Moms 4 Housing

“Many had come to learn more about Moms For Housing, a group of homeless mothers who, the same week as all of the Twitter drama, began to occupy a vacant, speculator-owned house in West Oakland.”／““It doesn’t end with one house,” said Dominique Walker, one of the Moms For Housing, with her baby in her arms. “We want to take Oakland back from all speculators. We’re not going to stop organizing until we all have shelter.””／“Since newcomers will inevitably be richer―and probably whiter―than existing residents, the new housing being built in these neighborhoods can look like “a new phase of redlining［レッドライニング（黒人への融資差別）の新局面］” or “neocolonialism［新植民地主義］.””

“Local organizers have pledged to protect the mothers, as they could face arrest.｜“We’re not leaving,” Walker, mom to a 1-year-old and 4-year-old she brought to the Oakland property, said during a press conference Thursday. “We’re not leaving without a fight. This is our home.””／“The mothers’ actions are rooted in a deep history of protesting the role real estate investors and government officials play in homelessness.”

“"This came out of absolute desperation. These are the times we're living in where your only option is to occupy a house or live with your children on the street." - Dominique Walker, Moms 4 Housing”

““The city is not helping us,” Walker said. “None of the agencies that are supposed to help us are helping us. And we don’t believe that corporations and house flippers should get to decide who has the right to live indoors.””

“Higher rents (and higher profit for the property owner) effectively create an income requirement for people to access housing. “Because if you are hard-working and the wages aren’t enough, does that mean you deserve to be on the street?” said Dominique. “Shelter is a human right, it is a basic need.”｜But under capitalism, the primary purpose of housing is to provide a return on investment for banks and landlords, not to provide shelter for those who need it. Dominique stressed, “I think it’s a moral crisis. It’s capitalism, it’s greed that are keeping people on the streets.””／“Today, West Oakland is experiencing the latest form of redevelopment: gentrification. Corporate landlords like Wedgewood are driving these changes. Dominique commented, “A lot of people [are] jacking up rents and buying houses and flipping them for all these amounts that people I know can’t afford to pay, people that are originally from Oakland, that built the culture in Oakland. The culture isn’t the same.””

“A group of homeless mothers who took over a vacant house in West Oakland last month filed court documents on Monday to fight an eviction notice. Their argument for staying? Housing is a human right.”／““We’re fighting and we’re not going anywhere,” said Walker, who has been living in the empty home with her two young children and Karim. “This land deserves to be back in community control.””

“Despite working full time and playing by all the rules, Dominique Walker still found herself homeless in Oakland, one of several California cities where the housing affordability crisis is most dire.”／““I went through the whole program, and when it got time for them to pay for my deposit and first month’s rent, … when I got all that together and went to the program, they told me their funding had been cut, and they couldn’t serve me,” Walker says.［…］Worse, the program had placed people in garages infested with rats and black mold, and women in dangerous housing situations that made them vulnerable to sexual assault.”／“Walker’s experience with the program and the city’s housing politics made her realize that no one was coming to save her ― that she couldn’t “depend on any government officials promising us or pacifying us with policies and not implementing it.” Under the banner of Moms 4 Housing, she and three other working mothers took matters into their own hands by reclaiming a vacant, investor-owned house on the 2900 block of Magnolia Street in November.”

“Moms 4 Housing considers Wedgewood a “displacement machine”―buying up properties in areas on the cusp of gentrification［ジェントリフィケーションの最前線にある地域内の物件を買い占める］ and sitting on them until their values surge. The moms want Wedgewood to turn the house over to them under the principal that housing is a human right, and argue that other investor-owned properties should be given back to communities who have been displaced by soaring rents. The group’s bold organizing tactics―they send text message alerts to rally supporters around press conferences, canvassing, and phone zaps―have also put City Hall on notice, demanding Mayor Libby Schaaf take more aggressive action. The’ve called her out for the city’s failure to collect fees from housing developers who don’t build affordable units as required by an Oakland mandate.”／““It was an answer to a desperate need,” Walker says of their decision to occupy the Magnolia Street house. “It should be illegal to have vacant houses and have people sleeping on the streets. I feel like there’s a moral crisis［道義上の危機］. There’s a profiteering crisis［不当利得行為による危機］…I think that’s where the crime lies.””／“Traditionally, we think of vacant houses as an issue in weak housing markets and struggling economies suffering the lingering effects of the foreclosure crisis. But places with hot real estate markets have been wrestling with the problem, too. That’s especially true when changes to the housing market happen rapidly, like in the Bay Area, where gentrification in previously shunned neighborhoods［以前には回避された近隣におけるジェントリフィケーション］ like West and North Oakland has pushed out long-time residents［長年住んでいる住人を追い出した］, who are then unable to benefit from new investment in the communities.”／“It’s a lot less stressful for me on my day-to-day, and I’m happy that my kids are comfortable, but I’m fighting for all unhoused mothers and children,” Walker says. She’s not afraid of speaking out and risking eviction. “It was a bigger risk sleeping in my car with my children than taking a stand on hoping that this brings awareness to the crisis here.””

“Since occupying the house, the moms who live there have done their best to make it a home in time for the holidays. Their Christmas tree is decorated, and Walker said they plan to make a gingerbread house. They want to enjoy the holiday.”

“Tenants rights attorney Leah Simon-Weisberg said her clients still plan to make their case. | "We'll be talking about why housing is a human right and why that is a basis for the court to interject itself and say, 'Yes, they can stay,' " said Weisberg. “The fact that the judge wants to hear what we have to say is encouraging."”

“Walker and Moms 4 Housing are attempting to call attention to the city’s homelessness crisis, and argue companies should not be allowed to buy investment properties and let them sit empty while Oakland residents are living on the streets. They are working with the Oakland Community Land Trust to buy the West Oakland house so they can continue living there, but Wedgewood has said it will not negotiate with them while they are illegally occupying the property.”

““It was a victory,” said one of the potentially evicted moms in question, as an Alameda County judge keeps their housing hopes alive, at least for now.”／““Some sources will put (Wedgewood’s) revenue at half a billion dollars,” Bas said at a rally this morning. “This is truly a battle between a goliath corporation that has been profiting off the foreclosure crisis, and that has meant that it’s driving displacement, driving homelessness and gentrification, in communities like West Oakland.””

“More than 100 people gathered Monday outside a Hayward courthouse to support a group of homeless mothers who have taken up residence in a vacant West Oakland home.”／“Alameda County Superior Court Judge Patrick McKinney issued a tentative ruling last week that the women don’t have a “valid claim of right to possession,” but said their attorneys could still make their arguments.｜On Monday, attorneys for the mothers argued that “housing is a human right” and the skyrocketing homeless crisis gives the courts authority to rule in favor of the mothers staying.”／““We’ve worked multiple jobs, we pay taxes into this city, we barely get the time to spend with our kids because we are trying to make sure they have a stable home,” said Misty Cross, one of the mothers who lives in the vacant property. “It’s really hard for us to keep focusing and moving forward with so many blocks in our path.””

“Carroll Fife, director of the group Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, became emotional as she described how living in the home has already changed the lives of the mothers and their children: Sunday night, the kids put clean sheets on their beds and started decorating the room. The week before, a Christmas tree stood in the living room.｜Fife said the support for these mothers needs to continue and include others in the community who are grappling with the region's housing affordability crisis.｜"We need students for housing, we need teachers for housing, we need janitors for housing," said Fife. "We need everybody for housing, because it is a human right that you need to survive."”／“If Judge McKinney rules against the mothers, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said they will carry out the eviction likely after Jan. 1. Spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said officers are prepared to make arrests if they are met with resistance by the mothers or their supporters.”

“On Monday, two Black mothers who occupied a vacant West Oakland property had their day in court. Southern California-based Wedgewood Properties, which owns the home, argued this is a clear case of theft. But the moms are making another, more philosophical argument: that housing is a human right. But what does that mean, and will it help them stay in the house?”

“Regardless of the outcome of their court case however, the mothers have reignited a movement and forced us to reckon with what it means to provide “housing as a human right.”｜The direness of our housing crisis requires bold solutions. It’s time to consider that those solutions might be beyond current legal precedent.｜Should corporations be more entitled to a home than our children?”

“Moms 4 Housing, a collective recently formed to support the Oakland women, interrupted a news conference on legislation to boost housing construction Tuesday at City Hall, shouting “affordable housing now.”｜“I want to thank Moms 4 Housing for taking that house and for demonstrating that nowhere, nowhere should there be a vacant house anywhere in California when we have the housing crisis that we have,” said Democratic Sen. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley. “And it was totally legitimate for those homeless moms to take over that house.””／““Wedgewood owns this home, and these squatters have broken into it, they’re illegally occupying it, and that is not the right thing to do. It’s simply theft,” “Singer said Tuesday. “This is really a case about a group of people taking the law into their own hands.［これは法を自らの手中に収めた連中がしでかしたことだ〔＊M4Hを罵っているが、結果的に彼女らの行動の意義を表現してしまっている。Carroll Fifeはこれを受けてM4Hの行動を「市民的不服従」と評している。→https://twitter.com/fifeca/status/1214830522586648577〕］””／“Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose, said Tuesday that elected officials need to ensure “opportunistic landlords［日和見地主］ and corporate landlords［企業地主］” don’t “keep our homes vacant.””

“Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, state Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and other elected officials joined Wiener at the news conference to speak in support of his bill. But their remarks were mostly drowned out by a large group of housing activists who loudly shouted slogans such as, “Affordability ― the rent’s too high!” and “Housing for people, not for profit!”｜Members of Moms 4 Housing have occupied a Magnolia Street home in Oakland owned by a real estate investment firm. The group on Tuesday chanted “Give the moms a home today!” and, “Where’s the Affordable Housing?”｜When a representative from the California Association of Realtors tried to speak, the protesters booed her and shouted, “No more speculators!””

“OAKLAND ― Protesters shouted down Sen. Scott Wiener on Tuesday as he stood on the steps of Oakland City Hall, attempting to introduce a revamped bill to spur more housing development throughout California.｜For nearly an hour, while Wiener and other supporters ran through the merits of Senate Bill 50, protesters including activist group Moms 4 Housing drowned them out with chants of “Hey hey, ho ho, luxury housing has got to go” and “Where’s the affordable housing?”｜The clash between two pro-housing groups ― both of which believe the Bay Area faces a crippling affordability crisis but disagree over how to fix it ― symbolizes the contentious nature of the California housing debate.”／“But protesters with Moms 4 Housing ― a group started by homeless women who took over an empty, investor-owned West Oakland house in November ― worry the bill will allow too many luxury homes to be built, and not enough affordable housing.［M4Hはその法案が過剰な高級住宅の建設を許し、アフォーダブル住宅が不十分になることを危惧している。］ For Moms 4 Housing member Misty Cross, SB 50 seems to be another example of a solution that doesn’t work.”／“After Mayor Schaaf spoke to the crowd Tuesday, angry, tearful Moms 4 Housing members confronted her directly about helping the city’s low-income residents.［…］“The anger we saw today was real and legitimate ― we are in the depths of a housing crisis that is unjustly impacting our most vulnerable residents, and particularly African American residents,” Schaaf said in an emailed statement.［「今日私が見た〔M4Hの〕怒りは、真実の、まっとうなものだった。私たちは、最もヴァルネラブルな住人、とりわけアフリカ系アメリカ人の住人に不当に影響を及ぼす住宅危機の真ん中にいる」と、シャーフ市長はメール声明で述べた。］”

“While many have been quick to point out the action of these moms as “illegal,” I thought about the courage of many throughout history who have chosen actions contrary to the law, in order to prophetically highlight the immoral nature of such laws. In response to interviewers about the legality of their actions, one of the Moms 4 Housing founders, Dominique Walker said, “It should be illegal to have mothers and children sleeping on the street in winter ― working moms that are going to work, trying to provide and coming back to the street.”｜Her response made me think of the many ways that moms in this country, particularly African American mothers, have always had to make courageous choices and break laws to uphold the dignity, life, and freedom of their beloved children. And I wondered wouldn’t I choose to fight for the life and well-being of my family over complicity with an oppressive and harmful system? Shouldn’t we consider these moms and their children as we would our own?”

“WALKER: Even if I had time to prepare, the housing crisis - I still probably wouldn't be able to afford anything. So I was sleeping at different relatives' houses and hotels, which is very unsafe and violent.”／“WALKER: We believe that housing is a human right, and we're going to fight for that. We want to see all unhoused moms have shelter.”／“WALKER: To move in, to feel like you have a basic need being met because housing and shelter is a basic need and a human right.”

““I want to thank Moms 4 Housing for taking that house and for demonstrating that nowhere, nowhere should there be a vacant house anywhere in California when we have the housing crisis that we have,” said Democratic Sen. Nancy Skinner of Berkeley. “And it was totally legitimate for those homeless moms to take over that house.”／“Assemblyman Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose, said Tuesday that elected officials need to ensure “opportunistic landlords and corporate landlords” don’t “keep our homes vacant.””／“Yet there are four vacant homes for every homeless person in Oakland, said Leah Simon-Weisberg, an attorney for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which is helping the mothers in court.｜The empty eyesores are in devastated, predominantly minority neighborhoods, she said, adding that developers like Wedgewood “acquire the property, they kick the people out who are in it, and they sell it.””

“Redlining［レッドライニング］, the systemic and discriminatory practice of refusing to issue loans or insurance in certain neighborhoods, stifled development and investment. Redlined neighborhoods are more likely to have low-income black and brown residents. Like West Oakland.｜And don’t even get me started on the predatory lending practices used to exploit low-income homeowners, spurring the foreclosure crises that paved the way for investment companies to snap up houses for cheap and then sell for profit ― or rent at prices people raised in neighborhoods like West Oakland can’t afford.”／““I can completely understand what they’re doing and why. They’re mothers. What would you expect them to do?” said Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Marina del Rey (Los Angeles County). “These are hardworking women, and they shouldn’t have to resort to this to keep a roof over their heads and the heads of their children.””

“An Alameda County Superior Court judge on Friday ruled against a homeless mother who moved into an empty West Oakland home and directed sheriff's officials to enforce an eviction within five days.｜Judge Patrick R. McKinney ordered Dominique Walker to immediately vacate the property along with others in the house, including members of the group Moms 4 Housing. But Walker said she and the other women aren’t going anywhere.”／“In his ruling, McKinney said “the court recognizes the importance of these issues, but, as raised in connection with Ms. Walker’s claim of right to possession, finds that they are outside the scope of this proceeding.””／“Despite the judge’s ruling against her, Walker intends to keep fighting for her right to housing. And, she said, she won’t stop until every person experiencing homelessness has shelter.｜“Today is not a defeat,” she said. “This is the beginning of a movement.”｜Attorney Leah Simon-Weisberg, who is representing Walker, said they weren't surprised by the ruling: “We understand that the court's hands are tied because in this country, property rights are valued over human rights.”｜“That is why the California Constitution needs to be amended to include the right to housing,” she added.”

“"It is deeply disingenuous for this multi-million-dollar corporation, through their multi-million-dollar public relations firm, to pretend to be concerned about the well being of black families［この〔住宅を買い占める〕数百万ドル規模の企業が、数百万ドル規模の広告会社を通じて、〔家のない〕黒人家族の幸福に気を配っているふりをするのは、まったく不誠実だ］," said Dominique Walker, one of the mothers who has been staying at this Magnolia Street house, owned by the real estate investment firm Wedgewood Properties. "Wedgewood CEO Greg Geiser is desperate to avoid taking responsibility for how this company has contributed to the housing crisis that is causing families like mine to be homeless and for participating in an industry that has robbed Black and marginalized communities of land and wealth for generations."”／“"We want to buy this home through the Oakland Community Land Trust, but Wedgewood would rather see our kids be in shelters or worse," Walker said in her statement Saturday night. "We have seen corporations with blood on their hands try to buy public favor and this is an example.［手を血で汚した企業が金の力で世間の支持を得ようとするのを見てきたが、これはその一例だ。］ Their 'offer' is an insult.［〔子どもたちをシェルターに入れようとする〕彼らの「提案」は侮辱だ。］"”

“Moms 4 Housing supporters began arriving at the property at 6 a.m. Monday and planned to stay until 6 p.m., working in shifts. A volunteer security team will be on the property after-hours. The mood was relaxed and upbeat Monday morning, with volunteers providing coffee, fruit and pastries.｜“I honestly was moved by the bravery and the courage of the mothers,” said 24-year-old Sarah O’Neal, who had positioned herself at the center of the human chain blocking the house.｜O’Neal, who lives a few blocks from the Magnolia Street house, found out about Moms 4 Housing about five weeks ago on social media. She has lived in the Bay Area her whole life, and after growing up in low-income housing in Santa Clara, remembers the stress of having insecure living arrangements.”

“Dr. King never got to see the Poor People's Campaign come to fruition. But after his death, the action was carried out under the guidance of Southern Christian Leadership Conference's new president, Ralph Abernathy. The first people to occupy the space known as Resurrection City were a caravan of women's groups, led by Coretta Scott King.｜King reportedly started her trek to the capital after rallying people while standing on the very balcony where her husband was assassinated, telling the crowd that she wanted an America "where not some but all of God’s children have food, where not some but all of God’s children have decent housing, where not some but all of God’s children have a guaranteed annual income in keeping with the principles of liberty and grace.”｜That sure sounds like an obvious precursor to the moral argument presented by Moms 4 Housing.”

“We look at the fight for affordable housing in the Bay Area with Moms 4 Housing, the unhoused and insecurely housed mothers who were evicted Tuesday by a militarized police force from a vacant home they had been occupying in Oakland, California. The action ended a two-month standoff between the mothers and real estate developer Wedgewood Properties when sheriff’s deputies arrested two mothers and two of their supporters. All four were released on bail Tuesday afternoon. We speak to Misty Cross, one of the moms who was arrested, and her daughter Destiny Johnson. “It was never about trying to stay in that house,” says Cross. “The message we were trying to send out was to get people aware of policies and things that are in place that are making us not move forward in life.” We also speak to Carroll Fife, the director of the Oakland office for Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment.”

“This is a short documentary film about a group of homeless mothers who reclaimed a vacant house in Oakland California to provide safe housing for their children and to draw attention to the wider housing crisis.｜The house was owned by Wedgewood Incorporated, a real estate company that specializes in flipping “distressed” properties.｜In a city where the average rent is close to $3,000 per month and thousands of people are living on the streets, the occupation quickly grew into a movement for housing justice.｜This film tells the story of the 50 days of struggle at 2928 Magnolia street from occupation to eviction. ”

“Though Nanette Bailey won her eviction battle, she’s now trying to help others. Her 27-year-old niece was just given a 10-day notice to evict from her West Oakland home. That’s because her niece recently had a baby and hasn’t paid her rent because she can’t find a babysitter and had to leave her job.｜Bailey said she wants Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf to “move really fast” in figuring out how to help. The two politicians held a news conference Thursday during the governor’s statewide homeless tour where he praised Moms 4 Housing and said he would meet with the group to hopefully find solutions.”

“When our housing system’s primary function is to enrich capitalists rather than provide for humans’ basic needs, it’s no surprise that developers would rather deploy a small army complete with guns, a battering ram, and a tank to remove homeless families from an empty home, as they did earlier this week in Oakland, California.”

“Johns, the lawyer, says she also encourages Oakland residents who object to what she calls the “excessive force” used against the Moms 4 Housing advocates to file a taxpayer lawsuit against the city or sheriff’s department for wasting public dollars.｜For those familiar with Oakland history, the military-style tactics used in the January 14 eviction held ugly echoes of the way the city’s law enforcement once dealt with its poor residents, and black women in particular: the violent police escalations that caused African Americans to form the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in the city in 1966.｜“This city has a rich history in black culture and in resistance,” said Walker, whose grandparents moved to Oakland in the 1950s. “We’re resisting right now, and we’re not going anywhere. We deserve to be here.””

“Both Kaplan’s and Fortunato Bas’ proposals directly follow the culmination of the Moms 4 Housing protest this month. When Fortunato Bas announced her Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act during a news conference in front of City Hall on Thursday, Moms 4 Housing founder Dominique Walker was at her side. Carroll Fife, regional director of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, which has been working closely with Moms 4 Housing, was there too.｜“This legislation will help safeguard tenants from eviction,” Fife wrote in an emailed statement, “and limit the ability of speculators to have carte blanche in our community and slow the impact of the housing crisis.””

“The fight to free the land, nurture it, and protect it from exploitation as white supremacist capitalism destroys the earth is critical. This is a housing revolution and Moms 4 Housing is in the trenches. Still, at the core, this is a movement grounded in and led by Black mothers’ love―for their people, for their community, and, most importantly, for their children.［白人至上主義者の資本主義が地球を破壊しているこの時に、土地を解放して育み、搾取から保護する闘いは、決定的に重要な意味をもつ。これはハウジングの革命であり、〈マムズ・フォー・ハウジング〉は戦闘態勢にある。それでも、根底では、これは黒人の母たちの愛――人々への、コミュニティへの、そして最も重要なものとして、子どもたちへの――に基づいた、かつそれに導かれた運動である。］”

“Moms 4 Housing “was just a name that we came up with because we’re moms actively working to try to do this. But the whole statement was to focus on housing for all,” Cross said. “We’re trying to build the power back into that people. Rebuild what they’ve broken. To let people know it’s okay to tell you a story and not feel ashamed, or have to feel like you’re being judged.””

““It’s extremely frightening for people who respect private property and believe in private property,” said San Francisco-based property rights attorney Andrew Zacks.｜Still, experts say a right of first refusal policy likely would be legally sound.｜“It has some significant precedent, and it hasn’t been successfully challenged in court,” said Oakland-based real estate attorney Rob Selna. “And many other cities are pursuing it.”｜On the other side of the bay, San Francisco’s Community Opportunity to Purchase Act requires all owners of multi-family buildings, or vacant lots where a multi-family building could be built, to notify a list of six qualified affordable housing nonprofits when they intend to sell.”

“Whether they end up living in the Magnolia Street house or not, the Moms plan to continue their fight. “Myself and all of the Moms are committed to this movement and this struggle,” says Walker. “In whatever space we’re allowed to speak, we will uplift housing as a human right. We’re going to keep fighting until all unhoused folks have shelter. We want to reclaim houses from speculators back into the community.””

“But members of the group argue that saving one house is not enough; they want to use the momentum they’ve built to start a larger movement, such as changing the state Constitution to include housing as a human right.｜A constitutional amendment would require approval from two-thirds of both legislative houses by June 25 to be placed on the November ballot. If approved by voters, California would make history as the first state to declare housing as a human right.”

“Moms 4 Housing members Misty Cross and Tolani King, along with supporters Jesse Turner and Walter Baker, were arrested and briefly jailed on misdemeanor charges of resisting and obstructing the eviction at the Magnolia Street house. On Thursday, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office informed all four that they won’t face charges, said their lawyer, Micah Clatterbaugh.”

“The Moms 4 Housing activists have been working with city council members to try to advance several ordinances, including legislation that would allow county auction properties to go to affordable housing. Another would give tenants first dibs if their landlord’s property goes up for sale.｜“It’s disheartening to me that people are still homeless, I’m still homeless,” said King, noting her group will not be satisfied until they are able to achieve real change.｜“This has to continue,” she told the city council. “We have to keep moving. We have to make a change. We cannot stop here.””

“Arreguin spoke in front of a home on Tenth Street in Berkeley that was recently purchased by the Northern California Land Trust after the landlord announced plans to sell and longtime residents organized in protest. Dominique Walker, a member of Moms 4 Housing, now resides in the home.｜“It feels like this is the beginning of a movement,” Walker said Thursday.｜Leah Simon-Weisberg, a leading tenants’ rights attorney in the state, called Skinner’s bill a “great step forward,” adding that she hoped a statewide effort would ultimately help boost funding to help tenants and nonprofits take ownership of more housing.”

“The proposed state legislation allows cities to penalize corporations that leave properties empty for more than 90 days or require the corporation to sell the property to the city. Some details about the bill are still being worked out. For example, it’s not clear what would happen if the home is empty due to renovations.｜Money collected from the penalties would be used for homeless diversion, rental assistance and affordable housing purposes.｜“There is no excuse for a vacant home when so many of our neighbors are homeless,” Skinner said. “And helping tenants buy foreclosed homes rather than be evicted will keep people housed.””

“Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin announced a proposed ordinance to give renters "the first refusal and right to purchase" when their apartment buildings or rented homes are put on the market. Berkeley's city council will vote on the idea later this month.”／“Skinner's bill was inspired by the plight of a group of homeless women known as Moms 4 Housing who took up residence in a vacant three-bedroom Oakland home to call attention to the housing crisis and protest the methods of speculators who snap up distressed homes and leave them empty.”

“During a recent presentation at Berkeley Law before a packed lecture hall, two leaders of this effort―Carroll Fife and Leah Simon-Weisberg―described the rewards and challenges involved. The event was moderated by Osha Neumann, a lawyer with the East Bay Community Law Center, whose work includes protecting the civil rights of homeless people.”／“Fife said that through media outreach, policy efforts, and litigation, housing advocates will continue to “develop the narrative that housing is a right while buildings are empty and people are living on the street. When you can see boarded-up buildings and people in encampments, that (juxtaposition) is inescapable.””

“Svanoe of ACCE said her organization was active in supporting Moms4Housing. It also has been talking with state Senator Nancy Skinner, who recently introduced a bill that tackles the large number of housing units being kept vacant by investors, like the one Moms4Housing occupied. The Skinner bill would allow cities to fine corporations for leaving homes vacant for more than three months ― or to simply take over the property and rent it to low-income people, or sell it to a land trust. Her bill would also give tenants "first right of refusal" on foreclosed properties ― addressing situations like the one faced by tenants in the 12th Avenue Oakland house.”

“Exactly one month had passed since the violent, pre-dawn eviction at 2928 Magnolia Street when I landed in Oakland, California, in mid-February. The worn, white house in the west of the city was now penned in by a chain-link fence sheathed in green mesh, and the families who had lived there together for two months were now scattered between Oakland and Berkeley. One mother and child were still couch-surfing, post-eviction, unable to find a place of their own.”／“In a few hours, she would help Tolani King, one of the original moms, move into her own apartment. And Mom’s House was finally “in contract”: an acceptable price had been reached, not too much above the $501,078 Wedgewood had paid at the foreclosure auction. If all went as planned, Cross and her children would soon have a permanent home. Though it was just one house, Fife said, “It shows people, ‘Here’s a physical reminder of what can happen when you organize.’””

“Weeks after a group of homeless mothers took over a vacant house in Oakland and managed to keep it, another group of moms is trying to do the same in Los Angeles.”／“Like the Moms 4 Housing group in Oakland, the protesters in L.A. are receiving assistance from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, an organizing group that has advocated for state measures to expand rent control and other tenant protections.”／“The protesters said their actions were aligned with the governor’s call to turn public property into homeless housing. But they maintained that Newsom and other elected officials needed to do more and work faster to get people off the streets and into stable housing.”

“The LA-based group was inspired by Moms 4 Housing, a group of homeless mothers in Oakland, California, who occupied a vacant house owned by Wedgewood real estate company late last year. After the Oakland moms were removed by sheriff’s deputies in January, followed by an outcry from supporters, Wedgewood agreed to sell the property to an Oakland community land trust. Negotiations are ongoing. Meanwhile, the mothers have been living elsewhere, and some are experiencing homelessness, organizers told HuffPost.｜“We are all being urged to stay home and practice social distancing ― but how can you do that when your family is homeless?” Oakland-based Moms 4 Housing founder Dominique Walker said in a statement of support for the LA families.”

“We wanted to highlight the harm that was caused in Oakland during the foreclosure crisis―and now with speculation and gentrification―and we want to reclaim those homes owned by speculators back into the hands of the community.”／“We have been from the beginning saying that this is a movement that has been catching fire and inspiring folks all over the world, and we will continue to fight and organize until housing is recognized as a human right.”／“When it comes to Black and Brown communities in particular in the United States, there are many different forces that have colluded, both private and public, our government policies, to force people out of neighborhoods.

“Moms House was usually full, with supporters coming and going. “I think for a lot of people, it was like a community center,” said April Thomas, the group’s communications coordinator.”／“Every few days, the group held a press conference at Moms House. From the start, Moms 4 Housing understood that the press could make or break the movement. They needed journalists to see them as dedicated mothers working multiple jobs. Instead of debating the wonky details of housing and homelessness policy, they needed to tell a simple, visceral story about children living on the street while family homes owned by corporations sat empty. “There are four times as many empty homes in Oakland as there are homeless people,” Karim said at a press conference held outside the home in November. “Why should anyone, especially children, sleep on the street?””

“The action taken by Escudero was inspired by Moms 4 Housing, a group of working mothers who took over a vacant house in West Oakland last November, amid a worsening housing shortage in the Bay Area. In East L.A., the multiple homes left empty by the state could no longer be ignored by housing activists.”／“As a social worker, Escudero dealt with high-risk mothers: those suffering abuse, teenage moms, low-income women with mental health issues or other health problems. Even then, she had to use food stamps to make ends meet.”

“El Sereno may soon be seen as one of many fronts in a growing, nationwide push for housing rights and housing justice, as calls for collective action grow and #RentStrike and #CancelRent trend on social media. Carroll Fife, a long-time Bay Area activist and regional director of Alliance of Californians for Community, who helped the members of Moms 4 Housing organize and strategize, says to “stay tuned.” She says there are plans to get the Moms and Reclaimers together to meet, and she’s fielding phone calls from across the country from people asking for advice on how to reclaim homes.”

“Within a week of the arrest, Moms 4 Housing announced that the Oakland Community Land Trust reached an agreement with the city of Oakland and Wedgewood Properties, and they were entering negotiations to buy the house at market value. They would be able to stay in their home, with their kids. It was a moment of victory that brought with it longing for another world. The night of the announcement, I called a friend who’d been active in the struggle to protect Moms’ House. I expected it to be a celebratory conversation. But my friend had moved beyond the immediate relief and toward the future: “They should be given the house for free.””

“Taken as a whole, the emails released by Alameda County reveal an agency struggling to coordinate a response to mass protest―in the context of an otherwise ordinary eviction. And while the Sheriff’s Office continued to exchange information with Wedgewood LLC and its attorneys, it did not communicate directly with Moms 4 Housing. Representatives of Moms 4 Housing told me that the mothers have had no contact with either the Sheriff’s Office or Oakland police in recent weeks, but are currently making visits to homeless residents, in violation of the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order. As Carroll Fife explained, “We can’t shelter in place and say that we care about the community when they’re out living in the streets.””

“Oakland’s Moms 4 Housing hosted an international online solidarity event called “Reclaim Homes from the US to the UK” with representatives from the Focus E15 Campaign in London. It took place on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. in Oakland and 6:00 p.m. in England.”／““This is only the beginning. We really welcome everyone from around the world,” said O’Hara of Focus E15.｜Focus E15 and Moms 4 Housing plan to host another meeting again together.”

“［見出し］Even before Moms 4 Housing was evicted from 2928 Magnolia, racism and capitalism shaped the home’s history”／“This is a small victory in a sea of structural violence. Homes Guarantees, national rent control, and social housing, which combines permanent affordability, social equality, and democratic resident control, are growing in popularity. As the COVID-19 crisis escalated in mid-March, a group of homeless families inspired by Moms 4 Housing moved into 12 vacant houses across Los Angeles. Housing as a human right has entered the public discourse on a larger scale, but it can’t be a human right until the capitalist and racist systems that have shaped the house’s history are dismantled and replaced with a system where people are valued over profits.”

“Echoing Oakland’s Moms 4 Housing movement that took the Bay Area by storm last year, two homeless women and a group of activists briefly took over an empty house in San Francisco and are demanding officials provide housing to everyone living on the streets.｜The group, calling itself ReclaimSF, took over the home on 19th Street in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood Friday, as the culmination of a May Day affordable housing protest. Police forced them out just a few hours later, but the activists promised they’d be back, and that they’d occupy as many other houses as it takes to get all San Franciscans inside.”

“According to Reclaim SF's website, the group is composed of "housed and unhoused community members who are tired of waiting for the city to address the very immediate need for housing."｜The launch of Reclaim SF comes just months after a group called Moms 4 Housing made headlines for occupying a vacant home in Oakland. Since then, partly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, activists have followed suit across the state. As of March, families working with Reclaiming Our Homes in Los Angeles were occupying 13 vacant homes owned by state agency CalTrans.｜After occupying the Oakland home, Moms 4 Housing embarked on a lengthy legal battle where their lawyers argued for housing as a human right. The argument did not hold up in court, and the moms were evicted in January. After pressure from the community and elected officials, the owner, Wedgewood Properties, entered into negotiations to sell the home to the Oakland Community Land Trust. The sale is still in progress.”

“When Bay Area activists Moms 4 Housing began their campaign, they were fighting gentrification and institutional poverty. Now, as California's housing crisis compounds during the COVID-19 pandemic, their work has taken on new significance.”／“Moms 4 Housing will eventually attempt to secure a headquarters, where they can take meetings and create a space for other mothers who are going through the same things. “We see this continuing. Everything that’s happening right now is about to blow up,” Cross says.”

““Everyone in California should have access to housing. You can't build anything else without it. You can't thrive without safe and secure housing. So it's a human right and our government needs to make it so," says Fife. “If they can't find the political will to do that, then the work will be to continue to reclaim vacant properties.””

“In November, Fife helped two homeless mothers take over a vacant home in West Oakland, to protest investor speculation that has contributed to the Bay Area's sky high home prices. The occupation sparked national interest, because it highlighted the housing affordability crisis hitting cities across the country, and because it worked. The moms are now in negotiation with Wedgewood, the owner of the house, to purchase the home through a community land trust, which will hold the house as permanently affordable.｜Like the demonstrations this week, there has been a growing number of direct actions to reclaim affordable housing. On May 1, two homeless women, with the help of Reclaim SF, occupied a house in the Castro District for three hours. Their goal was to bring attention to the number of vacant homes in San Francisco, while the city’s homeless population was struggling to get indoors during the pandemic.”

“Dominique Walker, an activist for Moms 4 Housing, a collective of homeless and marginally housed mothers in Oakland and a chapter of The Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), said many members are on a rent strike right now, and they won't be able to pay the rent when the moratorium expires. ”／“Walker of Moms 4 Housing, who identifies as "housing insecure," says the organization, which was critical to extending the eviction moratorium in Oakland to the end of August in May, has actions planned to demand full rent relief. That ties into the national movement to defund the police.”／“"We're still campaigning for all the moms to be permanently housed, and also a training program ― because you have to make $40.88 an hour to be able to afford a basic one-bedroom apartment here," Walker said. "We want to have a job training program that gives moms the skills to make enough to afford a place here, that's also another issue."”

“On the most recent episode of the Partners for Dignity & Rights podcast, The Next World, we focus on the organization Moms 4 Housing. Our guests are two members, Carroll Fife, Director of the Oakland chapter of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and current candidate for Oakland’s District 3 City Council seat, and housing activist Dominique Walker, who participated in the first Moms 4 Housing housing takeover. Carroll and Dominique joined host Max Rameau to discuss what brought them to the act of civil disobedience of moving families into empty housing in Oakland, how they are handling the current pandemic, and what is next in the movement for housing”

“Just before the virus hit this spring, Daniels decided to do whatever it took to get a hotel. She spent days working a new job in payroll and nights at an extended-stay hotel in Emeryville. It cost $3,200 the first month, but it didn’t require applications and credit checks like an apartment. She’s now an organizer with Black-led activist group Moms 4 Housing, which has helped pay hotel bills during the pandemic.”

“After sparking a nation-wide reckoning with the Moms 4 Housing movement, Oakland activist Carroll Fife is taking her fight against homelessness to a new arena ― local government.”／“She wants to change the nature of property ownership in the city ― instead of housing that generates revenue for landlords, she wants to create social housing available to all. She wants to ramp up taxes on Oakland’s large companies to pay for social programs. And she wants to establish a universal “right to housing” in Oakland.”

“The demand for shelter is a demand to keep mothers and their children together.”

“Moms 4 Housing, a coalition of support groups and about 150 local residents gathered outside the Alameda County administration building in downtown Oakland on Tuesday to participate in a rally called Board of SuperMoms Demands Homes Not Harm.”／“We don’t have to reimagine policing,” Fife said. “Because we live and dream about our lives mattering every day. We have organizations that have been working on this for years. Some of my mentors and elders have been working on this for decades. We just have to do it.””

“In the midst of a global housing affordability crisis that has been heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is time to reconsider how the right to profit from property ownership is privileged in policy, funding, and ideology in the United States. Oakland-based Moms 4 Housing’s bold direct action presented a concrete challenge to the status quo.”

“After orchestrating an occupation with homeless moms and inspiring a nationwide movement, the radical housing activist is running to transform Oakland’s City Council.”

“Carroll Fife is waging an enormous field campaign effort and bringing the heat to incumbent District 3 councilmember Lynette McElhaney”

“Carroll Fife, ACCE’s Oakland director and Moms4Housing leader, stopped by the Brookdale house after the press conference and echoed Walker, saying advocates would protest the eviction “by any means necessary.” She said ACCE is rallying behind the Ubilis because “I believe we’re on the precipice of a lot more foreclosure evictions.””

“The people are rising up. That uprising will mean the abolition, not reform, of many systems: from policing to the commodification of housing, from unequal access to health care to violence against women.｜I dream of what will come after we tear down those systems. I dream of what will rise in their place. I dream of a day when Black people in this country can age in place. When we can put down roots and grow, generation to generation. When we can call a place home, without fear of being displaced ever again.”

“Now, the vocal advocate for tenants’ rights is entering a new chapter in her activism. Fife won a seat on Oakland’s city council in last week’s election, beating a two-term incumbent. She will oversee an Oakland district that includes historically Black and underserved communities in West Oakland and more affluent areas with prime views of the San Francisco Bay.｜Fife says she has no plans to change city government and “try to turn shit to sugar”; rather she plans to open the doors of city hall for other organizers to bring their demands to officials. The Guardian spoke to her about her ambitions for office, this year’s anti-police-brutality protests and her view on the presidential ticket.”

“Oakland City Council Member-elect Carroll Fife speaks to Raj Mathai following the election. One of her main priorities when she’s in office is making sure affordable housing is more available.”

““It just reverberated throughout the world,” said Carrol Fife, a founding member of Moms 4 Housing who won her race for an Oakland City Council seat. “We had people reach out to us from everywhere, from Portugal and London and the Philippines and Japan.”｜Fife, who also serves as the director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment’s Oakland office, prevailed after her opponent, incumbent Lynette Gibson McElhaney, conceded in a stunning upset earlier this week. California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna congratulated Fife in a tweet on Tuesday and said she’d “shown that progressives win when they organize, organize, organize.””

“In October, a house that was occupied by the Oakland group Moms 4 Housing was sold by the real estate speculator Wedgewood to the Oakland Community Land Trust for $587,500, and will now be converted into transitional housing for homeless mothers. In September, the city of Philadelphia agreed to transfer 50 vacant city-owned homes to a land trust set up by Philadelphia Housing Action, an activist group representing homeless mothers and children, following months of housing takeovers and protests.｜It remains to be seen if and how this kind of transfer could happen with the 22 homes currently being leased to HACLA, but Scanlin said the state is "very much supportive" of returning some of the CalTrans-owned homes back to the community.”

““All of us just want a basic decent living,” she said. “We want to be safe and secure, but our systems require us to fight, so we have to keep fighting. I need your help.””／“Even though the battle to end homelessness may seem daunting, Fife reminded the group that the Moms have already made strides.｜“We were able to do what people said was impossible,” she said, recalling the takeover of the house. “Force a speculator to turn over a house to community control. We didn’t have any idea it would be heard around the world.””

“For Councilmember-Elect Fife, the real work on fixing Oakland’s housing crisis, made worse by the pandemic, begins in January.｜“With the progressive majority on the City Council, I think we can do some things that we weren’t able to do before,” Fife said.”

“Los Angeles activists were inspired by Moms 4 Housing, a collective of homeless and marginally housed mothers who occupied a vacant Oakland home in 2019 and forced the city to find financing for its purchase, igniting a wave of housing activism. Carroll Fife, a Moms 4 Housing member, was elected to the Oakland City Council in large part as a consequence. On December 5, she spoke to a rally organized by several tenants’ unions, just prior to a caravan to the buildings where rent strikes are taking place.”

“Moms 4 Housing and LA Reclaimers have proven that successful grassroots organizing can turn headline-grabbing occupations into long-term affordable housing.”／“One year after a group of homeless mothers took over a home in west Oakland, a crowd of 30 or so people gathered downtown for a rally to celebrate the first anniversary of the Moms 4 Housing occupation.”

“A new digital-first four-part investigative series from the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit available right here on this page and on the NBC Bay Area app on Roku and Apple TV”

“Mothers are being evicted far more frequently than other Americans. This is the hidden story of America's looming housing crisis.”／“Just before the pandemic, a group of Black mothers in Oakland calling themselves the Moms 4 Housing refused to leave a vacant home they had occupied and fixed up, declaring that housing is “a human right.” Sheriffs with AR-15s and riot gear removed them, but the group later negotiated the sale of the home and sparked a national conversation about the right to housing. Those mothers―Sameerah Karim, Tolani King, Sharena Thomas, and Dominique Walker―are now advising others on how to defend their families against eviction.”

“When they occupied the house in West Oakland, the women behind Moms 4 Housing argued Wedgewood’s rise was part of a fundamental shift in the housing market marked by a seismic transfer of wealth from individuals to corporations. That shift, they said, began in the wake of the Great Recession, when nearly 10 million people lost their homes through foreclosure.”

“We kick off season two of the Radical Imagination podcast with the story of two mothers who were experiencing homelessness. They moved into a house owned by an investment firm but sitting vacant for nearly two years. That courageous act, in Oakland, California, brought national attention to the housing crisis. Host Angela Glover Blackwell talks with Dominique Walker about why she occupied the house and about the collective she co-founded, Moms4Housing. The group is demanding the human right to housing and taking on investors who treat housing as a commodity they can buy and flip for profit, while a half-million Americans experience homelessness and millions more struggle with skyrocketing rents. We also hear from Tara Raghuveer, the Housing Campaign Director for People’s Action, about the Homes Guarantee, an ambitious proposal to rebuild and reimagine housing.”

“Oakland housing activists Moms 4 Housing, who made national news by taking over a vacant West Oakland house in November, frequently cite a statistic alleging that there are four empty homes in Oakland for every homeless person―a figure alluded to in the group’s name.｜But is this true?”／“Oakland’s homeless count came out to 4,071 in 2019, while home vacancies total 15,571 (plus or minus 2,415). Note that this is a ratio of about 3.8 to one; the four to one figure cited by Moms 4 Housing came from a 2018 Mother Jones article.”

“Newsome has been following the Moms 4 Housing story closely. Earlier this month, she met the moms shortly before they were evicted.”／“"So people like myself, people like Moms 4 Housing, that's that voice," she said. "Those people finally have a voice."”

“In Oakland, the new surge of activism already is making a difference. When the city “sweeps” a homeless encampment, word often spreads on social media and activists show up to protest. In the past few months, the city has changed how it handles those sweeps, Elder said, giving residents more time to pack up and move, and making more of an effort to house them elsewhere. Before clearing an encampment at Mosswood Park in January, the city worked with Kaiser Permanente to provide temporary housing for the 50 residents.”

“A group of state lawmakers has asked Newsom to immediately make the vacant Caltrans properties available for occupancy. The governor has not weighed in on the protest but has instead spoken repeatedly about the need to prioritize the homeless population.”

“In her run for City Council, Fife pushes back on the institutional barriers to Black people that come from a history of oppression.”

“A new history of the state traces early civil rights battles spearheaded by Black activists.”

“If the federal government doesn’t extend a ban on evictions during the pandemic, as many as 5 million households could be at risk of losing their homes by next month. But five families across the country have decided they’re not going without a fight.｜“I feel, as a mother, it is my role to protect my family and my home,” said Helia Juarez, who spoke to VICE News in Spanish via a translator.”

“The Institute on Inequality and Democracy will bring together scholars and organizers to have an in-depth discussion inspired by a recent white paper, "The Case for a Social Housing Development Authority," produced by the Urban Democracy Lab at NYU.｜The webinar will be organized around a discussion of the following themes: The Public Stake in Property, More than State Ownership, Land Rents and Social Rents, and Financial Futures.”

“The year 2020 will go down in history as a important milestone in American politics particularly for the roles Black women played. Not only was a Black woman elected to the vice presidency of the United States, but a number of Black women rose to prominence for their grassroots work in voter registration, policy reform, anti-racism and criminal justice work to combat white supremacy. Join Oakland History Center librarian Dorothy Lazard as she hosts Alicia Garza, principal of the Black Futures Lab and co-creator of Black Lives Matter; newly-elected Oakland councilwoman and Moms4Housing advocate Carroll Fife; Linda Burnham, co-founder of the Women of Color Resource Center; and local author and former Black Panther Party newspaper editor Judy Juanita as they discuss the developing roles and influence of Black women in political leadership over the past decade.”

“The company drew national scrutiny in late 2019 when a group of Black, homeless mothers occupied a vacant house in West Oakland that Wedgewood had purchased at a foreclosure auction. The occupiers, who called themselves Moms 4 Housing, sought to spotlight increasing corporate ownership of housing, which they said had led to rising rents and growing homelessness.”

［"The Forms of 'Family' Observed from the 'Housing' Problems" as a Class of "Comparative Analysis of the Family (S)" (The Second Semester of the 2016 Academic Year) at College of Social Sciences, Ritsumeikan University.］

［"The Present of 'Mothering': The Trend of Arguments and Practices about It" as a Class of "Comparative Analysis of the Family (S)" (The Second Semester of the 2019 Academic Year) at College of Social Sciences, Ritsumeikan University.］