Present: Owusu Amoakahene, Urban Strategies; Jessica Pitt, Urban Strategies; Fred Blackwell, Casey Foundation; Jennie Mollica, Lao Family; Lupe Giza, EBALDC; Mariano Jauco, EBALDC; Catherine Firpo, CEDA; Phil Palmer, Community Bank of the Bay; Don Davenport, SACDC; Eric Cone, SACDC; Dave Ryan, EBALDC; Zack Franklin, OCHI.
Owusu presented graphs of median home prices in LSA. He will continue to pursue data on other neighborhoods to show comparisons. Census data available late 2002 will greatly help this analysis.
The demonstration of the database included presentation of data and photos showing verified vacant lots (34) and non-verified vacant lots (32, whose APNs may be inaccurate). Verified vacant lots are known to be empty and large enough to accommodate a building. Analysis of lot sizes could indicate potential uses. There is need for a new field to indicate zoning. Examples of the data fields available on this database are available. (See documents attached to these minutes.)
Other Urban Strategies databases include one of cited/blighted properties, which notes properties cited multiple times during the past year. This data is Oakland-wide but can be sorted by City Council district. It would be useful to have data on properties in arrears 3-5 years (pre-default), to approach the owners at that time. Several properties now in default will be auctioned March 20.
A database of homes on the market in LSA since mid-2001 includes over 400 listings, obtained from homeseekers.com. This shows the first and last listed price, but not the sale price (which must come from the tax assessor, or is published in some newspapers). This list doesn't include for-sale-by-owner properties.
A database of eviction data 2000-01 has been compiled from information from Sentinel Housing. Over 1500 were reported. These can be sorted by over 60 fields, including income, race and type of unit.
Housing Committee members requested information on the fields of information in each database. It will be important that we identify uses for this data and contact Urban Strategies to provide access to it or to do further analysis.
Fred gave an update on the planning process for the citywide land trust and suggested that LSA should have a represented designated to attend the upcoming series of meetings and report back to the Housing Committee and the Collaborative. This representative will relay information to the Collaborative, and also relay the ideas of the Collaborative to the land trust planners for communication to the City. It is understood that Don will participate in the planning on the part of SACDC, and Sky will be involved on the part of OCHI. Mariano agreed to be the representative of the Housing Committee and to attend the planning meeting this Friday.
Jennie explained to the Committee that the LSA has been learning about plans for a representative PAC to include local reps in decision-making around the new Redevelopment Area. Don expressed concern that the interests of the 23rd Avenue area not be overshadowed by Fruitvale. Mariano explained the plans of EBALDC to prepare a slate of candidates for the positions to be elected, and to seek appointment for the appointed CBO rep position in District 2. Elections will be held in May. Don agreed to look into how Fruitvale groups plan to be involved on the PAC. At a future Housing Committee meeting, it would be helpful to hear from redevelopment experts, and to discuss the various redevelopment areas in Oakland and how their tax increment funds have been spent. It was suggested that Roy Schweyer might speak about West Oakland and Done Cole of the Redevelopment Agency might speak about the Coliseum area.
The next meeting will be held Wednesday, March 27 at 3:30, again at Urban Strategies Council due to inavailability of the space at Hisman Hin-Nu. Sean Heron will be there to represent EBHO, and the Committee would like to hear how EBHO works with its member organizations and what advocacy work is being done in Oakland around affordable housing. Future meetings might invite Policy Link or Lynette Lee to talk about tools for resident ownership. The April meeting could have a focus on the Redevelopment Area and its possible impact on the LSA.