On June 7th, Oakland City Council heard the second reading of Councilmember Carroll Fife’s allowable rent increase ordinance and it passes.

Oakland voters will decide in November whether to let the city develop 13,000 affordable rental housing units, the ballot measure introduced by Councilmember Carroll Fife.

While an environmental impact report (EIR) on the Oakland A’s proposed ballpark complex has Oakland City Council’s approval, three lawsuits are underway signifying concern many industry workers have over losing the Port’s Howard Terminal to a major development.

The ballpark project received criticism from many speakers at a contentious public hearing this week, as the deadline for a crucial approval step approaches.

Councilmember Carroll Fife’s legislation passes, landlords of rent-controlled buildings in Oakland will no longer be able to raise tenants’ rents by more than 3% each year. The policy, passed by the Oakland City Council on Tuesday, is the first significant change to the city’s rent control system in 20 years.

Oakland officials on Tuesday evening capped rent increases at 3% for rent-controlled apartments, effectively preventing landlords from raising rents by 6.7% starting in July, which had been on track to be one of the highest one-year rent increases in the city’s history.

Councilmember Carroll Fife proposes a measure to make the annual allowable rent increase in Oakland to be 60% of the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or 3%, whichever is lower, recognizing wages are stagnating and tenants are struggling.

Councilmember Carroll Fife talks with NBC Scott Budman about wanting to create security for the over 60% of Oaklanders who rent.

Oakland’s City Administration has shared changing timelines for when the private companies CASS and CWS will begin their projects on the publicly owned lands. Permits for the CWS project may be approved as early as first of the year. Previously, the City said it may be two to four years before the project begins. New study seeks to resolve these discrepancies and provide a clear project timeline.

As encampments spread over Oakland’s streets, sidewalks, open spaces and public parks, the city has stood up multiple tiny home villages for unhoused people, moving them out of encampments and into small cabins designed to serve as temporary shelters while the occupants wait for affordable housing.