Essence: Rent Is Too High: Oakland Is Struggling With A Housing Crisis. This Mom Led A Movement To Fix It
Carroll Fife had no plans of running for office. Four years ago, she was strategizing with a handful of Black mothers in Oakland who found themselves confronted by armed deputies in riot gear. Fife had organized a small group—they called themselves Moms 4 Housing—and they had occupied a vacant house owned by corporate investor Wedgewood Properties to protest flipping practices and unaffordable housing. A judge ordered their eviction on January 10, 2020 and officers from the Alameda County sheriff’s office arrived the following week, with AR-15s in tow and handguns drawn to carry out the eviction.
“It was stressful,” Fife recalls to ESSENCE. “Every single day it was a challenge, because we never knew when the sheriffs would be coming. The night before the eviction occurred, we were debating who would address the media and who would stay in the house.”
