The Oakland City Council unanimously approved a $1 million contract for tenant legal assistance Tuesday, weeks after the mayor’s office infuriated renter advocates by preventing a vote to approve the program.
The contract supports Oakland Housing Secure, an eviction defense program run by the nonprofit Centro Legal de la Raza along with other legal aid organizations. Centro Legal has entered into annual contracts with Oakland to support this work for seven years.
The City Council was set to move the contract forward in January. But the mayor hit pause on the process because of city budget problems. However, the office didn’t publicly offer an explanation for pulling it, or who’d made that call. The contract was once again yanked from a meeting agenda in early February…