OAKLAND — The high-profile fight over a vacant West Oakland house is heading to court, after the homeless women who took over the property without permission filed legal paperwork asserting their right to live there.

The women, part of a new advocacy group called Moms 4 Housing, will appear before a judge Dec. 30 to argue why they should be allowed to stay in the house on Magnolia Street. In the meantime, they will be protected from eviction — at least for a little while longer.

“I claim right to possession of this home because housing is a human right,” 34-year-old Dominique Walker wrote in the filing, which she submitted Monday to the Alameda County Superior Court. “This home has been vacant for over two years during the worst housing crisis in California history.”

Walker, her two children — ages 1 and 4 — and other homeless mothers and their children moved into the empty home Nov. 18 without the owner’s consent. The women were trying to draw awareness to Oakland’s growing homelessness crisis, arguing that unoccupied, investor-owned homes in the city should be returned to the people who need them.

About three weeks later, the women received an eviction notice from the property owner, Redondo Beach-based real estate investment company Wedgewood. The notice demanded the women vacate the property by Dec. 17.

The day before that deadline, the women filed a “claim of right to possession and notice of hearing” in court, attempting to assert their right to the property. All tenants facing eviction, even if they were never there legally to begin with, have the right to file such a challenge in court. Until the judge makes a decision, the women will be able to stay in the home.

Wedgewood had expected the Moms 4 Housing members to challenge the eviction, said Sam Singer of Singer Associates Public Relations, which represents the property company. But all the filing will do is delay the inevitable eviction, he said. Even so, Wedgewood will follow the court process to its conclusion, Singer said. But the company hopes that won’t be necessary.

“We hold out holiday hopes that the women will do the right thing and relinquish the property voluntarily,” Singer said.