Oak Park gentrification: $5 million Aggie Square fund to protect tenants from displacement

By Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks | November 14, 2021 | The Sacramento Bee

…community advocates have repeatedly warned that those benefits may not be experienced by low- and middle-income residents and residents of color. Those concerns led to the creation of a sweeping Community Benefits Partnership Agreement* that would invest several hundred million dollars in Oak Park and Tahoe Park through new affordable housing, local hiring requirements, job training and eviction protections. As part of a deal reached with a group of local organizers called Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, the city is required to allocate $5 million from its housing trust fund and general fund to efforts that would alleviate resident displacement and stabilize the housing market.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/equity-lab/article256557521.html#storylink=cpy


*Join Sacramento Investment Without Displacement for a Community Benefits Agreement Presentation on Dec 16. Attend to learn more about Community Benefits Agreements (CBA) and how they have significantly impacted other cities. We will also have a discussion on the CBA Ordinance for the City of Sacramento and what should be included as the Ordinance is being developed.


Photo by MART PRODUCTION from Pexels

Climate change and displacement research webinar 5/25 @ 11am

Please join the Center for Community InnovationUrban Displacement Project team from 11am-noon PDT on Tuesday, May 25 to hear the latest on our statewide climate change mitigation investments and displacement research.
 
This research was funded by the California Strategic Growth Council and was conducted in partnership with Asian Pacific Environmental Network, California Housing Partnership Corporation, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Public Advocates, and Public Counsel.
 
In this webinar, our team will share Bay Area-specific quantitative research findings and will engage participants in a discussion about how our research findings might inform coordinated anti-displacement and sustainability policies, programs, and investments. 
 
Please register in advance for this webinar using this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kdOCorT4iGtAMsCbQrFjcyvnb-w3p9awn 
 
Questions? Contact: 
Renee Roy Elias, Ph.D. krroy[at]berkeley[dot]edu
Executive Director, Center for Community Innovation
University of California, Berkeley

UC Berkeley Urban Displacement Project Presentation to ECOS – Monday, March 8

On Monday, March 8 at 6:00 pm the ECOS Land Use Committee will host two guest speakers from the Urban Displacement Project UC Berkeley at its meeting. The Urban Displacement Project aims to understand the nature of gentrification and displacement in American cities. It focuses on creating tools to help communities identify the pressures surrounding them and take more effective action. Tim and Julia will discuss the ongoing research their team is doing in several major US cities, and how it can help guide public policy in Sacramento. We hope you will join us! 


Tim Thomas PhD, Research Director, Urban Displacement Project

Tim Thomas is a postdoctoral scholar and research director at the Urban Displacement Project specializing in urban sociology, demography, and data science. His research focuses on how neighborhood change, housing, and displacement affects household socioeconomic stratification by race and gender in the United States. Tim is also the Principal Investigator for the Evictions Study, a multi-metropolitan analysis on the neighborhood drivers of eviction using census data and text mining court records. . . In 2019, his team’s work on evictions provided empirical evidence that helped pass several tenant protection laws in Washington State.

He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington and was a Moore/Sloan Data Science Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Washington’s eScience Institute.


Julia Greenberg, Research Manager, Urban Displacement Project

Julia is a research manager at the Urban Displacement Project. She is interested in using geospatial and data analysis to understand the impacts of land use, housing policy, and climate change on housing vulnerability and displacement. Julia is committed to collaborating with community-based organizations, governments, and other stakeholders to promote strategies that increase equitable access to affordable housing.

Julia graduated from George Washington University with her Master’s in Public Policy and has a bachelor’s degree in Urban and Regional Studies from Cornell University.


To join the meeting

Link to join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/543524123

To phone in: 1 669 900 6833 – Meeting ID: 543 524 123

Click here to learn more about the Land Use Committee.


Pushed Out: Displacement Today and Lasting Impacts

Letter to UC Regents re Aggie Square

October 10, 2020

Sacramento Investment Without Displacement, of which ECOS is a member, sent a letter to UC Regents regarding our concerns about Aggie Square.

Below is an excerpt from the letter.

We are writing this letter to appeal to you and the Board of Regents to request that UC Davis and its developer Wexford Science and Technology commit to signing a Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) with our broad coalition. We believe that this project could bring great possibility and promise for the future of Oak Park and other nearby neighborhoods, the City of Sacramento and UC Davis Medical Center, if the benefits are shared widely and equity and inclusion are embraced as core values.

Before this project’s Environmental Impact Report is approved, it is a moral imperative that the UC system consider our community coalition and the impacted community we represent. The leaders of our coalition are requesting a meaningful conversation with UC Davis and its developer to address inequities and unintended consequences of this project.

The Oak park community is mostly made up of people of color, low-income people and immigrants who have carried a heavy burden for generations in the history of the development of this region. Unfortunately, deep poverty, violence, inadequate affordable and safe housing, employment discrimination and the many subtle actions of hate have deeply wounded countless promising young and old souls alike. Residents have a list of concerns about how the build-out and operation of Aggie Square will impact their neighborhoods.

Click here to read the letter in full.