Oakland’s District 3 is mostly West Oakland. That’s a historically Black neighborhood, an epicenter of the 2008 foreclosure crisis, now rapidly gentrifying. Last year, it was also the site of an action that drew national attention: “Moms 4 Housing.”
A group of unhoused Black mothers took over an empty home owned by a private equity firm, occupied it for over two months, and eventually – after the sheriff mounted a militarized eviction – forced the owner to sell the property to a land trust to become permanent affordable housing.
Now one of its organizers, Carroll Fife, is trying to unseat the incumbent who represents the neighborhood, Lynette McElhaney, in a race exposing deep cleavages over who housing policy should work for.
Music credits:
“T Shirt Weather” by Poddington Bear, used under CC BY-NC 3.0 US
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PHOTO: Tyler Casey