In California, homeless women with children voluntarily settled in a vacant house with three bedrooms. The owner considers them squatters. Officials supported the move into the house.
4 homeless moms and their families live captured in November 2019 the house, protesting against the unreasonably high real estate prices in San Francisco.
In support of the Auckland women was made by some California legislators. On Tuesday, January 7, the support group of homeless mothers — Moms 4 Housing — with cries of «Affordable housing now!» interrupted a city hall press conference on the bill to accelerate housing construction.
Fight fight fight #HousingIsAHumanRight! @moms4housing and supporters turn out to disrupt Mayor Schaff and Wiener»s press conference for Speculation Bill #SB50. “Homes for us not profit.” pic.twitter.com/Z4tFfT7hhn
— Housing Rights Committee (@housingrightsSF) January 7, 2020
«I want to thank Moms 4 Housing because they are taking this house, demonstrated that there should be empty houses in California at a time when we are experiencing a housing crisis, — said the Senator-Democrat Nancy Skinner of Berkeley. — I believe that these homeless mothers were legally settled in this house.»
Women took control of the house after they said that they could not find permanent housing in the Bay area, where the availability of high-paying jobs has exacerbated income inequality and has caused a housing shortage. They also say that the protest against speculators, developers and big banks that buy up houses and leave them empty.
“…it was totally legitimate for those homeless moms to take over that house.” — Democratic Senator Nancy Skinner of Berkeleyhttps://t.co/UdAPfn7XcT
— Moms 4 Housing (@moms4housing) January 8, 2020
Agents estate in California, contribute to the housing crisis, leading to the displacement and eviction of local residents. They urge lawmakers to act quickly in accordance with speculation Wiener»s Bonus (SB50), seeking to profit from market incentives for developers. At the same time, this leads to an increase in rents for apartments and a rise in housing prices in the Bay area.
1/ Today we’re starting the final push to pass #SB50 — legalizing apartments & affordable housing near jobs & transit — in the Senate by end of January.
We’re announcing new amendments & endorsements from community orgs, elected officials & labor unions. https://t.co/gDb36PFtFg
— Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) January 7, 2020
Moms 4 Housing awaiting final court decision on whether they stay. A Supreme court judge, Alameda County Patrick McKinney at the preliminary hearing ruled in favor of the property owner Wedgewood Inc., investment company in Redondo beach, which bought the house at auction auction foreclosure last year.
Title: Stop the Eviction of Moms 4 Housing! — Sign the Petition! https://t.co/nBqWf4N9TU via @Change
— Lisa Miller (@LisaMillersTale) January 8, 2020
34-year-old Dominic Walker, the mother of daughters age 1 to 5 years, said she moved to his hometown of Oakland from Mississippi last year, but was unable to find his family a place to live. Housing is pretty expensive in the local real estate market. She said that many people who lived in her neighborhood were forced to move due to rapidly increasing prices.
«Housing is a human right. I pay all the bills in our California home. I pay for water, PG & E, Internet. We live there, ‘said Walker. — We want to buy this house, and believe that it should belong to the community. Because of the crisis, the right to housing was actually stolen from us.»
According to Sam singer, a representative of Wedgewood, the company bought the house for 501 thousand dollars and took possession of them a few days after the arrival of the women. House built in 1908 has one bathroom and the living area is about 139 square meters.
«This house belongs to Wedgewood Inc.! These women — squatters. They broke into our house and illegally occupy it. It is not correct. It’s just theft, — said the singer on Tuesday. — This is indeed the case when a group of people taking the law into their own hands.»
Walker’s lawyers last week argued in court that housing is a right and the court should allow these women to own a house, especially because it was empty, but an alternative to this solution — expulsion of them on the street.
Parliament member Ash Kalra, a Democrat from San Jose, said Tuesday that elected officials should ensure that «opportunistic landowners and corporate landowners» not «was left empty our house.»
Many residents of Oakland say that the high housing prices displace them to the outskirts of the Bay area.
Last month Federal officials said that the growing number of homeless people in the country was entirely due to the increase by 16% the real estate prices in California, where the average sale price of the building — 500 thousand dollars. This is the most expensive house in the Bay area of San Francisco.
The situation is so dire that the Governor of the Democratic party Gavin Newsom approved an upper limit rents on some properties.
Why is a dilapidated, uninhabitable home in West Oakland being offered for sale for the price of $988,000?
Thank real estate speculators: https://t.co/rmoMU2gV6z#HousingNOW #EvictTheSpeculators
— Moms 4 Housing (@moms4housing) January 8, 2020
Leah Simon-Weisberg, counsel for the California Alliance for the empowerment of communities, protecting mothers in court, said the empty houses are in the devastated neighborhoods, where mostly minority. It also States that companies such as Wedgewood, «acquire the property, was expelled from people and resell it.»
In response, the singer said that he sees problems that Wedgewood buys distressed real estate, hiring local workers to repair and then sells the restored houses. He said that the company wants to start a home renovation to «another family could join the ranks of homeowners Auckland».
He said Wedgewood will continue eviction proceedings against the homeless mothers, if the judge decides in favor of the company.
