Oakland moms arrested after squatting to protest California's affordable housing crisis

Marco della Cava | USA TODAY

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SAN FRANCISCO — As winter approached last fall, a group of Oakland mothers grew desperate. Rent was too high, commutes to their jobs were long and they needed a place where their children could stay warm.

They found refuge in a vacant 3-bedroom, one-bathroom, 1,400-square-foot home that had been bought at auction earlier in the year by an out-of-town real estate firm. The women, known by the group they since founded, Moms 4 Housing, claimed they were exercising their human right to shelter. The real estate company said they were illegal squatters and asked city officials to remove them.

A months-long standoff that has come to encapsulate the region's growing affordable crisis came to a head Tuesday when law enforcement used a battering ram to enter the property and force the protesters out.

After the pre-dawn showdown was over, four people were sent to jail for resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer. Hundreds of supporters had gathered outside the home during the police action.

Dominique Walker, 34, who helped found Moms 4 Housing after moving into the Oakland home with other mothers and their children in November, was not arrested because she was taping an early morning interview with Democracy Now. She abruptly left the set after hearing that deputies were at the house.

"I'm angry because my sisters and our supporters are in handcuffs right now, all because we have the right to housing," Walker told reporters shortly after the incident. "This moment is just beginning. We see what we're up against, but we also see what they're afraid of, because we mobilized 300 people in 15 minutes."

Those arrested included Moms 4 Housing co-founders Misty Cross, 38, and Tolani King, 46, as well as a man who was at the house at the time, Jesse Turner, 26. Another man, Walter Baker, 48, confronted law enforcement and also was arrested outside the house, according to Alameda County Sheriff's Department spokesman Ray Kelly.

The owner of the Oakland home is Wedgewood Incorporated of Redondo Beach, a real estate agency located just outside of Los Angeles. Its website describes the firm as a "leading acquirer of distressed residential real estate."

According to Redfin, the Magnolia street home has an estimated value of $573,000. Wedgewood bought the property in a foreclosure sale last summer for $501,000.

Wedgewood spokesperson Sam Singer said the company "is pleased the illegal occupation of its Oakland home has ended peacefully. That is what the company has sought since the start. The solution to Oakland’s housing crisis is not the redistribution of citizens’ homes through illegal break-ins and seizures by squatters."

Singer said Wedgewood plans to renovate the home with the help of a local non-profit, Shelter 37, which provides employment opportunities to at-risk youth. Profits from the home's sale to a first-time homeowner will be split with the non-profit, the company said.

There are more than 6,000 vacant houses in the Oakland area, according to the Census Bureau. The homeless population in Alameda County, just across the bay from San Francisco, has doubled to 8,000 since 2013.

California is the midst of a dire housing crisis that is forcing even those who have jobs to leave the state to make ends meet. California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that he was undertaking a statewide tour to promote a series of state-led housing initiatives. Roughly a quarter of the nation's homeless population — some 140,000 people — now call California home.

Walker and her fellow mothers occupied the home after being unable to find affordable housing while facing long commutes to their jobs ahead of the winter season. Their actions caught the attention of local politicians, activists and residents, many of them frustrated by the lack of progress to help area homeless residents.

Not long after the mothers took over the house, they were served with an eviction notice for illegally occupying the residence. Moms 4 Housing appealed the eviction and a county judge agreed to hear the case at the end of December.

"This is truly a battle of a Goliath corporation that has been profiting off the foreclosure crisis, and that has meant it is driving displacement, homelessness and gentrification in places like West Oakland," Oakland Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas said at a press conference on Dec. 30. "That is in the face of what these moms are doing."

Then last week Alameda County Judge Patrick McKinney ruled that Walker and her fellow mothers had “no valid claim” on the property, clearing the way for the sheriff's action.

At around 5:15 a.m. local time, a contingent of officers that included a small tactical unit and a ballistic vehicle arrived at the home, where they found the front door was heavily barricaded, according to spokesperson Kelly.

A battering ram was employed to break down the door. Inside were the three people who were arrested. Children had been sent away earlier in the day after word of the imminent eviction spread.

While Twitter comments suggested that law enforcement displayed weapons in the encounter, Kelly says he "didn't see anyone pull a gun out," adding that the individuals inside the home "indicated to us that they would not comply but also not resist."

After the arrests, the door at 2938 Magnolia was boarded back up, returning it to the same state in which it was found by the Oakland mothers months before.

Those working with Moms 4 Housing say the fight to provide housing for the less fortunate will go on.

"This is never just about one house, it's about bring to life atrocities going on in places like Oakland where thousands are on streets while homes lie empty," says Merika Reagan, a member of the Alliance for Californians for Community Empowerment, a non-profit that has been working to support Moms 4 Housing in its legal fight.

Reagan says the organization plans to urge the city of Oakland to use eminent domain to take over vacant properties and provide them to the homeless.

"It's about asserting our human right to shelter and prioritizing that over profit," she says.

Follow USA TODAY national correspondent Marco della Cava: @marcodellacava