Oakland Tenants Say Eviction Notices on Rise After Ghost Ship, Call on City Hall For Moratorium
Angel is a well-known Oakland artists and musician, but he doesn't want to give his last name for this story because, during the past two decades, he's operated a live-work artist collective out of a warehouse in the city. And his longstanding home is now in the crosshairs after the Ghost Ship tragedy.
He says he's placed an emphasis on safety inside his warehouse. There are sprinklers in every room, plus smoke alarms and exit signs. "It's safer than any house that I've lived in in my entire life," he told the Express.
But that hasn't stopped the property-management group from scheduling a visit this week. Angel and his fellow tenants now fear they'll become the next artists to be evicted on the heels of the 31st Avenue warehouse fire.
"They're parlaying a terrible tragedy into a double tragedy, because artists and musicians who have responsible live-work spaces are getting evicted," Angel said of the spree of evictions in the past two weeks. "Whole groups of people are losing their homes."
Read more: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/tk-web/Content?oid=5059416
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