#oakland-housing

#oakland-housing

I never expected to own a home. I wasn't born into generational wealth. I grew up poor. There was-and is-no big family inheritance coming my way. Not property. Not cash. Not stocks or bonds or whatever financial instrument one might trade or sell or leverage to join the landed class.

One resident of Princeton's Western Section told the room, 'Those of us who own historic homes are subsidizing the community' - and was met with applause.

Under a state law called the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, landlords can reset the starting rent price at any level once tenants move out of a unit and new residents move in. That's where things got tricky in Woo's situation. According to a lawsuit Woo filed in January, their building's property manager had Woo's partner sign the lease in March 2024. Woo, even though they were the one who'd found the apartment and would be moving in together with their then-partner, was told to sign a separate document instead.

Ellis Partners and Spirit Living Group submitted plans in December for the seven-story, 203-unit building on Claremont Avenue, next to the pink property that used to house The Graduate bar. The apartments would be market-rate, including some memory-care and assisted-living units. "There is very, very, very little senior housing in the East Bay, writ large, especially compared to what the demand is," said Patrick Flynn, senior vice president with San Francisco-based Ellis Partners.