Oakland, CA (October 28, 1999) – Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente today held a press conference to reveal Oakland’s "Dirty Dozen" landlords -- deemed the current worst violators of Oakland housing laws. The press conference was held earlier today at 1901 – 69th Avenue in Oakland, a property with serious violations and whose owner was named.

In a dramatic turn of events, Oakland’s "Dirty Dozen" became the "Unlucky Seven" as five landlords originally named on the list entered into last minute compliance plans to fix their properties just the day before the press conference. These five owners paid over $11,000 in fines and presented $80,000 in CD Certificates guaranteeing the promised repairs, just to avoid being named as one of Oakland’s "Dirty Dozen" landlords.

Decent Housing Task Force Members -- including City Manager Robert Bobb and City Attorney Jayne Williams – announced that 71 properties with past code violations were either fixed or are being fixed under binding compliance plans as a result of Decent Housing Month efforts.

"This is an unprecedented success. Our inspectors found newly installed windows, repaired smoke detectors and fresh paint at properties that we have been trying to get fixed up for years," stated De La Fuente. "This was a collaborative effort between landlord groups, tenant groups and City staff. Our goal was to get compliance without having to embarrass anyone, but some landlords did not heed our warnings, so we’re here to tell you about those individuals today," stated De La Fuente before he named the "Dirty Dozen."

The Dirty Dozen (or Unlucky Seven) list of landlords included: Ava Carrie, David Choo, Darold S. Cornell, Daniel & Sara Garcia, Arthur G. Gibson, Robert S. & Ingrid Z. Miller and James E. Webb. Each of these individuals owns (or in the case of David Choo, is the principal in the corporation that owns) a property with serious health and safety violations. "Although some of these places might look fine on the outside, there are serious violations that threaten the health and safety of the tenants who live inside," stated Bobb. "I’m sending inspectors to each of these properties tomorrow and I promise you’ll see more unsolicited inspections like the Decent Housing Month inspections in the near future."

Williams described the City’s addition of new attorneys who will pursue legal actions against slumlords. "We are getting proactive and aggressive. When properties rise to the level of public nuisance, the City will be filing its own lawsuits and pursue all remedies against these landlords," stated Williams.

The conference concluded with statements from Steve Edrington of the Rental Housing Association and Bernida Reagan, Executive Director of the East Bay Community Law Center. "The vast majority of Oakland landlords do comply with the laws and it is very much in our interest to bring any substandard properties up to code. Slum properties not only ruin Oakland neighborhoods, but they impact our investments as landlords," stated Edrington. Reagan added "Tenants are afraid to report violations because they fear getting evicted and having no where else to go. The City needs to make more proactive efforts like this to protect tenants from landlords who know they can get away with subjecting tenants to deplorable conditions."

Reagan reminded viewers that later that evening, the City was presenting two free, multi-lingual workshops on tenants’ rights.

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