East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), “the East Bay’s largest provider of free legal services”, has done it again. EBCLC’s Housing Program Director, Laura Lane, and Berkeley Law student, Lindsey Quock, stood for tenants’ rights by taking on a new landlord of a rent-controlled residential hotel in Oakland’s Chinatown.
The pair sprang into action after discovering the new owner’s attempts and pushing out the current tenants. Despite Lane’s 20 years working for tenants, she claims she “never saw a landlord go this far to drive out tenants.” The owner took extreme measures to make the hotel completely uninhabitable. In a building with 40 residents, the landlord “[removed] fixtures that are necessities for living like toilets, showers and a kitchen,” and left only two bathrooms and one kitchen for all to share.
With the help of her supervising attorneys, Quock successfully defended one of the tenants from eviction. Later, the judge on the case ordered that the bathrooms be reinstalled and “prohibited any more actions aimed at driving out tenants.”
Read more about this important and inspiring work from EBCLC.
Organizations mentioned/involved: East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC)