California’s Housing Crisis Prompts Rent Strikes and Squatting

In parts of California, the lack of affordable housing has reached the point where people are resorting to rent strikes and squatting. Some face high rents in properties that are in need of repair.

Residents at one Oakland apartment complex initiated a rent strike to protest poor housing conditions and to urge their landlord to sell them the building. The move attracted extensive media coverage, and reportedly prompted their landlord to agree to let residents purchase the building through a local community land trust.

Three homeless mothers and their children started squatting in a vacant Oakland house last November to draw attention to the lack of affordable housing. Their eviction caused widespread controversy that led to an agreement by the owner to enter negotiations for the sale of the property to a community land trust.

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