In Oakland, Community-Owned Real Estate is Bucking Gentrification Trend By Sarah Trent, March 12, 2018
For two decades now, the building at the corner of 23rd and International avenues in east Oakland has been a community hub for people and organizations with few other places to go.
In a neighborhood that is low-income and majority people of color—flanked to the east by the largely Latino/Hispanic Fruitvale district and to the west by a predominantly Asian population—the building and its adjacent garden have offered sanctuary for long-time residents as well as four people of color-led social justice organizations serving their low-income neighbors.
When the tenants on 23rd Avenue received notice last January that their landlord was planning to sell their building, they thought that they, too, would soon join the ranks of Oakland’s displaced. Instead, a year later, they now own the keys to their building—thanks to an innovative collaboration involving the Oakland Community Land Trust, their former landlord, and hundreds of community members. Read more here.
