development meeting at 02:14 p m. Motion passes with four ayes.

Excellent. And was anyone able to answer your question, council member?

Good afternoon, chair and members of the committee. My name is Victor Ramirez. I'm the rent adjustment program manager through the chair and to answer committee member Ramachandran's questions. The collaboration with the business tax has implied us sharing information regarding the registration data that we have and comparing that with the data that they have in the business tax. Through that collaboration, we have identified we initially identified about 2,500 properties that were registered under RAP, but were not registered or paying the RAP fee.

We, as a result of that, we engage in an effort to directly contacting those property owners. And we have been doing that in batches to try to regulate the flow of that communication. And as a result of that, as Jesse was explaining, we have seen an increase in the wrap fee collection. In regard to what number of units are paying for wrap, the wrap fee. We estimated that we have about 96,000 units that are covered by the program with about 75,000 units paying for it.

Thank you. Just a quick So 90 I forgot the exact numbers you said, but it seems like a 15 ish thousand household gap. What are the plans to collect from those 15,000 ish property owners?

Through the chair, if if I if you could, I would like to answer that question once I'm here later on today presenting on a proposed contract with EBRA on what those efforts are going to be.

On the collections process?

That's correct. Okay. On what efforts we are gonna engage through that contract to reach out to those property owners and to assist those property owners to get into compliance, not only with the wrap fee, but with other laws that the council in the city has adopted.

Thank you. Which organization are we calling?

That we are talking about. AirBrand.

Okay. Okay. Thank you.

Okay. Excellent. And so if no other comments from my colleagues I would entertain a motion to actually move this to the city council meeting on October 14 at 03:30. Second. There we go. I made it. Oh, the twenty first, October 21. Yes.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council by chair Brown, excuse me. Seconded by council member Unger to receive and forward this item to the October 1 city council agenda on consent. On roll, council member Fife? Aye. Council member Ramachandran? Aye. Thank you. Council member Unger. Aye.

And chair Brown. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to receive and forward this to the October 21 city council agenda on consent. Moving to item four, adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to extend the professional services agreement with Centra centro legal de la Raza for provision of representation services to low and moderate income tenants at rent adjustment program petition proceedings for a one year term from 10/01/2025 through 09/30/2026 in the amount of $250,000 renewable at the city administrators option for up to three years for a total amount not to exceed $1,000,000.02, waiving the competitive RFPQ and the small local business enterprise programs. And you do have four speakers for this item.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And so I believe for this item we will be hearing from Victor Ramirez, HCD.

Good afternoon again. I'm Chair Brown and committee members. Once again, my name is Victor Ramirez. I'm the Rent Adjustment Program manager. On behalf of the city's housing and community development department, I'm here to present and recommend that city council consider and approve a resolution that would authorize the city administrator to enter into a one year contract from October 2025 through September 2026 in the amount of $250,000 renewable at the city administrators option for up to three additional years for a total contract amount not to exceed $1,000,000 with Centro Legal de la Raza to provide legal representations to low and moderate income tenants in rent adjustment proceedings.

The proposed resolution would also authorize the waiver of the request for proposal requirements and the waiver of the small local business enterprise program requirements. Among other services, the rent adjustment program, BRAB, provides housing mediation, rent adjustment petition resolution, and rent registration services. These services are supported through the collection of the RAP annual service fee paid by residential rental property owners subject to either the rent adjustment ordinance or the just cause ordinance who can then pass half of that cause to the tenants. RAP also administers a neutral petition based system for tenants and property owners for units covered under the rent adjustment ordinance. Tenants may then file petitions to challenge certain rent increases or request rent reductions due to issues such as loss in housing services or housing co violations.

Similarly, property owners can file petitions to request specific rent increases based on grounds such as capital improvements, increase in housing costs, additional occupants. To assist some of those who pay for the program, to address the needs and challenges that they face when facing and navigating the RAP petition process. RAP has been offering representation services through contracts with Central Legaz de la Raza for tenants and with East Bay Rental Housing Association for property owners. This proposed resolution would specifically authorize a one year contract with the option of three additional years at $250,000 per year. It would also obligate Centro Legal to assist and represent 55 tenants per year in RAP proceedings, and the resolution would also waive the small local and business enterprise requirements.

Also, entering into a long term contract is still contingent to the city's annual budget process would also implement the city's strategies and plans goal to streamlining the contracting in the city. Centro Lugale has partnered with the city since 2013 and was last selected through a competitive RFP process in 2023. They have consistently delivering high quality services. For example, over the contract that just expired on September 30, Central Legard provided consultation and advice to five seventy three tenants on RAP related issues, represented 40 tenants in RAP petition proceedings and RAP board appeals. As of September 30, Central Eagle was still working on 16 active petition cases.

And most clients served were extremely low income and a significant portion of those were Latino and black tenants, reflecting the communities most at risk of displacement. And just to highlight some of the demographic data of the residents served by Centro Legal, between October 2023 and June 2025 of the 31 petitions that they were able to close during that period, 23 of those were women, eight were men, 27 were extremely low income and four were low income tenants. And out of the four fifty consultations that they did during the year 2324, about two sixty were Latino tenants, 111 were black tenants, and 29 were white tenants. And out of the consultations that they did in the last year, of the 170 through I'm sorry, of the three zero four consultations, 174 were Latino, 81 were black residents, and 25 were white residents. Beyond representing tenants' abrupt proceedings, this contract also positions Centro Legal to help tenants to understand the rights and obligations, make the petition process and laws more accessible, including translating and interpreting documents, resolve potential eviction issues, negotiate with property owners, and train new people and legal staff to extend their capacity to represent tenants abroad proceedings.

This contract would support four main goals, expanding access to legal representation for low and moderate income tenants, preventing displacement especially among communities of color and immigrants, empowering tenants to resolve disputes through negotiation and mediation, And fostering better relationships between tenants and property owners through representation. With this, I end my presentation and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Excellent. Thank you so much. Colleagues, any questions or comments? Council President Jenkins?

Thank you so much. I have a litany of questions on this, specifically around metrics for success. Can you talk about metrics for success and can you walk me through table one and why there are some percentage goals missing on table one? Table one. Referrals received from RAP staff, RAP related legal services to tenants open cases, those goals are missing.

And then specifically around metrics for success, percentage of goals, assessments for wrap related legal services, great job, 434% of the goal. Wrap related legal services to tenants cases closed only 28%. And then if you go to table number three from October 24 October 2024 to August 31, assessments for wrap legal services 229% of the goal. Excellent. WRAP related legal services to tenants case closed only 31% of the goal. Can you break down for me why we're not hitting the goal on WRAP related legal services to tenants case closed and then the missing metrics that are there?

Regard to the number of cases and petitions that Central Eagle was able to process and close during that period, they were not able to reach the goal established by the contract due to some of those cases, the complexity of those cases that they ended up expanding more resources than they had anticipated to. Central Eagle was also dealing with some staffing issues that they are addressing right now. As part of that too, we have to say that RAP has not been able to keep up with the number our goal to schedule and resolve petitions within the limits that we have set out for ourselves due to also the staffing issues that we have. Even though we are budgeted for about 32 positions, we are currently have 21 members in our staff, in part, in some of those that are some of those vacant positions are in the hearings unit that process those petitions. We have not had out of the seven out of out of the six hearing officers, we are now down to three.

And also, we lost our senior hearing officer to retirement in May. And even though we are going actively working with HR to try to hire the senior hearing officer as soon as we can, the two other positions have been frozen due to the challenges that RAP in the city has faced during the last two years. So part of that is the limited capacity that we have through to process those petitions.

Okay, through the chair. So if we're only hitting 31% of WRAP related legal services tenants case, closed case and there are some mitigating circumstances, why didn't we adjust the metrics?

We strongly believe in in that, does Central Legality's team and our team, we strongly believe that that is still an achievable goal. We are aiming to be able to represent for Rob to be able to So

excuse me, based off of what the data from two different cycles say they haven't hit it above a 33% clip. So you guys believe they can hit that goal based off of what?

Based on the fact that we are working to hire more staff for the hearings unit or to replace those that we have lost, based on the fact that Centro Legal is actively working to change the model and and train paralegals and legal fellows to represent tenants in in rough proceedings instead of having to bring attorneys to every hearing or every appeal hearing. And based on the fact that they are also actively working to bring their staff into the labels that they want to.

And a few more questions. So in table two and table four, prevented loss of current housing. Year to date total in table four is four. So what is this contract about if we're not we put in it four people from losing their housing and from 2024 to 2025, and then I can't find the other table, and 2023 to 2024. But are you familiar with the equity indicators on the city website?

Through the chair. Yes. We are. Hugo Ramirez, deputy director Oakland HCD.

Thank you, mister deputy director. So African Americans, black residents, according to Oakland's housing equity indicators are at the risk of highest rate for eviction filings, rent burden, loan denial, homeless disparity. And in the data that's provided here, Oakland residents aren't being served at the clip in which we probably need them to be served by this contract. So I complained about this in 2023 and I voted no on this contract in 2023 because black residents aren't being served how they need to be served. What changes since 2023 have we made to metrics to serve black residents here in the city of Oakland that are most likely, let me say it again, according to our own data, to have the highest rate of eviction filings, rent burden, loan denial, home homelessness disparity.

Through the chair, thank you council member. Those are excellent points and we are working diligently in this program and any other program at Oakland HCD that's designed to prevent displacement. Key to those to increasing those numbers, has been a focus of ours for for years now, is affirmative marketing, targeted outreach, ensuring that the the content that we're developing in terms of education outreach counseling is reflective of the needs of these most vulnerable tenants. As evidenced by the neighborhoods that are served by our petition numbers and other wrap services by virtue of our outreach activities. Specifically for this contract, it's something that we absolutely agree needs improvement.

We're satisfied with the quality outcomes of those services, that's really a function of due process. Right? So the tenants have the defenses that they have, the petitions and the protections that they have. So it really is a matter of the representation providing, helping the tenant avail themselves of all possible positive outcomes. Not all cases unfortunately are resolved in favor of tenants, but that is not a function necessarily of the take we our racial equity goals very seriously and design our programming accordingly.

Thank you. Through the chair, respectfully, doesn't answer the question or get to what we're getting at. We're rolling over this contract. We know black residents are most at risk of getting displaced. I am grateful for the work that Central de Laval does with our Latino population. They are not serving black residents at the clip that we need them to serve them. Why aren't we going out for RFP? If we say we care care about black residents, why are we just rolling over this contract? Why isn't there a subcontractor? Did this go through race and equity or is there just a race and equity statement? This has been a complaint of mine since 2023. Why are we rolling this contract over?

Through the chair, we did do a competitive process recently in 2023 and there were no other legal services organizations that had submitted proposals. As council members probably know, these legal aid organizations work in coalition. So whether or not they hold a contract, they provide information and referral and as we will cover in a later item through Oakland Housing Secure, the Coalition of Eviction Prevention Services, It's very much done in coalition. So, to answer your question, the competitive process was done very recently. The procurement authority is still active and other legal services organizations did not put their hat in the ring.

And again, I can commit on behalf of our department that we will absolutely work to better achieve our racial equity goals.

Deputy Director, and then this probably be my final question and I urge my colleagues to send this and go back to RFP. If we did RFP in 2023, we can do RFP in 2025. I don't know if it's subcontracting. I don't know if the department has to do a better job, but black residents are not being served. And if we say that we care about black residents who are most likely to be homeless, most likely to get displaced based off of our own data, then we need to one, we need to get rid of we need to go back to RFP. And then just my last question and I'm done with this. Did this go through the race and equity department recently?

Through the chair in terms of the RFP if it was reviewed by the

twenty twenty three, you guys brought this back to well over the contract. Did you guys you guys talk with the Race and Equity Department about this?

Through the chair, I don't believe that the Race and Equity Department had a role in the RFP.

Thank you. I urge my colleagues to vote this down. Thank you.

Colleagues, any additional questions or comments? Council member Unger.

So if if we vote this down, what will be the interruption to services?

Through the chair, yes, the contract expired in September. And again, we are honoring an active procurement. Legal services organizations work in coalition and if there was only one proposal, it likely meant that other legal services organizations also had confidence in this provider. But to answer your question through the chair, yes, there would be an interruption in services as that contract expired September 30. And because of summer recess, logistically, it's very difficult after an appropriation decision has been made by this council to, at the same time, have the contracting authority, which is precisely the streamlining that Victor Ramirez alluded to earlier that would be achieved through this item.

Is the reason why so few people are retaining their housing through this because of problems with the legal provider or the law is not on their side?

Through the chair, it's definitely the latter. These are not eviction proceedings, these are petitions at the rent adjustment program. So this is providing assistance for rent increases essentially, the bases for which can vary. So housing loss is almost not an appropriate outcome. I know that it's something that we track in the event there are petitions that for which the stake of that resolution is either housing loss or not.

But again, this is not this is quasi judicial petitions primarily for rent increases, rent decreases. So the stakes are not as high as it is, for example, in fully judicial eviction court. So these these are really quasi judicial due process petition process. So yes, it would be more a function of the structure of the petition and the ordinances that govern them than really is a reflection of the quality of the services.

Excellent. Thank you. And so just a couple questions. I want to start first by saying definitely appreciate the the questions that council president Jenkins uplifted. I know I asked many of those when we were meeting one on one. And so I just wanted to maybe get a little bit more context as to the history of this potential of this contract. I know you mentioned that the contract has currently expired and so have we been in the practice of only contracting this out just at a year, like year to year?

Yes. That has been the practice. Again, we are endeavoring to really streamline our contracting processes as evidenced by this item and the following item and the following item and recent past items precisely to solve for the logistical difficulties of the budget authority or appropriation authority that comes with the city's budget process constrained by summer recess, and constrained by the requirement for contracting authority, which is also required. Which is why we're structuring these resolutions, of course, with the support of the city attorney's office to still have the council determine what is budgeted by virtue of the biennial budget and the appropriation process, but then streamline contracting so that we have a not to exceed amount and a term that's longer than that one year. Precisely to avoid an interruption in essential services.

Yeah which you know that definitely makes sense. I also think that just given some of the area of opportunity kind of listed in the report on some of the outcomes you know although I do understand that the performance on some of the more complex cases, they proved that they could kind of solve some of those more complex cases. But I guess I would be curious you know what does it look like to ensure that even in trying you know make sure that the contract doesn't like lapse, how can we ensure that the goals are actually being met in each year?

Absolutely. We are very much focused on performance. We have an opportunity both through the annual report of RAP as well as forthcoming annual report for anti displacement strategic action plan where we really intend to go deep into performance of all of our programs contracted and otherwise with our racial equity goals in mind. Again, and that would in this case be achieved through more coordinated outreach as well as what mister Ramirez said earlier of RAP's capacity also meeting the demand for these hearings and these petitions because that's been a constraint for Centro is the city's ability to resolve these hearings in a timely manner. And that particular problem will be solved with the unfreezing of a hearing officer position.

That that definitely makes sense. Do you think it would be possible for us to incorporate an annual, report back into this this particular resolution where annually because currently it says you know the amount not to exceed a million and up to three additional years and so just curious if we could if approved in this current kind of state could we include a report an annual report?

Absolutely it would be again very easy and it would fit perfectly with our annual report of wrap. We'll just dedicate a section to that annual report that focuses on our community based partnerships and to the to what extent they're meeting our equity goals.

Okay. I know we have public speakers on on this item so we'll take the public speakers.

Thank you, chair. When I call your name, please propose to your podium. State your name for the record. You do have two minutes. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. I will take public speakers in person first and then Zoom. Miss Asada, Samuel Ramsey, Carmen Joel, and David r Hall for item four.

Again, number four. In view of Cardoso v. The United States, I asked to challenge the view to the IMI to the d m DNS server based on the validity to chapter seven, chapter 13, to chapter 12 bankruptcy, and view of the Citi's bond holdings. This mess of the DNS I m IMI server based on location. I am politely asking that Gilead Sciences does go into bankruptcy.

The Yang via The US be transferred to the Midwest. And we'll ask that in view of the state, John Oliver, Kevin Tam, a bar chart via The US, Jeff Jenker via The US be valid, and that Boldera and Holcomb via The United States and this appellate circuit based on cost of living and the use of finances compared to self employment to domicile and homesteading based on cost of living be identified. Wells Fargo v The United States, I am requesting that the view of how they see, sewer, compared to homesteading is not understood to capital improvement product and reverse mortgages. This, identifies it in Bodera and Holcomb as gross malice and intentional negligence based on the RFP process. In this application, the RFP process is then ran through Bradstreet and Dunn using it as an I and DuckDuck based on iOS system integrations.

I am asking that this query assessment validates its performance packages compared to how Social Security and ball a bar chart that validates it to brief software and the ability post COVID to stream an individual or to manage their estate, where homosexual, laws, indicate you only have to be a second cousin in view of mental health or or lifestyle management.

So usually you don't engage in this practice. This is something the school board does, unfortunately. So this contract is scheduled to start 10/01/2025. This is October 14, and it's in committee. So procedurally, how is the city attorney allowing this to be on the agenda in this format?

That a contract that would start on 10/01/2025 through September 2026 is on the agenda in this manner. This is not legal. So how are we proceeding to do it in this manner needs to be explained, and somebody needs to take that seriously. I appreciate what Mr. Jenkins brought forward, but years ago Larry Reed brought up the same issue.

He questioned whether Centro de la Rasta would be capable of fairly and competently attending to the needs of the African American community. They agreed to set in place a process for which they could do the work for African Americans. It never materialized. So, this is an ongoing situation. This is not a situation that's just coming up where the issues of African Americans as renters, who are predominantly the individuals who deal with evictions at a higher level, rent burden at a

higher

level, loan denials at a very high level, homelessness because of that at a high level, because we don't get the attention we need. And, it is wrong for Central de la Raza to advocate as if they are supporting and able and capable of support of helping the African American community, and it's wrong for this department to try to say that they are capable.

Good afternoon. Well, system is set properly, but it's not working properly, because people running don't know how to run. They don't know how to run. I tried to say for, you know, last minute ago, you have to separate these things. You hit the wall in the back and say, you ain't gonna come out. It ain't gonna work. You have to separate. You gotta separate the middle disabled the seasons, in fact, gotta separate them. Each one of those has a power of money to end this homeless, y'all. They were hurt. We're set up for it. I'm still gonna be killing that. We're the homeless. That I'm for the homeless. But y'all don't wanna use it.

Why? Because y'all don't wanna be governed by the government. So y'all keep stealing money, lying to people. Okay? That lady was here last week. She gonna tell me, her going fund half. They don't forgot no fund half or nothing. She said lie lie looking at me in her face. We tired of these lies. I have a contract with her. I have property out of this country. I live in four c's. And I'm telling you, it ain't gonna work. You cannot put people from another country over people in this country. It's not gonna work.

You take it from your priest or citizen for a prisoner from another country, and y'all pay a dime in his taxes. We're getting tax money, tax break, going to school on us. Now they hear them out. The food price don't go up because of them. You have a food choice. Take care of your home first. But y'all ain't. I can't of everything with us. Do you need somebody to $10,000,000, Robert Lee? I'm not I'm not. I was captured right here. Kidnapped. We're just nothing. I'm tired of this. I'm ready to set up a senior citizen program and a mental health program. I had the money and power to do it. I just need y'all

Okay. I meant to sign up for item six, not four. Can I move my speaker card to that item?

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you.

Please state your name.

Carmen Jobel.

I'm sorry?

Carmen Jobel. You had called my name for this item. Thank you.

Okay. My name is David Hall. Thank you council members Brown, Ramachandran, Fife and Unger for your service to the citizens of Oakland. The work that this committee does is vital to preserving the stability of housing of the most vulnerable residents of Oakland and we appreciate this work. We meet with tenants at Central L'Galle to answer questions about the rep petition process as well as do full representation to represent folks at both petitions and appeals.

This is regardless of background, regardless of color. We take everyone who comes in our doors and we take as many of the cases as we can. Every single African American client that has come in with request for a petition, we have supported them and represented that. I had a presentation all planned to talk about specific examples of this, but I think I'm just gonna go through and address Commissioner Jenkins' comments from earlier. First issue brought up is the maintenance of housing and this was a spurious statement.

No one in a rent board petition if they lose, loses their housing. That was probably an artifact of data because we have represented some of those folks also in evictions. And in those cases, we captured that, hey, we preserve their tenancy. But as far as rent board petitions go, no one is losing if we lose at the petition level or at the appeals level. Now as to the demographics, this is true.

This has been a constant challenge for us for quite some time. The bulk of our services that we provide go to communities of color in the city of Oakland, most specifically Latino communities and the black community and the African American community. A very small minority of the folks we represent are white. We are always looking for more ways to find outreach to get people to come through our doors. But this is not a question of, hey, we don't want to represent African American folks.

This is a question of, we need to find a way to get them in our door so we can we can provide our services for them. As to the capacity issue, a couple of issues are coming up of why we've not met our deliverable goals. The first is appeals. Whereas a ramp board petition might take ten or fifteen hours worth of work and appeal could forty or fifty. And we've had more appeals in the last year than we had in the past year combined. Finally, wrap capacity. We have 16 cases that were

You can continue.

Oh, my apologies. I'll slow down. We have 16 cases that would have normally been reported during the last reporting period, the last quarter that were not because of delays in RAP. And it's through no fault of their own. They have half the number of hearing officers that to hear these cases.

So they're being set farther and farther out, and we oftentimes, there's a longer gap between when we file these petitions and when we get them set to hear them. And what we can't do, we we have case acceptance guidelines where we can only take a certain number of cases, otherwise if we take too many, bunch could be set at the same time. And we've had trouble adapting to the current reality, which is we file a case and normally a year or two ago, we might have expected it to be set thirty, sixty days out. It's being set ninety days out. So, I agree.

We have not been delivering on our full deliverables. We do believe that we don't need to change these and lower them. I believe we can meet these deliverables. The other big issue and I'll conclude with this is we have been down approximately two staff attorneys over the past year. We've recently hired one and are knock wood fingers crossed in the final process of adopting another, which would almost double our wrap capacity.

And I believe that would allow us to meet the deliverable goals. And then the final thing I'll say is, look at our, if there's questions about Central Lagoes not supporting or representing the African American community, look at our deliverable goals for our eviction defense. The bulk of our focus right now is eviction defense and we'll talk about this more on item six.

Alright. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you. Chair's discretion. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

That concludes our public speakers for item four.

Alright. Colleagues, any other additional questions or comments at this time? Council member Fife.

Yes. If if I could have staff, I think either Ugo, whom whomever from HCD just to answer a couple questions before I make a an amendment to the legislation. We heard that through the chair to our staff, we heard that RAP has some vacancies that they need to fill in in terms of the body as well as what we just heard from mister Hall about staff. What is the anticipated timeline for bringing these staff on board?

Through the chair, we have two hearing officer positions. One is vacant, as miss Ramirez mentioned earlier, because of a recent retirement. We're in the process of beginning that recruitment for that senior hearing officer. And the other position is frozen. So, I'm sorry, correction, two hearing officer positions are frozen. And the opportunity for the city to unfreeze those positions is either through the mid cycle budget process or through the, biannual budget process as departments, submit or resubmit their budgets.

So it's three positions total?

Through the chair, two so normally, RAP has four hearing officers, in addition to a senior hearing officer who doesn't do hearings but supervise. Six. I'm sorry. Six and one. So six hearing officers and one senior hearing officer. And we currently have two two hearing officer positions filled and two are vacant because they are frozen in the budget.

So with the positions that can be filled that are currently vacant and not frozen, if we brought those on board, what would be the timeline that we can expect them being on board and what would that impact in terms of the ability of people to be served? Because I'm deeply concerned with some of the statements that were made by the council president and they do resonate with me, particularly with the crisis crises that we're seeing on the streets. So could you tell me what impact that would have if we were able in in terms of servicing the African American population in Oakland.

Yeah. Well, through the chair, those positions if they were to become unfrozen during the mid cycle budget, recruitment can take six months to a year. So it's in that time frame that we would have an additional hearing officer in place. In terms of what capacity that would create, it is true that that additional hearing officer or two would then be able to hear more hearings and more appeals and our partner in Centro would have then a higher rate of hearings and and appeals to support. Again, just wanted to reiterate that these are administrative hearings.

These the the stakes are not as high as in the Superior Court in eviction court. These are petitions primarily for rent increases, rent decreases depending on whether it's the property owner who is submitting the petition or the tenant. So the stakes are high of course because it speaks to the long term sustainability of the tenancy, but the result isn't ever housing loss in this context. So the stakes are lower, which is why it makes sense to invest most heavily at this point before the stakes get so high that what hangs at the balances is the housing of our most vulnerable tenants.

Well, I'll thank you for that. And I want to understand that you're saying that it could take six months to a year to fill the positions that are frozen. But is there are there any positions that are unfrozen that could be expedited so that we could have even though you're I I hear what you're saying about it not being so high stakes. Should I Through the chair.

Please go ahead council member.

I'm I'll I'll just state that I think I wanna limit the year to one term with a one year administrative option so that we can find additional organizations that can help serve the African American community because I think it is the most impacted racial group that could be supported with additional resources. And I'm not talking about monetary resources and I think that will give enough time to to get the support that's needed. I will say that I I know black folks who have been supported by this process, but it was the board was fully staffed and we didn't have the vacancies that we have now. So I will be looking at the mid cycle budget and how we can work to unfreeze some of these positions, but in the meantime, we do need to get those numbers up. And I I would love to work with the department on how to figure out how to best do that, so that when we do come back a year from now, we have better data to share with this body than we have right now.

So that is my amendment. I would like to amend the to a one limit it to a one year term versus a four year term with a one year administrative option to extend. And if I need to send that to the clerk, I'm happy to forward

And then council member Unger?

I'll second that amendment. Yeah. Because that way we're not losing immediate services to to the population that needs it regardless of race and we need to really focus on how we can support African Americans in the city of Oakland a lot better.

And then to the maker of the motion, are you also okay with the report that was mentioned? Yes. So that we can just you know we can check-in to see how the metrics are being met and if any changes.

Absolutely.

Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you both.

Do I need to Madam City Clerk through the chair. Okay.

Thank you. We have a motion made by council member Fife, seconded by council member Unger to approve as amended the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October agenda on consent with the amendments as follows.

Twenty first?

Yes. October on consent with the amendments as follows. One, an annual report with to be included in the context of the resolution that focuses on community based part partnerships and what to what extent they are meeting equity goals. Second amendment is to amend the two zero one limit to the one year term versus a four year term. On roll, council member five.

Correcting the amendment, one year with one year extension. Council member Fife? Aye. Council member Ramachandra? Aye. Council member Anger? Aye. And chair Brown. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to approve as amended the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October 21 city council agenda on consent with the amendment stated on the for the record.

Moving to item six. Adopt a resolution authorizing the city administrator to extend the term of the grant agreement with Central Legal Della Raza Inc for eviction and prevention services for two years to 06/30/2027 to accepting and appropriating any additional county, state, federal, and or private funding that becomes available for eviction prevention services during the extended term of the grant agreement. Three, authorizing the city administrator to amend the grant agreement to increase the grant by the amount of such additional funds or by the additional said funds to the city council appropriations specifically for the purpose and for directing the city administrator to present an annual informational report on the event in the on the eviction prevention services no later than March 31 of each calendar year beginning in 2026. And you do have 14 speakers for this item.

Okay, thank you so much and just given the sake of time, maybe just two minutes for the presentation,

two or three. Okay, thank you.

And if we could please put the presentation up. Good afternoon, Ugo Ramirez, Housing and Community Development Department Deputy Director. The item before you is to streamline our contracting process for the current and next fiscal years with the coalition of eviction prevention service Providers, also known as Oakland Housing Secure. We thank Councilmember Brown for sponsoring this item. Thank you also to Councilmember Fife for her long time and tireless dedication to displacement and to other committee members for past support.

Our partners and their supporters are also here today. Thank you for being here. In my brief presentation, I'll provide background and context about what is Oakland Housing Secure, the need in the community that makes these eviction prevention services so essential, and the coalition's latest performance and impact. Oakland Housing Secure is a coalition led by Centrolegal de la Raza and includes the Eviction Defense Center, the Unity Council, East Bay Community Law Center, and Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach. Their services include legal representation, legal consultation, emergency financial assistance, education and outreach, and social work.

These services are critical as evictions in Oakland have increased nearly 50% from pre pandemic levels. As you can see in this graph, our community is seeing a new normal of elevated rates of eviction filings. While not all eviction lawsuits result in housing loss, we know that the homelessness risk increases significantly when a household loses their housing through eviction. Not to mention the vast body of research showing that when people are evicted from their home, especially their rent controlled apartment here in Oakland, they're challenged with finding housing in a rental market that is unaffordable, often moving far from their places of work, worship, learning, and community, and into situations with even more severe housing problems such as overcrowding, unsafe conditions, and severe rent burden. We know from example from our research partnership with Stanford's Changing Cities Research Lab that are extremely low income tenants here in Oakland are being pushed out at the highest rate of not only Oakland and not only Alameda County, but rather being pushed out of the Bay Area altogether.

We also know that legal help can be the difference between a household staying in their home or losing their housing. In fiscal year twenty four twenty five, ended 06/30/2025, 179 households received legal representation and 90% achieved a positive outcome in their case. More than 400 households received help with housing stabilization plan, and we know that Oakland Housing Secures clientele is predominantly black and brown, extremely low income, and live in our neighborhoods most negatively impacted by housing by our housing crisis. 41% of households served were black and 31% Latinx. 74% were extremely low income, meaning they had annual incomes at or below 30% of area median income.

And just to give you an idea, that's about 48,000 for a family of 4 or $38,000 per year for a family of two. Extremely low income. Again, these services get results for our most vulnerable tenants. 90% of households who received legal representation achieved favorable outcomes such as staying in their home or negotiating a move out that provides sufficient time or financial benefit for a soft landing. And finally, a quick plug for our department's anti displacement strategic action plan that highlights our key strategies to combating anti displacement.

Sorry, to combating displacement. We're very much for anti displacement. And that's through preventing evictions and homelessness, ensuring the health and safety of our rental housing stock, and meeting the needs of our most vulnerable tenants, small property owners, and homeowners. We're finalizing the plan and will present to this committee on November 15. Thanks again. I'm available to answer questions.

Excellent. Thank you so much. We can hear from the public speakers. Thank you.

Thank you, chair. When I call your name, please approach the podium. You do have two minutes. State your name for the record. We will take the in person public speakers before Zoom.

Dunia Wilder, Mississaata, David r Hall, Armando Soloritano, excuse me for mispronouncing your last name, Nicole Dean, Nate Peterson, Nate Peterson, Matthew Boyd, Marcia Lovelace, Dennis Bruce Fagali, Jennifer Finley, Lauren Slitter, Emily Wheeler, and Carmen Joelle Jovo. Excuse me.

Thank you. My name is Marcia Lovelace. I'm a retired school librarian who's lived in Oakland since 1983 and was blessed for many years to live in District 3 and be represented by Carol Fife. I'm now in Zach Unger's district. It's nice to meet you, sir, after several emails.

I wanna thank you for your support for funding Oakland Housing Secure Services to prevent homelessness at about two and a half times the efficiency of what it's required for the city once folks are in the streets. With three people being homeless for everyone, we find housing this is morally and fiscally the right thing to do. I'm curious as to why anyone would oppose it. Council Member Brown, I enthusiastically voted for you and was disappointed when your votes back in April for Oakland Housing Secure, but I thank you for changing your position. Please fund proven strategies that prevent more costly interventions down the road and prevent abandoning people to the streets.

My elderly African American neighbor lives in constant fear of losing her apartment as her rent continues to rise. For everyone in her position, please vote yes.

Nicole Dean. Thanks. My name is Nicole Dean and I'm the organizing director at Care for Community Action. We're a neighborhood group that works to increase participation in the local democratic process primarily by knocking on doors every weekend, talking with people about how city government can take better care of their neighborhood. We've knocked on doors in every district of Oakland over the last five years and we consistently hear from residents across the city that they want local government to do more to reduce homelessness.

Reducing homelessness is the top concern. Oakland Housing Secure is one of the city's most effective programs towards this goal. Investment in this homelessness prevention program is something that your constituents support, so I hope that all of you will vote to move this forward today. Lastly, want to thank my council member Carol Fife for consistently fighting for investment in these prevention services even when she's fighting alone. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Dennis Fagle. I am a retired high school science teacher. First of all, I wanna thank you all for your work. My council member now is Zach Unger. But I also want to, you know, I'm outraged by the issues laid out here today, but I still want to especially thank council member Fife, who used to be my council member till they redistricted us, for consistently fighting for investment to prevent a more severe houseless problem in Oakland than the unconscionable houseless situation so many suffer as we speak.

But, I'm I'm glad that she makes it her business to know that every buck put into keeping a person housed through legal support, rent aid, and case management can prevent costly or downstream crises like emergency shelter, healthcare, policing, and more. Studies show that these prevention efforts are really important and and save us $2.47 in every buck spent. But any additional funds supporting these programs seems to me like it's money well spent. I just hope they can resolve these issues as soon as possible. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Nate Peterson and Oakland Housing Secure is exactly the type of service I want my tax dollars going to. As others have said, for every one person that we are able to serve and get to exit homelessness, three people are currently becoming unhoused. And so intervening earlier is very cost effective as has been mentioned the almost 2 and a half dollars for every dollar we spend and as a city with a budget crisis that's the kind of services and things we need to be looking into. Know and they always say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So thank you to council member Brown for bringing this up and thank you to council member Fife for pushing for this all the way back in April and making sure we all maintain this essential service.

Thanks.

Hi, Boyd, District one. I want to encourage the council to adopt this. I've talked to a lot of people around Oakland over the past few months about homelessness. It's absolutely people's top issue. I've talked to people who are sympathetic but just want them gone, and I've talked to people who are not sympathetic and they want them gone. But one consistent thing that everyone has said across the board is they want real solutions from the city and this is that solution. It's hard to see how pulling this now without having done anything to replace it would improve services for Oakland.

Hi.

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So the way this is written, this item, you don't say when the contract expired, but inside of the document it does say it expired 06/30/2025. So you extended the contract two years to 06/30/2027. So, again, how are you doing this? How are you paying for a service that you're saying will start 06/30/2025? That's a couple of months ago.

And why is the city attorney not saying anything about the inappropriateness of a contract being done this way? Is the city attorney just here to sit here in the chair, or is she supposed to say, are we capable of giving a contract in this manner? And somebody should be asking the city attorney this. Secondly, you have groups who initially started their purpose for existing to contribute to the well-being of the communities that they are part of. Center de la Rasta started off as a Latino centered group.

The Alameda County Unity Council started out the same way in Fruitvale. Now they want to present themselves as if they're helping everybody. And they're not. Help whoever you help, that's good you focus on your group. But don't pretend like you're helping African Americans when you're not.

That that is not something we will accept. Okay? Secondly, this document says, based on additional funds becoming available, what's the source of funding for this contract? Where's the money coming from? And I ask you to do this for the public. Recognize where the money

Okay, correct agenda item. Hello, my name is Carmen Hovell. I am the resident of District 3 and the Deputy Director of Housing at the East Bay Community Law Center. First, I want to start by thanking Council Member Fife and Council Member Brown for your consistent and continued support of tenant services. As you know, OHS is an actively and effectively prevention method for homelessness, right?

I could give you the stats and numbers but the reports speak for themselves. And so instead, I want to humanize those stats for you. We have helped in District 2, a black elder, a grandmother who is a public transit driver. She lives in long term rent controlled housing and she was facing an eviction due to alleged conduct from a family member. She had been involved in tenant advocacy in her building advocating for increased safety and repairs and she experienced retaliation as a result of her efforts.

We heavily litigated that case which led to a settlement that allowed her to pay the back rent balance that was accrued and she remained housed. Again, homelessness prevention. There is a hotel in District 3 that was severely mismanaged. It's a subsidized housing property and we did outreach door to door there because we knew that there was this pattern of mismanagement at the hotel. Seven of the eight clients that reached out to us were black and we were able to meet with them because the landlord was refusing the rent payments claiming that they owed back rent that they tried to pay.

So, we wrote letters for them including doing an on-site clinic and that led to a policy change that positively impacted over 70 tenants preventing many from facing eviction. Again, homelessness prevention, right? So our work is effective. Our work does prioritize those most at risk of eviction and so, know, we want to continue doing that good work. Thank you.

Thank you again, Congress Councilmembers Brown, Ramachandran, Fife and Unger for your work in this critical area. Eviction protection is vital to helping up and supporting the most at risk citizens of Oakland. My name is David Hall, I'm the interim co directing attorney on the tenants' right team at Centro speaking in support of item six. OHS has been a critical safety net and homelessness prevention program for low income housing renters and homeowners and provides backbone infrastructure for housing legal services citywide. It's even been more crucial during the current eviction wave, which has been stated, is at least 50% higher than it was during the beginning of the moratorium and it shows no sign of slackening.

The legal services providers working under this contract and it's a great team full of people, Central L'Egale, the Eviction Defense Center, Apilo, the East Bay Community Law Center, the Unity Council have substantially exceeded the deliverables required in this contract. I just want to talk a little bit about the folks that we represent for this contract. Eighteen percent of the people we assisted were female headed households. Forty percent of our clients reported having a disability. Seventy five percent were extremely low income and the racial and ethnic background, forty one percent of all clients represented by OHS were black or African American, thirty seven percent Hispanic or Latino, twenty two percent other.

The work we do is powerful and I want to give a couple of examples as Carmen said to humanize this. We had a severely disabled African American single mother with a subsidized tenancy and that subsidized tenancy was a lie tech unit, which means if she moves, the tenancy doesn't go with her. She got evicted for non payment of rent. Because she had legal representation, we were able to figure out that they had screwed up the notice and we were gonna able to get the case dismissed. Not only that, we were able to leverage that to force the landlord to accept the back rent so she and her family could stay. And we're able to pay that back rent with the emergency financial assistance that's provided as part of the contract. So, the services we provide are critical, the people we

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Dunia Wilder, and I'm an advocate at the Eviction Defense Center. Mayor Barbara Lee recently stated that Oakland has close to 5,500 unhoused residents with black residents disproportionately represented in that population. The number tells a heartbreaking story. 70% 74% of Oakland's unhoused residents are black.

In the city where black people make up only 21% of the population. Every single day, the Eviction Defense Center works to prevent people from joining the number by connecting them to resources before they lose their homes. In the past year alone, the Eviction Defense Center served over 400 households facing eviction. Who are we working with? Traditionally, we work with black families, 75 are black families. 52 of the household have minor children, 20% are disabled. These are grandmothers who lived in Oakland for decades. These are working parents one paycheck away from being on

the

streets. These are children whose only stability is the roof over their heads. Oakland Housing Secure Funding has been critical in ensuring that the EDC has the resources to do this. Mayor Barbara Lee has said that these are numbers didn't just come out of nowhere, they reflect long histories of displacement, disinvestment, and systemic inequities. Oakland Housing Secure Funding is essential to breaking the cycle. This is prevention work, this is racial justice work, this is the work that keeps family as a whole. Please continue this funding, our community is depending on you. Thank you.

Moving to our Zoom speakers. Wanna call your name? You did raise your hand. Thank you, Emily. You may unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Hi. My name is Emily Wheeler. I'm with the Oakland Tenants Union. OTU does four clinics per month, totally free and open to everyone, plus operates a helpline and an email line for tenants. And we are so grateful to have the housing secure program to refer tenants to when they're facing an eviction.

This program is so critical and deserves even more funding than is getting. I think that every Oaklander can agree that we don't want to see unhoused people on our streets suffering. And prevention, as other commenters have said, is the key to stopping our unhoused, neighbors from growing the or you know? And, so I just really want to support both this and actually item four, as critical funding to help people stay in their homes, help people avoid unaffordable rent increases, and help people find stability in the Bay Area. In San Francisco, where they have a right to counsel, 70% of tenants when they're represented who receive full scope legal representation end up staying in their home.

Having legal representation is the difference between getting evicted, being out on the street, and staying at home with a deal that benefits both the landlord and the tenant. So please fund this critical program. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Moving to our next Zoom speaker, Jennifer Findlay. You may unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Hi. Jennifer Findlay, district two. I'm calling to support item six. I am so glad to see more contracts coming through the housing secure program to do this really essential work. And, chair Brown, I had been disappointed a few months back by your multiple votes as chair of this committee to delay support for homelessness prevention services. As someone who voted for you, I'm so glad to see that you've changed your position and contracts. You're even following council member Fife's lead by not just voting for this resolution but even sponsoring it. Council member Brown, what changed your mind on this vital tool in the work to reduce homelessness in Oakland? I would love to know, and I hope your support continues. Thank you.

I've also got the reverse question, through the chair to council member Fife. You've always supported and are usually the one bringing this sort of resolution to the council. Is there any reason that you're not listed as a sponsor on this particular contract? Anything else we should know? I'm glad to see the work moving forward, and I hope to see more consistent unified support for the housing and secure residents of Oakland from the entire committee. Thanks for your time.

Thank you for your comment, Jennifer family. Moving to our next Zoom speaker, Lorkin. Please unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Hi. Good afternoon. This is Lorkin Slider. I'm a homeowner in District 4 and a community organizer and advocate for housing justice in Oakland. Homelessness prevention saves the city money in the long run, and there's so much data that points to this being the most effective strategy for reducing homelessness dollar for dollar.

So please approve all funds necessary for the Oakland Housing Secure program and all other programs that keep people housed. Council member Ramachandran, I'm disappointed again in your choices as my representative. When advocates asked you to help us push back against council member Houston's horrific encampment abatement policy proposal, which didn't make it out of committee, you claimed to not be a strong voice on the topic because there aren't any encampments in District 4. Yet the last time these prevention services were brought up here, you were perfectly fine speaking up to block funding for them. By your own logic, you should be following the leadership of the council member representing the most encampments, and that would be District 3 council member Carol Fife.

Please don't keep resources from going to crucial eviction prevention services, and please listen to leaders like council member Fife who has the experience and leadership skills necessary to tackle homelessness in Oakland with tenacity and compassion. Thank you so much.

Moving to our next Zoom speaker, Armando. You may unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Thank you.

Thank you. My name is Armando. Work in homeless services and volunteer. So first of all, if people are losing their rent adjustment petitions, strengthen renter protections. Don't blame the service provider. These legal defenders working in coalition are trusted community based organizations. You're not gonna get another provider to respond to that RFQ. Let's work with the coalition we got, which is doing crucial work. I heard testimony from a young woman who experienced job loss and a mental health crisis. She got assistance through the city's homeless prevention program for three months that allowed her to get help, get stabilized, and ultimately keep her housing.

Prevention is way more cost effective than when someone has to climb out of homelessness. Imagine if this woman became homeless and experienced hardships and traumas that worsened her mental and behavioral health. Homelessness makes it harder to get employed, harder to maintain physical and mental health, harder to navigate services and wait lists and keep documents in order. It increases reliance on emergency services. This prevention will generate an exponential return on investment fiscally, socially, and in terms of human well-being. We can't afford not to invest in prevention. Thanks to council member Fife for being a true housing justice warrior, and I hope the rest of the council follows her leadership.

That concludes your public speakers for item six.

Alright. Thank you so much. I just have a, a couple questions if it's okay, director Ramirez. Just wanted to just kind of based on some of the public comments I just wanted to get some additional clarification on this item. I know I'm super grateful for the opportunity to move this item along and help assist HCD on this.

And then I just wanted to just correct me if I'm wrong but you know this particular item that came before counsel earlier in the year I believe originally it had been pulled from the rules I think the rules agenda and we needed some advocacy in getting it back agendized to which I was able to support with kind of from the beginning. But I just wanted to double check the history on this particular item. And then I think lastly in the budget we also allocated to support this and so that's why this resolution is before us now.

That is my recollection yes.

Okay excellent. Any comments? Does council member Ramachandran have her hand I know she's remote now.

Yeah. Thank you. I am happy to support this and think that there's probably members of the public who commented that are confused and conflating this item with something different. Myself and council member Brown have been very supportive of this item. I've worked at legal aid agencies, including some of the ones that got contracts from this grant.

And my concern continues to be, as with, you know, many programs in the city in many aspects, not just housing, to not award grants to programs where 50% of what we're giving out are overhead costs. This isn't one of those programs. So I continue to support this as someone who has represented tenants in this capacity and also as someone with a long history of doing domestic violence work specifically with tenants and working at those intersections at a different organization that's not getting funding from this. But all of that to say, I think that it is important that we continue to have a critical eye on programs with a limited budget and make sure that there's value from them. So, yes, I will continue to be critical of programs regardless of what they're funding where half the cost go to overhead, and I think that's very reasonable.

But this is not one of those programs that I questioned. So I'm happy to support councilmember Brown and and Fife and Unger in, bringing this forward and seeing this moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you so much council member Ramachandran. And just you know additionally one of the one of many reasons why I've always been an advocate of this Oakland Housing Secure coalition was you know while I was working as a constituent liaison during the COVID pandemic it was these organizations that I was calling to help support Oakland residents to maintain their housing. And and even during the you know we we had time where we had you know cut you know agencies were completely kind of shut down. It was the folks at the eviction defense center that were answering my call you know June, July, August, September of the pandemic to ensure that Oaklanders can stay housed and they can get the support. And I was met with oh how can I help?

Give them my number. Tell them to call me immediately. And so that is one of so many reasons why this coalition of services is so important. And so kind of without any hesitation of course I was happy to support this contract. And so I'll make a motion to move this item forward and is there a second?

Council member Fife.

Thank you madam city clerk. I I wanna correct the record because there's some information that council member Ramachandran is is correct that I think we're we're mixing up. But I I wanna ask through the chair to staff just a couple questions about the legislation, if I could. I I wanna get a better understanding of how the scope was developed and who was involved and if the service providers that are part of the coalition were involved in informing the scope.

Through the chair, yes, we had worked with the coalition in developing the scope of work in anticipation of a contract, you know, doing that due diligence as soon as the budget was approved. So absolutely that scope of work is reflective of

the

program as input was provided by Centro and the coalition. In terms of the resolution, the resolution reflects again a streamlining process that enables the administration to move forward with contracting as the City Council moves forward with budgeting. We often face this logistical kind of challenge of the budget action of the council happening in June, July, and then there's summer recess and then the contracting doesn't happen into the first or even second quarter of the fiscal year. And so this resolution streamlines that process so that we're able to proceed with the contracting authority as the budget is appropriated.

And are the service providers all legal service providers or are there some that are not that don't provide legal aid to tenants?

Through the chair of the coalition, the one non legal services organization is the Unity Council. Otherwise, Centro, EBCLC, APLO, am I missing another, are legal services organizations.

Okay. That that's helpful. It's it's also I I also wanted to point out that this contract has better numbers regarding serving African American residents in Oakland than our previous contracted. So even with that constellation of organizations, something is definitely working. It's above the numbers of individuals that represent Oakland's black population.

So I'm happy to happy to see that. But speaking to the the public, They And speaking speaking of one of the public comments that said a lot of these public speakers love Carol Fife, I love all the public speakers and I'm happy that folks turned out to provide their personal perspectives on what happened. But I do have to clarify that the item that came forward in April was similar in in topic, but a different a different a different agenda item. So what what did happen was there was an item that came to CED around allocating money for homeless services that was, you know, it was voted down in this committee a few times, and I I tried to reschedule the item. There were issues and concerns about, you know, whether the majority of the funds or a large percentage of the funds were going to overhead and I believe we'll go through this through the chair to our staff.

You corrected that it was not primarily overhead costs and we we got through that topic. And I I just want to state for the public record is that that's not what's happening today, but it is a similar item where unfortunately there are politics that are happening that you all don't see. And I wanna be clear that I will and I have always fought for what's in the best interest of the majority of our residents in Oakland, which is 60% tenants. That doesn't mean that I don't listen to landlords and I don't care those other things as we will get into the next item, but because staff was concerned that this item wouldn't pass based on what happened in April, that is part of part of why we're dealing with this agenda item the way that we're dealing with it today. Because historically, the Housing and Community Development Department brings these items forward without a staff member attached to the legislation.

It removes politics, so today's item is a precedent. So hopefully in the future, we can deal with the basis of these items on their merits, so we don't have to put staff in the predicament of trying to figure out who will and who won't support legislation, because that's not a place we should ever be. We should always be engaged in what's working for the best and highest interest of our residents. So I do wanna thank folks for coming out today, but I wanted to clarify what was happening with this item and I'm happy to be a part of moving it forward.

Excellent. Thank you so much. And then I guess maybe lastly, you know, as it relates to, you know, items kind of around the subject matter, protecting tenants etcetera. You know we're happy to say that during the budget process we were able to allocate funding for the homeless prevention pilot, set aside additional funding for multiple kind of multiple services under this umbrella. And so much of the hesitation as mentioned kind of on the record in April had to do with the uncertainty around the budget.

And so now that we've been able to see that process through we're able to make these these decisions with more confidence. And so thank you so much for all of your hard work in bringing all of these items forward. I would like to I think I made a motion just need a second and then just want to note that one of our colleagues does have a stop very soon. So on the next items we have to move quickly. Thank you. Thank

you chair Brown. We do have a motion made by chair Brown seconded by council member Fife to approve the recommendations and to forward this item to the October 21 city council agenda on consent on roll. Council member Fife? Aye. Thank you. Council member Ramachandran. Aye. Thank you. And council member Unger. Aye.

Thank you. And chair Brown. Aye. This motion passes with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October 21 city council agenda on consent moving to item five. Adopt a resolution authorizing the one, a city administrator to enter into a professional services agreement with the East Bay Rental Housing Association for the provision of the representation services at rent adjustment program petition proceedings in housing residential rent and relocation board appeal proceedings and provision of the technical assistance to the small property owners to comply with the city's rent adjustment and eviction laws for a one term a one year term from October 2025 through September in the amount of a $150,000 renewable at the city administrator's option for up to three additional years for a total contract amount not to exceed $600,000 and two waiving the competitive RFP program requirements.

And you do have eight speakers for this item.

Thank you so much. And so to the presenter just two minutes please, thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon again committee chair Brown and committee members. My name is Victor Ramirez with the Rent Adjustment Program. Once again, on behalf of the commute Housing Community Development Department, I'm here to present and recommend that the city council consider and approve a resolution that would authorize the city administrator to enter into one year contract from October 2025 through September 2026 in the amount of $150,000 renewable at the city's administrator option for up to three additional years. Two, provide technical assistance and representation services to small property owners.

These services are essential to help small property owners to comply with Auckland's rent adjustment and eviction laws, including rent registration requirements and to make the RAP petition process more accessible to small property owners. Under the prior contract, Abraham provided compliance support, petition preparation, and hearing representation to 66 small property owners and outreach to thousands of property owners. I must make a note here to say that Table one in the report shows only partial numbers during the term of the contract. However, as stated, ABRA assisted 66 small property owners. They also hosted 30 events and promoted the program through digital and print channels.

The proposed contract is also aimed to technically assist property owners to comply with the city's rent adjustment and eviction laws, including rent registration requirements. As of July, only about 75,000 of the estimated 96,000 rental units subject to registration have been registered. This means that about 20,000 units remain unregistered. The proposed contract expands EBRA's role to lead a community center compliance outreach campaign targeting those unregistered units through direct outreach, digital tools, and grassroots engagement. The goal is to increase registration, improve compliance and generate new revenue to the city through the business tax and wrap fee collection while assisting property owners and limiting their liability because of lack of access or lack of knowledge.

Under this new contract, ABRA will provide technical assistance to at least two twenty property owners with rent registration. They will make 20,000 outreach contracts, and they will assist and represent 120 small property owners in wrap proceedings. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Excellent. Thank you so much. We'll hear from the public speakers.

Thank you. Wanna call your name? Please approach the podium. State your name for the record. You have two minutes. We will take in person before Zoom. Please raise your hand on Zoom so you're easily identified. Ilona Clark, John Williams, Mississauga Samuel Chris Tipton, Emma Nylinda, Derek Barnes, Gertine Kaur. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Alana Clark. I grew up in Oakland since 1975. Spent two decades busting my butt in the ICU at Highland Hospital. And I have five units in Oakland, one of which is owner occupied. When Oakland decreased annual rent caps to well below the rate of inflation, while all the costs of providing housing were skyrocketing.

This necessitated rent raises for capital improvements on a consistent basis, which is a bureaucratic nightmare. I agree with informing renters of the process with an eye towards transparency, but RAP mandates that I put this notice on the front of every petition which states, the owner of your unit has filed a case against you with the Oakland Rent Adjustment Program, commonly referred to as the rent board. I am not against my tenants. We're all in this together. We provide housing.

We need our tenants. I am not against them. Telling my renters that I am against them creates distrust with all kinds of consequences, none of which are good. Added to this, my current I have a current petition pending with the Rent Board, And their deadline to give me a decision was weeks ago. I have emailed Rap, I have emailed Victor Ramirez, and I have gotten crickets.

Spores is all we have to help manage regulatory stonewalling. Please extend the contract with EBRA unless you wish to put another nail in the coffin of small property owners in Oakland. Thank you.

Good afternoon to the council council members. My name is John Williams. And I'm here to urge you to approve EPRA to provide services to small property owners through SPORES. I have it's been a year now that I've been working with a petition for the first rental increase of my tenant in thirteen years. It's been crickets, emails, it's been a year October 1 that we've been in petition for this.

I've owned and personally managed my property for over a decade now, housing a local resident, keeping rents affordable and maintaining my property through difficult times. I'm here because the policies and administration of the RAP continue to harm small property owners and undermine basic fairness. I recently spent over a year, as I said earlier, with the first thirteen years my first tenant's first increase in thirteen years based upon the policy saying you must do that before it expires. My tenant filed a petition alleging reduced housing services. It's the same issue she's pursued in 2024 lawsuit where she received $65,000.

Also, my clear documentation to the mediation officers, failed to distinguish between a past settlement claim and a new rent increase, even though confusing that with my civil case of going back for back rent. The tenant missed the filing what really pissed it off is that the tenant also missed July she was served, The rental increase began October. She did a petition in December 2024. Then they decided that, oh, she needs to get some more documentation. She missed the documentation.

They they dismissed it. She came back with another petition. Now, they put it under the new guys for the new ruling of nine six months to her to do a petition. This is crazy. There's been crickets from the rap board, crickets crickets has been ongoing for over a year now for our first measly increase of a $100 for three bedroom, one bath in thirteen years.

I urge you, rap needs to kinda do some improvements and also I urge you to approve. As I said earlier, thank you, mister Shakur. Although that they had dismissed the case, they allowed the tenant to pursue another petition and move that forward. She missed deadlines, they continue to see her her cases. The process is not neutral.

It reflects a bias that favors tenants even when procedures and evidence clearly support the housing providers. Small landlords like myself, many of us seniors and retirees, are treated as adversaries, as my previous speaker mentioned, rather than partners in maintaining Oakland's housing stability. Cases drag on for months and years while owners face financial harm, stress, and legal uncertainties, all under a program funded by fees and registrations constantly. Oakland needs fair, timely, and accountable wrap system that respects due process for all parties. Procedure deadlines must be enforced equally. Misfiling should not be reopened or reset. Mediation officers must be properly trained to distinguish between price

Zachary Thayer again. So this is a validate validity in view of Bradstreet and Dunn, 23 c v, 01348. It validates it in view of Hong h one. This is an executive order 13653 that in place housing climate change. This is executive 13 order 13304, which indicates it to the RAFTA, PACAT, and Vue Cardosa tied to NAFTA and Brexit.

This is the lawsuit that was originally filed and identified in this court, in this city, in the county, and via a Social Security and administrative application to work allows it for representation. This is case number 23CV01348. This is filed against an individual. This is the original receipt of commerce from Durno. From Leo Golid Science, I'm asking that it go bankrupt and be forced to go bankrupt.

This is against Knapp County in fire for pre model. Review the picket fires. This case number is 21CV03937TLT. Federal police response 868 in the refile. This paper right here, which I cannot show, is Anderson via the organization.

This is the original filing of that paperwork. As Patrick Anderson, my pen name and Anderson Ziegler, I am that agent. This right here, I am asking on behalf of the state, the 23 c v's C V02305KW, and FCS059125B.

Hi, good afternoon council members. My name is Chris Tipton and I serve as the marketing and communications manager for the East Bay Rental Housing Association. I'd like to express our appreciation to the city's partnership and support for Everest Small Property Owners Representation Services or SPORS program. This initiative has proven to be an essential bridge between the city and small rental housing providers, many of whom are long time Oakland residents and property owners who depend on their income to sustain their families and maintain their properties. Through SPORS, EBRA provides representation and technical assistance to small property owners who are navigating the challenging rental adjustment program and appeals process.

These essential services help ensure fairness and compliance and better communication between the owners and the renters. I'd like to emphasize that this program, that these programs take a long time to grow the awareness with the community and trust in the community. Over the past year, our team has invested considerable effort in marketing and promoting, developing outreach materials, hosting workshops, social media campaigns, and engaging with small property owners who may not otherwise know that help is available to them. We are seeing positive results. More small rental owners are reaching out to us for guidance, and more issues are being resolved early and constructively.

By renewing this contract, the city will allow us to build on that foundation, expand outreach, improve accessibility, and uncomplicate the process that so many small rental owners are prepared, that they're prepared and have the support they need to comply with Oakland's complex rental adjustment process. On behalf of EBRA, I urge the committee to adopt this resolution and continue this important partnership. Thank you.

Hello council members, this is Gerlene Carr and I serve as a RAP support specialist under the small property owner representation services program for EPRA. Till date, Spors has assisted over 135 property owners in achieving rental compliance, providing housing law education, and ensuring petition preparedness as well as offering representation during hearings. We have found that many owners seeking assistance are unaware of key compliance requirements such as obtaining their business license, rent registry, and paying their RAP fees and often face challenges navigating the city's website and program resources. A significant portion of my day to day work focuses on guiding them step by step towards compliance which is why we are proposing to expand the program to include enhanced education and proactive compliance notification and support to directly assist the city in closing the gap of approximately 20,000 unregistered units. Beyond compliance, it's important to recognize that Spors is currently the only resource available for property owners navigating the RAP process.

The complexities of Oakland housing laws can often be daunting especially for underserved owners. And our efforts are to demystify these regulations and they are integral to ensuring that owners and renters coexist in a fair and informed environment. I'm open to answering any questions and thank you for your time.

Moving to our Zoom speakers. They're Not foreign to the

so fast. Hey, good evening, I guess good evening council members. And thank you, chair Brown, for kicking us off at our annual trade expo. Really appreciate it. Good to see you there too, council member Unger. I think that the team has probably expressed everything that I had, and thank you for making the accommodation for pushing this item so I had some time to speak. And I'm open for questions about the program. I'm going to go off script here for just a second because sometimes I do that. These programs are hard. They're really hard to start.

They're hard to do marketing and outreach, and I think we're kind of hearing that from from Central Laval. You're hearing that from us. I think it really takes a herculean effort to really do the outreach necessary to get to all of our underserved community members. That has been sort of one of the learning lessons in working with WRAP throughout this process. They've been great partners.

As already indicated, this is the only resource that the of Oakland owners really have to them. And it does not extend to legal support services, just petition and hearing support and compliance. I think over the last last year or so, we've, like I said, we've worked very hard with RAP as a partner to look at ways that we can innovate the program. I think that's another component piece of these programs, which is how can we do this better? What else is needed?

What does the city need to do? Which is why we worked out, I think will be a great program to helping with proactive compliance when it comes to, you know, reaching out to owners to make sure that they are compliant with their business license. They are compliant with rent registry. They are compliant with their RAF fees. And the vast majority of people who have connected with us through the SPORS program did not know that that that was something that they needed to do. So we hope to close the gap in that 20,000 to make it possible.

Same thing, same day. My name is Simeon Rami. The problem is the government. People don't understand the word government. The government is we the people. We people don't get there. We people steal homes because they don't get there. When we feel evil come together, we can get it together. The government will fund this, but they ain't funding to low income to affordable housing. I'm trying to change. They said they are behind because thirty years every thirty years, they're supposed build new housing. They haven't. Across this country, buildings are falling down on people. Detroit got to do about 1,500. They got thrown away.

People dying in these houses. It's unfit. It's in more. And the people said, oh, we're going no. We're all people. Cabrini Green, perfect example. You you never know who's in there. Poor people. All that. They live right now in Downtown Chicago. You think this something, but they didn't do how come we can't do it. This is racism. And you guys need to understand. This is racism. People in thirty five, forty years still homeless. People in another country living in brand new units, can't vote. Don't pay taxes. But they live in the units I supposed to be in. I have to do the work. It's wrong.

We got a full good program, a national program, national program. Take off the whole the whole thing. You have to go and tell us I did it before. Can't us we took care of you. Whatever you need, we're gonna take care you. You know what mean? But we gotta come out of this class then. We gotta get together. This is it. Faye said, we millions and millions of houses behind.

I belong to her. They see me suffer every day. Many, many houses behind in this country. You got old folks all across this country sleeping in the streets. You got a garbage can.

Moving to our Zoom speaker. If you still wish to speak on item five, please raise your hand. Emma Nylinda. Thank you, Emma. Please unmute yourself and begin your two minute comment.

Thank you so much, madam city clerk. Good afternoon, chair and council members again. This is Emma speaking on behalf of East Bay Renal Housing Association as the program specialist administrative support. So SCORZ was designed as a bridge between small housing providers and CD's regulatory systems. So it's not just a service.

It is a prevention tool. Each case we assist is one less petition, one less legal dispute, and one more stable tenancy in Oakland. So over the contract period, we've seen how early education and mediation saves time and public resources because when providers understand the process, they comply faster, and renters get more predictable outcomes. The ripple effect is less conflict, fewer hearings, and stronger housing retention citywide. So we kept this program alive through community commitment, but we are at a point where sustainable funding is critical.

So renewing the contract will let us expand outreach, improve language access, and report measurable outcomes back to the city each quarter. So Oakland's housing ecosystem depends on its small community based providers, and SPORS helps them stay compliant and help renters stay housed. Thank you so much for your time and partnership, and I hope you will trust in this resolution.

Thank you. That concludes your public speakers for item five.

Excellent. Any questions or comments? Does council member Ramachandran have your hand up?

No. But I can move the item.

Perfect. Thank you. Second. Council member Fife. Sorry.

Yes. I have some questions to I I assume it would be staff or perhaps Derek Barnes. I'm not exactly sure. I I have some questions about the demographic data reported by the contractor, if if possible. So through the chair to staff, the report states that the ethnicity of the participants served is 8086% of the participants are unknown. Their ethnicity is unknown. How is that possible?

Through the chair. There are some practices that we have in the program. We request Central Eyal and ERA to provide demographic information or demographic data on the people that they are serving. But we don't restrict that service when people are not willing to share that data with them. And that also happens through the services that we directly provide through our counseling services.

If we ask for that information, we don't even require the person to provide names. All that we will need to know is whether or not they live in Auckland and if they are protected by those laws for us to provide that service.

So okay. Well, I'll just state then that can I ask mister Barnes, through the chair, can I ask mister Barnes? Why why are why does it state that in this particular contract, 86% of the members served, your members served, their ethnicity is not listed or is unknown.

So mister Ramirez is right. Under the contract, there was no initially there was no requirement to do that. So, that's And, so what we try to do, because a lot of the times we don't interact face to face with people, it's usually over the phone. So, there's implied information that you can

Don't profile.

Yeah. And so we, through the process that we created, so there's a whole elaborate scoring process to qualify first. You have to go through an application process. But in the application process, it doesn't require the person to indicate their ethnicity or their their gender.

And it also stated that the majority of people that responded are not Oakland residents.

That's not, that's not true. Think

Non Oakland residents, 76.

No. The it's actually the reverse. Somehow the in that report I think Mr. Ramirez said that the period of time, it may have reflected that. But overall, the majority of the folks, like 80% of the folks who got services through that program were Oakland residents as well as providing housing in Oakland.

So that definitely should be clarified when we bring forward any future reports. But I do want to and thank you. Yeah. For clarifying

Thank you council members. In

in service of time, I do want to make a similar amendment to this contract that I made for the previous agenda item, which is to amend the service period so that we can get more detailed information on the reporting, particularly because there are so many times, EBRA comes to this committee or to the city council and states how black landlords are being underserved, but we can't tell from this report how many landlords there actually are that are African American. And that has particular interest to me because of the number of unsheltered folks and in the ways that, you know, we are being pushed out of the city disproportionately. So, I I do wanna make the amendment similar to the one that I made earlier, is to limit the term to a one year term with the administrative options to amend. So I wanna make that that motion.

I'm open to that friendly amendment.

Okay. And then I'm sorry. Just for clarity, just to make sure I got it as well. So instead of the basically instead of the three it's just one.

Through the chair Nari Chan with the Oakland City Attorney's Office. Just wanting to clarify the current proposed term is one year from 10/01/2025 through 09/30/2026 and then there are up to three additional years so it's a three year option. So is the proposal for just one year option? Correct. Okay. So a one year term with a one year option?

Correct. Thank you. Thank you for that.

And we have a motion and a second. Thank you.

We have a motion made by council member Ramachandran, seconded by council member Fife to approve as amended the recommendations of staff. Excuse me. My apologies. I'll restate the motion. We have a motion made by council member Ramachandran, second by chair Brown to approve as amended the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October 21 city council agenda on consent with amendments as follows to switch from a one year term and a one year option.

Switch to a one year term with a one option for extension. Thank you. On roll, council member Fife.

Aye.

Thank you. Council member Ramachandran. Aye. Council member Anger. Aye. And chair Brown. Aye. Thank you. The motion passes with four ayes To approve as amended the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October 21 city council agenda on consent with the amendment stated on record. Moving to open forum.

When I call your name, please approach the podium. You do have one minute, excuse me, at the discretion of the chair. And if you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified. Zach Thayer, Ralph Kantz, Mississaata, Samuel Ramy, Jennifer Finley, and Zach Jennifer Finley, thank you.

There's something suspicious when you can get race demographics for renters and you can't get it for homeowners. The governor yesterday vetoed several reparation bills. Bills that would have given descendants of slavery more opportunities for universal admission to universities, opportunities to buy homes, and professional licenses. He also vetoed anything that would have to do with property that was taken away from African Americans as a result of eminent domain. He vetoed these bills because of lack of funding.

That was his reasoning. But, he did allow for an apology for slavery. He did allow for the creation of a bureau, $6,000,000, to determine who is a descendant of slave. This asinine governor does not respect African Americans just like this city doesn't and the opportunity to have reparations in place proper.

If you signed up to speak, please approach the podium. State your name for the record. And you you do have one minute. Thank you.

My name is Simeon Ramey. I'm with the Chicago Homies Union. We restarted five years ago. And the point of getting to is, Well, what about us? I can't go no further than this. What about us? Us are on the streets out here. Born and raised in this city. We live about two weeks ago tomorrow, Wednesday night. He said, I'm born and raised. I can't find a place to live. Why? We got people from overseas living here. In Chicago, they put 30,000 of them in there. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to say this y'all. They killed 60 of them that same night. Let them know you're not coming to take over me. You know, you're not coming my neighborhood and tell you nothing in our neighborhood. We run that. Because I hear they had that kind of power. But you gotta get people in the neighborhood running this neighborhood. You don't know about the neighborhood. They do. Go and ask you what they need. Not what you want them to have.

Howdy, Zach. In view of open indictment, this is the monkeypox vaccine for Janos. In view of the cancer research, this is I've litifies my Nobel in view of negligence against the state. This right here is the indictment against the state of California, 23 c v 02305 K E W. I believe this was written by Brad Preston or JD Vance.

This right here is the executive order and the impeachment that validates a request in view of the secretary of North Korea, deputy homeland secure in view of this administration. I'm filing against this in view of project Thor's hammer. This right here is an indictment that I wrote in view of the Supreme Court known as Winters. This right here is the state of California that validifies it. These are the requestment orders. In view of the American project under thirteen two two eight, this is the order for that.

If you signed up via Zoom, please raise your hands so you're easily identified. Jennifer Finley, if you still wish to speak. That concludes your public speakers for open forum.

Excellent thank you so much. Thank you everyone this meeting is adjourned.