Housing & Homelessness (News)
Blacks' suit accuses Antioch of discrimination
Dateline:
07/17/2008(07-16) 17:48 PDT ANTIOCH -- A group of African American, low-income tenants accused the city of Antioch in a lawsuit Wednesday of trying to drive them out of federally subsidized housing by creating a police squad to target blacks for arrests, harassment and pressure on their landlords to evict them.
As more black families have been drawn to affordable housing in the Contra Costa County community, "the city has reacted with alarm and hostility to the newcomers, choosing to scapegoat them as the cause of economic downturn," lawyers for five renters declared in papers filed in federal court in San Francisco.
Press Release: Home Builders Association of Northern California Takes a Leading Role in Supporting Bold, Residential Green Buil
Dateline:
07/17/2008OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Home Builders Association of Northern California today joined Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and a coalition of environmentalists, home builders and other community leaders in introducing the city’s first residential Green Building legislation.
“The Home Builders Association of Northern California is pleased to stand with Council President De La Fuente in announcing this important ordinance,” said Joseph Perkins, president and CEO of the HBANC. “Building green is good for our environment, good for home builders, good for home buyers and good for our economy.”
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Oakland Moves Toward Green Building Ordinance
Dateline:
07/17/2008The ordinance would utilize a rating system to ensure new multilple unit developments met energy efficiency, water and resource conservation and indoor air quality standards.
"I think we can balance the needs of the housing industry and the environment and in fact find some common ground," De La Fuente said. "We can continue to build much needed housing in Oakland while also addressing health and climate change."
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Oakland Council OKs Four Finalists for Army Base Development
Dateline:
07/17/2008The Oakland City Council voted late Tuesday night to approve four finalist developers to bid on its 108-acre Oakland Army Base Gateway Development project. The four finalists—pared down from an original list of eight developers who bid on the job—will now be invited to submit requests for proposals within the next four to six months.
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Survey Says That Some Landlords Discriminate
Dateline:
07/16/2008The Eden Council for Hope and Opportunity (ECHO) recently revealed the results of their annual fair housing audit, and over one-quarter of properties tested in San Leandro showed a racial bias.
ECHO tests landlords and real estate agents around the Bay Area to determine if they treat renters differently because of gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, national origin, and several other factors.
“The ECHO program is nonprofit and I think our practices are fairly standard to other housing organizations around the county,” said Angie Watson-Hajjem, the group’s fair housing specialist.
Antioch, police named in discrimination suit
Dateline:
07/16/2008The Antioch Police Department has been named in a federal class-action lawsuit contending the department's Community Action Team unfairly targets African-American families enrolled in the subsidized-housing program known as Section 8.
Filed in U.S. federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday by the ACLU of Northern California and three other nonprofit civil rights groups in the Bay Area, the suit contends the city and its police department "intentionally discriminate against African-American Section 8 households on the basis of their race and/or course of income, and has pursued policies and practices that have an unjustified adverse impact upon them."
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San Leandro may redefine community input on redevelopment projects
Dateline:
07/14/2008SAN LEANDRO — A committed group of residents and property and business owners have helped set the policies and priorities for a number of the city's redevelopment projects over the years — by serving as members of advisory committees.
But lately, now that many projects have been completed, some are beginning to wonder: What role do the redevelopment advisory committees play for both the Joint and West San Leandro-MacArthur Boulevard project areas?
City officials hope to answer that question by figuring out the best way to maintain community input on redevelopment projects without wasting committee members' time or putting unnecessary burdens on city staff.
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No sign of slump in S.F. rental market
Dateline:
07/13/2008
San Franciscans looking for double-digit price gains in real estate don't have to search far.
The city's rental market has shown remarkable resilience even as home sales dropped to their lowest level in decades and median home prices have begun to decline after years of seemingly unstoppable growth. "The rental market and the housing market don't always move in lockstep," said Jeffrey Mishkin, first vice president of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services. "Housing prices aren't driven by the same factors as rental prices."
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