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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.  Oakland officials on Tuesday evening capped rent increases at 3% for rent-controlled apartments, effectively preventing landlords from raising rents by 6.7% starting in July, which had been on track to be one of the highest one-year rent increases in the city’s history.
Oakland has a condominium conversion ordinance that controls how property owners can legally convert rental apartment units into for-sale condominium homes in Oakland. The current ordinance was adopted in 1981 and was woefully out of date, overly complicated, easily abused, and leaves thousands of rental units at risk of conversion into condominiums.
Oakland Tenants Union successfully advocated for major revisions to the ordinance in order to protect as many rental units as possible from being converted. Updates to the ordinance: AB 1482 (Chiu), aka the CA Tenant Protection Act of 2019, was signed into law by Governor Newsom on October 8th, 2019 and will go into effect January 1st, 2020 as California's first statewide rent control law — albeit with numerous compromises including a somewhat weak version of eviction protections.
On November 6, 2018, Oakland voters approved Measure Y by a margin of 58.36%. The measure extends Just Cause eviction protections to the thousands of renters in duplexes and triplexes who currently face displacement for no reason, thus closing a frequently abused loophole in the laws that have protected renters for years.
On November 6, 2018, Oakland voters approved the City of Oakland Measure W, the Oakland Vacant Property Tax Act, by a margin of 70.04 percent. The Vacant Property Tax Act establishes an annual tax of up to $6,000 on vacant parcels, buildings, and real property within the City of Oakland for 20 years, with exemptions for property owners who are low-income, senior citizens, non-profits, or demonstrate other forms of hardship or can demonstrate they are in the process of improving the property. A property is considered vacant if it “is in use less than fifty (50) days in a calendar year.
On February 5, 2018 the Oakland City Council expanded requirements for relocation payments to tenants who are subject to a "no fault" eviction from their rental unit, following sustained advocacy by OTU and housing rights allies. Under the new law, any tenant protected under the Just Cause for Eviction law must be compensated by the landlord in cases of "no fault" eviction including for "owner move-in" evictions.
Rents in Oakland are among the highest in the nation and people are being forced from their homes every month through illegal rent increases and unjustified evictions. OTU worked to pass Measure JJ, which won with over 75% the vote!
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