Gregory Alan Jackson Jr.
Host: The Sustainable Economies Law Center
Sponsor: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Micaela is working to prevent the escalating unlawful displacement of Oakland’s low-income tenants of color by providing direct legal services to tenants and bringing affirmative lawsuits against non-law-abiding landlords.
Rapidly rising rental rates are causing widespread displacement of low and middle-income tenants of color throughout the Bay Area. This trend is particularly acute in Oakland, where 60% of the city’s over 400,000 residents are tenants and rents rank among the highest in the nation. Poverty, cultural and linguistic barriers, and the fear of immigration consequences often make tenants unlikely to assert their rights and particularly vulnerable to displacement. Oakland’s Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance prohibits evictions of law-abiding tenants, but dishonest landlords are turning to unlawful measures to remove low-income tenants in favor of affluent professionals. Landlords falsely use the owner move-in and owner-occupancy exceptions to evict tenants, and increase rent far beyond what is legal, knowing that low-income tenants are unlikely to enforce local rent control laws. Other landlords have begun constructively evicting tenants by harassing them, illegally locking tenants out without warning, or letting housing conditions deteriorate until tenants are forced to leave.
During the Fellowship period, Micaela has:
Host: The Sustainable Economies Law Center
Sponsor: Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Host: Neighborhood Legal Services Program
Sponsor: Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Host: Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.
Sponsor: Cox Enterprises, Eversheds Sutherland
Host: Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
Sponsor: Morgan Stanley, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP