Two working but homeless mothers fed up with the lack of affordable housing took matters into their own hands last month by moving into a vacant West Oakland home. But they'll soon be forced to leave because of an eviction notice issued this week.
Dominique Walker of Moms4Housing knew this day was coming.
"Not surprised that there’s an eviction notice, but surprised it’s not addressed to us," Walker said.
Walker and Misty Cross, homeless working moms with five children between them, moved into the Oakland home on Magnolia Street on Nov. 18, basically taking it over as squatters.
After living there for two weeks, the women received a court-issued eviction notice to vacate the home.
"They had the old tenant, previous name on it so again it should have been addressed to the moms at the house because we did send a demand letter out," Cross said.
That demand letter was addressed to Wedgewood LLC, a Redondo Beach real estate agency that owns the property.
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"This property belongs to Oakland," Walker said. "We are from Oakland; we have the rights to this property more than Wedgewood does."
The moms want to negotiate with the agency, saying the house was empty and in shambles before they moved in.
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The company hired well known public relations rep Sam Singer to speak for it.
"It’s not the legal thing to do," Singer said. "Wedgewood and everyone else feels for these moms and everyone who is homeless, but that doesn’t give them the right to take someone else's property."
