Oakland is in a perpetual state of woke. So what will happen with the city’s eviction moratorium?

The short answer is we don't know. But for some insight, we reached out to Chris Moore, a housing provider and volunteer board member of the East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA).

Three years after COVID reared its ugly head, we have a sense of finality to eviction moratoriums in the Bay Area. After many delays, spirited debate, and a significant amount of unpaid rent debt, Alameda County's draconian eviction ban will sunset at the end of April.

Berkeley, meanwhile, has done its own soul-searching, with its City Council voting to extend the city's eviction moratorium to August 31, with owner move-in evictions allowed to proceed beginning at the end of April.

San Francisco is somewhat of an odd duckling because, although Bornstein Law has been aggressive in demanding rent owed, a tenant can still assert a COVID-related hardship to stall a case.  We also have the pesky presence of Supervisor Dean Preston who is calling for an extension of eviction bans even after the Mayor's office declares that the state of emergency has ended.

Although we have some sense of clarity in these other locales, we have none in Oakland. For guidance, we turned to Chris Moore, who has taken a circuitous route to become a housing provider turned advocate for the rights of owners and renters alike.

Enjoying decades of success in the telecommunications industry, Chris decided to invest in and manage real estate and now manages rental property in Oakland, subsequently discovering that managing rental property can be very rewarding by working closely with the property residents, but comes with a lot of red tape and ever-increasing operational costs via onerous rental regulations imposed by Oakland City Council. These "one-size-fits-all" regulations typically have the unintended consequence of increasing rental prices throughout Oakland.

Drawing on his managerial experience, Chris has helped EBRHA analyze County and City rental and demographic data, provides outreach efforts to like-minded housing providers, and more recently is collaborating with housing provider organizations and not-for-profits all over the region to end Oakland's draconian eviction moratorium for the benefit of housing providers and to help bring to an end the continuing rent debt being accrued by renters in the community.

 

Oakland lawmakers are beholden to the interests of tenant advocates.

 

If policymakers in Oakland have any prospect of being reelected or climbing up the political ladder, they need to win the favor of tenants and groups like the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action (ACCE).

The non-elected officials of ACCE and other tenant activists seemingly hold the puppet strings. Take a look at their propaganda.

 

Rest assured, landlords only want to provide housing and be paid in return. But there is toxic rhetoric about structural racism and oppression. We don't find this sort of messaging to be productive.

Moderate council members will admit behind closed doors that tenants have an obligation to pay rent and landlords need cash flow in order to sustain their livelihood and continue to provide housing. In private conversations, sober-minded policymakers are aware that stringent tenant protections are detrimental to renters and especially to new faces who want to enter the rental market.

Yet, this sentiment cannot be voiced publicly because of the backlash that would follow from militant tenants' advocates.

 

Fortunately, there are ambassadors who provide a counternarrative.

Chris points out a success story in Alameda County, where droves of rental housing providers showed up on February 28 to oppose the county's outlived ban on evictions.

The fraternity of Oakland landlords is urged to attend a Tuesday, March 21 rally on the eve of a City Council meeting. We harbor no illusion that we will change the stance of some hardcore Councilmembers but there are others who are open to reason. Our hard-won experience in Oakland politics has taught us that the loudest and most persistent voices are those that prevail.

 

 

Wherever the political winds blow, Bornstein Law is dedicated to protecting the rights of rental property owners and optimizing their real estate investments.