Tenants Buy Berkeley Apartment Complex

BERKELEY, CA — Sixteen tenants at 2627 California Street, Berkeley now cooperatively own their 12-unit apartment complex after a year-long struggle to keep their homes.

The architecture of the building is U-shaped, with inward-facing apartments that frame a common garden. The multi-generational multi-family occupants grew as a community over the years, with 15 tenants who are Black. Most of the residents have been there for six to twelve years. The sale a significant victory for affordable housing in Berkeley.

The event was marked with a public celebration Monday, attended by local and county leaders.
This story really begins over 100 years ago in Oklahoma, with the birth of the original owner, Black businessman Thomas Hamilton.

"My dad became a millionaire by 1961," said Hamilton's son Laron, speaking proudly about his father at Monday's event. "He was born up in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1908 and was there when they burned it down."

The 1921 Tulsa race massacre--also known as the Black Wall Street massacre-- was a two-day attack by white mobs, including city officials, that burned down over 35 blocks of a prosperous Black community. It was one of the worst racial violence incidents in U.S. history.

"My father needed more investments. So, we came to Berkeley," he said.

His father spotted an old Victorian house on the site, and Laron helped him tear it down. The 12-unit building was built for $120,000, he said, which is the equivalent today of nearly $1.5 million.

"I know he would be very happy and very proud that people would still have a place to live in this area," said Laron, who spent the rest of his childhood living there, with his mother and sister Tamra.

Tamra inherited the property upon their father's death. She continued living there, managing the property, until passing away in 2020. She left no will. The probate court located her brother Laron who decided to sell the property. That's when neighbors started to worry. The put their heads together to figure out what to do.

"We are so close with everybody here," said one of the newer tenants, Inti Fernandez. "I remember just being able to walk up to another door and have a conversation and say, 'Hey, this is our shelter, what are we going to do about it?'"

Fernandez reached out to the Bay Area Community Land Trust and sought the guidance of the East Bay Community Law Center. Both organizations advocate for affordable housing and helped the residents identify potential resources through the city.

The residents attended City Council meetings, urging the council to allocate resources to the Small Sites Program, an initiative aimed at preserving smaller sites as affordable housing. Their efforts paid off in June 2024 when the Council approved $10 million for the program over a two-year period.

"The money was there," said former Berkeley City Councilmember Sophie Hahn on Monday. "We had to fight colleagues on the city council who don't understand or believe in this model of housing and who think that human beings are widgets and that it doesn't matter. We did secure enough money for a couple more projects. And then after that, the fight will come again."

The sale, which was finalized in December, happened with $3.6 million coming from the city's Small Sites Program. A second loan of $1.2 million came from the Local Initiative Support Corporation a community development bank aimed at commercial lending. The property is now collectively owned by the tenants, who pay just under $2,000 a month.

For the entire 2010s, California's Black homeownership rate has been lower than it was in the 1960s, according to the California Housing Finance Agency. By 2019, just 41% of Black families own their homes compared to 68% of white families.

"There was a time when Blacks did not live on this side of Sacramento Street," said one of the buildings fifteen Black residents, 77-year-old former union worker Tamir Luqman, referring to red lining, or the practice of barring people of color from living or purchasing in certain areas.

Luqman grew up in the area and attended Berkeley High. He's lived at the apartments on California Street for 15 years. He was close friends with Tamra, who lived in the unit next to his.

Luqman said that before he died, Tamra's father indicated he wanted to keep this building available for those who might not be able to afford market rent. The deal will sustain his legacy.

"We've seen this again and again (when) a building changes owners," said councilmember Ben Bartlett. "The new owner comes in with great plans and takes everybody out. I believe government has a duty to protect people from the excesses of the economy."

Bartlett mentioned the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which was proposed to the council in November, but was voted down in place of a feasibility study to learn whether tenants or community groups should purchase buildings.

"It's an apparatus where the owner of a building must submit the bid to the tenants as well. The land trust, or whoever, can help the tenants buy the building, and that was still in the works," he said.

Michael Trujillo of the East Bay Community Law Center called for the city to create a formal for tenants to find pathways to ownership.

"A Tenant Opportunity Act or Purchase Act or Community Opportunity Purchase Act would really formalize that process and make sure that if there is ever a chance for this type of successful transfer to happen, for residents to create community controlled, permanent affordable housing, that's given a shot," he said.

Tamra's empty corner apartment is one of two units currently available. The funding the tenants received also covers a $1.5 million renovation, which will occur over the next year.

Two vacant units will be made available to the public at below-market rents, affordable to households earning less than 80% of the Area Median Income. For example, rents could start at $1,200 for a remodeled studio and $1,800 for a large one-bedroom unit, according to the BACLT.

Story by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News.

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