On Tuesday, December 5, City Council unanimously approved some amendments to Oakland's Rent Regulations. These amendments will:

• Remove the requirement that a tenant be current on rent in order to file or respond to a tenant petition.
• Increase the amount of compensation you can receive for a decreased housing services petition.
• Help bring certain types of housing under rent control.
• Remove the requirement for the appellant to appear at an appeal hearing.
  

After a hugely successful phone (and email) zap by OTU members and our allies, the Alameda Court agreed to flatten the eviction curve by slowing down the number of eviction cases they will hear every week from 188 to 38.

​The Oakland Tenants Union condemns Israel's ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, which is killing its civilians and destroying their housing, their hospitals, their schools, and their businesses. OTU calls for an immediate ceasefire and restoration of all services, and demands the U.S. immediately end all military aid to Israel.

Earlier this month, California passed a bill requiring the state to produce a study and recommendations on expanding the state’s social housing sector. Organizers hope it will be the first step in providing de-commodified shelter on a large scale.

OTU members and allies showed up to the Oakland City Council to demand a phased rollout of the eviction moratorium. The final legislation includes a set of new tenant protections, designed to mitigate the tsunami of eviction filings that will certainly occur now that the moratorium is no longer in place.
Under the new policy, tenants who can prove they experienced a COVID-related hardship can never be evicted for unpaid rent that became due while the moratorium was in place. Landlords are also prohibited from evicting anyone who owes less than one month of what the federal government considers fair rent.

If a landlord wants to evict an Oakland tenant for violating their lease, they’ll now have to prove that the renter’s behavior caused “substantial actual injury” to the property owner or other tenants.

On November 8, 2022, after sustained advocacy by OTU members and allies, Oakland voters passed Measure V, which improves the Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance by:

• Extending Just Cause protections to more properties in Oakland. With Measure V, all buildings constructed within the last ten years have Just Cause for Eviction Protections, as do tiny homes on wheels and recreational vehicles, if they are rented to a tenant by a landlord.
• Adding special eviction protections for school-age children or educators who are being evicted for “no-fault” reasons during the school year. Evictions have been shown to disrupt the educational progress of children. We also need our teachers to be able to remain in Oakland. This measure prevents evictions that could damage educational achievement.

​Measure V is the culmination of more than two decades of renter organizing and builds upon the legacy of Causa Justa and the Oakland Tenants Union's early work. CJJC and OTU first organized to pass the original Just Cause eviction ordinance in 2002 when Black and Brown communities were being displaced due to the dot com boom. In 2016, the Protect Oakland Renters Coalition expanded Just Cause to cover tenants in buildings built before 1995 with Measure JJ. In 2018, with Measure Y, we closed a loophole that was being used to push tenants in smaller buildings out.

After years of advocacy from OTU, Oakland City Council approved a rent registry, which will include data on who owns which properties in Oakland, whether they’re covered by rent control, how much landlords can charge tenants, and the eviction history for any unit. The registry will include all housing covered by Oakland’s rent control and eviction laws, which is most rental buildings constructed before 1995.
​Landlords will be required to submit information about each of their rental units annually to the city, or be prohibited from evicting tenants or raising rents beyond the standard amount.