Flooded-out Oakland tenants protest landlord's delayed repairs
OAKLAND -- The effects of the severe winter storms are still being felt. In east Oakland, some tenants are still living in hotels after they were flooded out of their apartments on New Year's Eve.
Sunday morning, fed-up tenants protested in front of their landlord Michael Johnson's Oakland home.
"We are here because he still has a bedroom he sleeps in. He still has his own bathroom. He still has all of his stuff," said tenant Dream Jasmine Braggs.
About 25 people chanted "Housing is a human right" and "No more business for Michael Johnson."
"He came out through his window just to record and see but he didn't come out to even acknowledge that we are his tenants that are still displaced till this day," said tenant and single mom Faviola Abendano.
She and her two daughters joined the rally.
"We are no longer going to be silenced and we need answers now," Abendano said.
Johnson is the founder of UrbanCore Development, which owns the complex known as Coliseum Connections. It is located next to the Coliseum BART station. It opened in 2019 with 110 units. Half of the units are leased at market rate and the other units are affordable housing.
On Dec. 31, 2022, a severe storm flooded the garage and knocked out the electrical system at the complex. FEMA stepped in to pay for hotels after UrbanCore said it ran out of money.
"I don't have a home that I can go back to and just relax and do my homework and my grades have went down really bad," said Abendano's 11-year-old daughter Sureneity Mendez.
Mendez said their hotel room is about 300 square feet. She and her 9-year-old sister miss their 1,200-square-foot town home.
"It's hard because we can't have our own space," Mendez said.
There's no kitchen and no microwave in the room. They said every day the meals are either fast food take-out or at sit-down restaurants.
"I feel overwhelming 'cause I can't be a kid," said 9-year-old Sapphire Mendez.
The tenants said they just want to go home.
"Very overwhelming for me. It kind of almost feel like I'm in a free jail," said tenant Morgan Sheppard. "At this point, depression is starting to kick in."
"It's been very emotional, stressful, frustrating," added Alisha Walker.
Johnson declined to be interviewed but he told KPIX via e-mail the protest in front of his home was disturbing. In a recent e-mail to tenants, he wrote the repair delays were due to working with seven different subcontractors. He hoped to have tenants move back by late August.
Tenants don't buy it and they say UrbanCore keeps pushing the return date back.
"We are not the problem and we often are treated like the problem. We are the victims of this situation," Abendano said.
Some tenants have found new housing but many who have the subsidized units said they couldn't find affordable housing. They said they have no choice but to wait it out.