Housing
Alameda County’s looming budget crisis led the county to cut off about 2,400 people from the county’s General Assistance fund, or GA, a safety net cash program provided to indigent adults without dependent children who have little or no savings and no source of income. Teague Briscoe, a staff attorney at the Homeless Action Center, has engineered a pilot program called GA Mass Defense to help people get their funds restored.
First time homebuyer Itoco Garcia says the federal tax credit made it possible for him to buy his home in North Oakland’s Golden Gate neighborhood. But will the new California homebuyer tax credit provide the same opportunities?
Jurena Storm is back in school at age 35 and said the recent legislation supporting student loan reform is “a relief.” A student at College of Alameda, Storm told her story Tuesday at an Organizing For America press conference held at Laney College to highlight the local impact of the student loan reforms signed into law by President Obama last month.
When is a homeless person a vagrant nuisance? And when is a homeless person just a fellow human being victimized by circumstance and bad luck? Sometimes with the indigent, there’s more than meets the eye.
After months of failed negotiations, Fruitvale resident D’Weena Coleman feared she’d be evicted from the house her grandparents built back in 1961. But with help from her neighbors — and some well placed media attention — US Bank suddenly modified her loan, allowing her to stay. Oakland North was there to see it happen.
On April 1, Alameda County will cut off funding to thousands of recipients of General Assistance, a safety net program provided to indigent adults without dependent children who have little or no savings and no source of income. Two Oakland men who depend on General Assistance share their stories with Oakland North, as well as their concerns about life after April 1.
In this project Oakland North attempted to follows the federal stimulus dollars around Oakland. For the complete story, click here.
At last Saturday’s Greening Oakland Homes fair at the Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club, contractors were on hand to explain the options for going green.
The federal government launched Making Home Affordable, a loan modification program, last year to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. But as one Glenview woman is finding out, getting lenders to participate isn’t easy.