Housing
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.
A proposal to speed the conversion of apartments to market-rate condos hit resistance at Oakland City Council committee meetings Tuesday, with housing advocates calling for a comprehensive reform of the city’s affordable housing rules.
Oakland is finally updating residential and commercial corridor zoning regulations that haven’t been touched in more than 40 years. A weekend gathering in North Oakland showed off early proposals that could change building heights, restrictions on commerce, and other kinds of zoning rules.