New California bill draws inspiration from Moms 4 Housing

Just weeks after a group of homeless moms moved into an empty house in West Oakland and ultimately won the right to purchase the property through a nonprofit, an East Bay lawmaker on Wednesday introduced a bill to limit the number of vacant homes in California and give tenants and cities the opportunity to buy them.

“Moms 4 Housing shined a light on the fact that while over a 150,000 Californians are now homeless, right now in our own neighborhoods, there are more than 1 million vacant homes,” Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) said in a statement. “Many of these affordable homes were snatched up during a foreclosure by corporations who then kept the houses vacant or flipped them for hefty profits.”

Senate Bill 1079, Skinner’s proposal, would let local governments fine corporations that own multiple single-family homes if they let them sit empty for more than 90 days. The money would then go toward rental assistance, homelessness prevention efforts and other affordable housing programs. It would also allow cities to use eminent domain to purchase the vacant homes for affordable housing.

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