By Kelsey E. Thomas.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf wants to add 17,000 units of affordable and market-rate housing in the Bay Area city over the next eight years, as well as protect another existing 17,000 affordable homes.
The goal is the anchor of an expansive blueprint to help ease Oakland’s affordable housing shortage released by Schaaf and other city officials Thursday. The mayor told the East Bay Express that protecting Oakland residents from displacement is her administration’s highest priority.
“This is an action plan based on the housing equity road map,” said Schaaf, “fed through the lens of feasibility.”
The Oakland Housing Action Plan includes modifications to existing renter protection programs, as well as potential strategies to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for the effort — including infrastructure and housing bonds and cap-and-trade funds. If everything on the 52-page report was enacted, it could require the city council to pass dozens of laws to ease the way for development and increase tenants’ rights.
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