The city can’t easily enforce its rent control law, or communicate with tenants, if it doesn’t track rents. Landlords say the database would be overreach.
Author Archives: Natalie Orenstein
Natalie Orenstein covers housing and homelessness for The Oaklandside. She was previously on staff at Berkeleyside, where her extensive reporting on the legacy of school desegregation received recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists NorCal and the Education Writers Association. Natalie’s reporting has also appeared in The J Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere, and she’s written about public policy for a number of research institutes and think tanks. Natalie lives in Oakland, grew up in Berkeley, and has only left her beloved East Bay once, to attend Pomona College.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
‘I was getting sicker and sicker’: Oakland renters sue landlord company Mosser
Dozens of tenants say Mosser and other companies made life miserable through non-stop construction, utility hikes, broken elevators, and security issues.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Behind on its affordable housing goals, Oakland looks to buy, not just build
A new city plan reveals a massive funding gap, prompting Oakland to consider cheaper, quicker ways of creating low-income units.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland wants to end single-family zoning. Can the city get it right?
We looked at two very different neighborhoods that don’t allow apartments, in Rockridge and East Oakland. Can the city undo a legacy of housing segregation without recreating the problems of the past?
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland has $4 million for new homeless housing. Where could it go?
Here are the vacant sites in each City Council district that may be used for tiny homes and RV parks.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland landlords could raise rents if a tenant illegally sublets, proposal says
The change is meant to stop renters from scamming the system. But the pandemic has forced some tenants into unusual living situations.
Posted inHealth & Environment
‘Was that an earthquake?’ How to find out what shook Oakland awake
A 2.6 magnitude quake jolted parts of the East Bay early Monday. Here’s where to learn more and get prepared.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland’s scathing encampment audit: Officials, unhoused people, and advocates react
Daryel Dunston, Needa Bee, Nikki Fortunato Bas, and others share their reactions to a critical encampment report.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Eviction attempts plummeted during the pandemic in Oakland
Newly available data show the major impact of Oakland and Alameda County’s eviction moratoriums on renters and landlords.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Homeless activist occupies vacant hill in East Oakland, asking ‘Where do we go?’
Derrick Soo says his protest is an extension of the Moms 4 Housing movement. But a lawsuit says the hill can’t be safely developed.