Occupation of the Mom's House
Background
In August 2019, Wedgewood Properties, a southern California real estate redevelopment firm, purchased the vacant three-bedroom house at 2928 Magnolia Drive in Oakland, California for $501,078 at a foreclosure auction.[1][2] The company's business model is to buy, repair, and quickly flip homes, and NBC News reported that "Wedgewood rarely holds onto homes for long".[3] The San Francisco Chronicle called Wedgewood "one of Oakland's most prolific house flippers".[4]
Bloomberg calculated that to afford to rent a two-bedroom house in the same zip code in January 2020, a renter would need to be earning at least $86,920 per year. On average, Black women in the SF Bay Area earn $49,369 and Latinas earn $39,600, making home ownership and even rental housing unaffordable.[5]
Occupation and court battle
The occupation was a planned act of civil disobedience against house flipping and gentrification, not a spontaneous act of trespassing.[6] Oakland City Councilmember Carroll Fife, at the time a community organizer, was "one of the masterminds" of the project.[7] According to Fife, "I remember I said, Look, y'all, I don't have any homes. I don't have any networks of people who can rent to y'all. I don't have anything. But if you trust me at the end of this, you'll have a place to stay".[8]
On November 18, 2019, Dominique Walker, a longtime community activist, and two other formerly homeless women entered the residence, later to be called "The Moms' House" as squatters. Walker, at the time, was the mother of a one-year-old and a four-year-old.[9] The moms moved in their children, started to clean and to repair the property, brought in appliances, and began to pay the utility bills.[6][10]
On December 30, 2020, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Patrick R. McKinney heard oral arguments regarding Wedgewood's legal action to evict the residents. Walker's attorneys argued that housing is a human right, and their clients' constitutional rights would be violated by an eviction.[11]
On January 10, 2020, McKinney ordered Walker to vacate the property within five days, ruling that she had no valid rights of possession to the property and that while the social issues raised by Walker are important, they were outside the scope of the proceeding.[11]
Attorney Leah Simon-Weisberg represented Walker and said she wasn't surprised by the ruling: "We understand that the court's hands are tied because in this country, property rights are valued over human rights."[12]
Walker responded to the eviction order by saying, "We are here. And we're not leaving" and "Today is not a defeat. This is the beginning of a movement."[11]
Eviction
After negotiations with the Alameda County Sheriff's Office failed to reach a compromise and the five days had elapsed, activists and supporters, about 50 people, assembled in front of the residence on Monday, January 13, 2020. By that evening the crowd had grown to number several hundred.[6]
On January 14, 2020, just before 6am, sheriff's deputies wearing riot gear and camouflage, and armed with AR-15's arrived, along with armored vehicles, including a Bearcat.[13] Some in the crowd taunted the deputies and some threw projectiles at them, according to Sergeant Ray Kelly of the sheriff's office. Using a battering ram against the front door, which deputies said had been barricaded, they entered the residence. The deputies arrested two of the moms and put their furniture out on the street.[5] The two women, along with two men that were arrested for the same misdemeanor charges (resisting arrest and obstruction), were released that afternoon after posting $5,000 bail, raised by a GoFundMe campaign.[13]
Kelly said "our personnel showed tremendous restraint" dealing with the situation which was "not your typical eviction", and was aware that "the whole world was watching". He said those taken into custody refused to cooperate and had asked to be peacefully arrested.[13]
Walker was not arrested, nor present during the eviction as she and Carroll Fife were being interviewed for the news program Democracy Now! as the eviction was happening.[13] The interview ended abruptly after Amy Goodman's question, "Carroll, we just hear that there was a text that says the sheriff is knocking on the door and saying people have to clear out. Is that your understanding, as we're speaking?".[14]
Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf was "shocked" at the degree of force used, commenting, "These are mothers; they're not criminals. They're mothers that have engaged in what I believe is a courageous act of civil disobedience to really highlight our housing crisis".[15]
Remaining permanently in the house was never the goal of the occupation, Walker told the New York Times, "The point was to bring even more awareness to a spiraling housing crisis that is on the verge of tearing the [San Francisco] Bay Area apart."[6]
Reactions
Sam Singer, speaking on behalf of Wedgewood, defended the company's actions, saying, "As it does with all properties, Wedgewood planned to renovate and rehab it as soon as possible and put it back into the housing market, thereby improving the neighborhood, the community, and the city" adding that, "Wedgewood is sympathetic to the plight of the homeless and is a major contributor to shelter programs, inner-city youth, and the disadvantaged. The company hears what the individuals who were illegally squatting at the Magnolia Street home are saying—but it does not respect nor does it condone the theft of property."[10]
California State Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) said "It was totally legitimate for those homeless moms to take over that house".[1]
Aftermath
On January 20, 2020, a joint press release from the Oakland mayor's office, Wedgewood, and Moms 4 Housing was issued, announcing a "good faith" agreement that the Oakland Community Land Trust would be purchasing the Moms' House for its appraised value. In addition, Wedgewood agreed to give community land trusts the right of first refusal on all the homes it currently owns in Oakland, and on any homes the company might later purchase.[5] According to Vogue magazine, the sale of the house was part of a deal worked out by Schaaf and California Governor Gavin Newsom.[10]
In May 2020, the trust completed the purchase of the embattled Magnolia Street house for $587,500 with donations raised from the group's supporters.[16]
NBC Bay Area produced a four-part documentary about Moms 4 Housing's activism.[17]
Moms 4 Housing inspired similar vacant home occupations in San Francisco,[18] Los Angeles, Minneapolis,[19] and Philadelphia.[20]
Dominique Walker, co-founder of the moms' movement, was elected to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board in November 2020.[17]