Tenants say a 3-year ban on evictions kept them housed. Landlords say they’re drowning in debt, CONTINUED P6

Shidonna Raven
Sep 1
2 min read

June 26, 2023

Photo / Image Source: Unsplash,

“We’ve had a lot of troubles in this house since we’ve moved in,” she said, adding that they are looking for a new place to live.

Haile says the tenants never asked for repairs.

John Williams, 62, hopes that three years of worry and stress are coming to an end.

Williams, who is part of a lawsuit against Oakland and Alameda County over the bans, said his tenant stopped paying the $1,500 monthly rent when the pandemic started. She offered no explanation while operating a storage business out of the apartment and would not cooperate so he could get money from the city’s rent-relief program, he said.

As a Black man, Williams had experienced rental discrimination and he thought his Victorian duplex in West Oakland would be a way for him to retire and house others. He started renting to the mom with two kids in 2013.

In late 2020, he tried to sell the house, but she refused to move, and the sale fell through. In late 2021, Williams was so stressed he was hospitalized, placed on disability and could not work. He was forced to move into the unit above his tenant. It no longer felt like his house.

The tenant did not return messages from the AP left at a phone number for a business she operates.

Williams supports the purposes of the eviction ban, but wishes the city had considered landlords like him. He was about to lose his home on May 1, but was saved by a state mortgage-relief program that started accepting applications this year from landlords who reside in their duplexes and triplexes.

He plans to leave the city.

“I don’t want to be a home provider in Oakland,” he said. “This has been a really hard time.”

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