Advocates in the fire-prone hills want Oakland, Berkeley, and other agencies to team up to create a prevention plan for the region. Cost could be an obstacle.
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
Homeless Oaklanders can start the day with a free hot shower in Temescal
LavaMaeX offers something scarce for people without permanent housing: a place to get clean and warm up.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
An Oakland homeless activist finds housing—in Fremont
Pastor Preston Walker was a mainstay at protests and encampments. Now he’s exchanged that life for a washing machine and a queen bed in suburbia.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
How segregated is your Oakland neighborhood?
A new study and interactive map from UC Berkeley researchers reveal that Oakland is the 14th most segregated major city in the U.S.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Watch: The pandemic and housing policy in Oakland
Can the COVID-19 crisis teach us how to address Oakland’s housing crisis?
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
‘Depressingly’ behind on building affordable housing, Oakland looks for more money
New data shows the city is still deeply short on meeting its housing needs, so the Oakland City Council may explore a bond measure and wants to hold a day-long brainstorming session.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland tenants and landlords left in limbo waiting for COVID-19 rent relief
Households are accruing debt as they try to navigate confusing applications and a patchwork of city, county, and state programs. Meanwhile, fear of eviction looms.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Have you experienced homelessness? Get trained as a leader in Alameda County
A new “leadership academy” in the East Bay offers paid training in advocacy and policy for youth and adults with experience being unhoused.
Posted inArts & Community
This Oakland co-op wants to revive the legendary Esther’s Orbit Room and the Seventh Street corridor
Revitalization without displacement? The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative is trying to bring back a thriving BIPOC economic and cultural hub in West Oakland.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland considers banning ADUs in the hills to avoid fire danger
The fire department says adding more people and cars will clog streets in a crisis. Homeowners say a backyard-cottage ban would be misguided and inequitable.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Oakland leaders want to legalize more types of housing, including RVs and tiny homes
Amid soaring construction costs and high rents, Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Councilmembers Dan Kalb and Sheng Thao say the city needs to embrace alternative ways of living and building.
Posted inHousing & Homelessness
Does Oakland need a rental housing registry?
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.
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.
