Property owner gives squatters the chance to reclaim house

OAKLAND >> In a victory two months in the making, Moms 4 Housing will get a chance to return to the West Oakland home they were squatting in before being evicted last week.

The property owner, real estate investment group Wedgewood, has agreed to negotiate a deal to sell the Magnolia Street house to the Oakland Community Land Trust — a nonprofit that buys property and converts it into affordable housing. The land trust’s intention is to buy the house, fix it up and allow the Moms 4 Housing members to move back in, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who brokered the deal, said during a media conference Monday at City Hall.

Wedgewood has agreed to negotiate in good faith and not ask for more than the property’s assessed value.

“These three parties have come together to send a message that everyone cares about this crisis of homelessness,” Schaaf said.

The move marks a major win for Moms 4 Housing, which from the beginning had been pressuring Wedgewood to sell the house to the land trust.

“This is what happens when we organize, when people come together to build the beloved community,” Moms 4 Housing founder Dominique Walker wrote in a news release. “Today we honor Dr. King’s radical legacy by taking Oakland back from banks and corporations.”

Members of activist group Moms 4 Housing had been squatting in an empty house owned by Wedgewood for two months, in protest of real estate speculators they say drive up housing prices, leave homes vacant and exacerbate the city’s homelessness crisis. Alameda County deputies arrived at the house before dawn Tuesday, broke down the door and evicted the squatters, arresting two Moms 4 Housing members and two supporters in the process.

But the Moms 4 Housing movement struck a chord with many in the Bay Area who are fed up with the region’s shortage of affordable housing, as well as city leaders’ inability to shelter the thousands of people sleeping in tents, cars and RVs around the region. The night before the Moms 4 Housing members were evicted, about 200 people showed up at the house to support their cause.

In a “historic agreement,” Wedgewood also has conceded to change the way it does business in Oakland, Schaaf said. Going forward, Wedgewood and the city will negotiate a policy that will require the company to offer community groups like the Oakland Community Land Trust the option to purchase all properties the company owns in Oakland, and convert them into affordable housing. The policy would likely give community organizations a certain amount of time to work out a deal, Schaaf said. If no deal is reached within the timeframe, Wedgewood will be able to flip the property.