1. Total files reviewed for the 4 offices were SFAO 199, LAAO 91, SACIO 59 and the SAIO 58.

2. Estimated repair costs were not available in all files. They were present in 59% of the SFAO files, 32% of the LAAO files, 51% of the SACIO files and 78% of the SAIO files.

3. The age of structures was not always identified in the files. The information occurred in 76% of the SFAO files, 84% of the LAAO files, 68% of the SACIO files and 83% of the SAIO files.

[Memorandum]

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT,

January 7, 1975.

To: Frank Ogawa, chairman, Oakland Civic Action Committee.

From: James H. Price, San Francisco area office.

Subject: Information for Oakland City Council Civic Action Committee, FHA insured single family housing, Oakland, Calif.

SINGLE FAMILY MORTGAGE INSURANCE AS OF JUNE 30, 1974, ALAMEDA COUNTY

Defaults in the City of Oakland-660 as of December 31, 1974.

Foreclosures Total January-December 1974; Acquired-292; Sold-428 (a number of properties sold in 1974 were acquired in 1973).

Estimated per unit repair cost- -

5, 535

Other costs (cost to hold in inventory, commission on sale, escrow

charges, etc.) _ _

Estimated resale price

Loss per unit_ _ _

2, 595 16, 844 6, 723

Senator CRANSTON. Thank you very much.

We will hear next from Fred Cooper, chairman of the board of supervisors. Fred.

Mr. COOPER. Thank you, Senator.

STATEMENT OF FRED COOPER, CHAIRMAN, BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS, ALAMEDA COUNTY

Mr. COOPER. For the record I am Fred Cooper, chairman, board of supervisors, and we happen to be in the heart of the third supervisorial district which I represent. I would like to enter a slight dissent from some of the things that have been said. I think what we saw this morning would perhaps serve as an example.

Obviously, redlining has occurred in Oakland from time to time, and probably still does, but the one-block area on Bromley Street we looked at this morning had five or six abandoned homes.

At the same time, there were under construction two apartment buildings financed by savings and loan and other lending institutions. So at the same time there were 5 or 6 vacant dwelling units on that block, 8 or 10 new dwelling units in the form of apartments were being constructed, so I think it is hard to say that the lending institutions have redlined that area in terms of being unwilling to make loans.

I think what you saw there reflects the fact that there is a market for rental housing, low-cost rental housing in the area, and no market for single-family homes.

I think that is a reflection of a number of things. It is a reflection more of the fact that essentially because of the problems of poor schools and problems with law enforcement in East Oakland, people who qualify for it, want to buy a home, will buy some place else other than East Oakland and that the basic problem is to develop community involvement.

A long-range program to improve the schools, improve law enforcement so that people who qualify for home loans will want to live

there.

Obviously, part of the problem is abandoned housing and that turns off people who might otherwise want to live there but the basic thing, the basic problem, is that that block points out that there is a market for rental housing because a lot of people wouldn't qualify for a home loan. They had to rent, and if their income is low, they had to rent in an area where rentals are low and that market exists, and is obviously expanding and new rental units are being built.

So one of our problems is to develop means to qualify some of those people for home loans. If they are willing to live in East Oakland, and if they are willing to rent, some procedure of urban homesteading, relaxing the homeowner requirements needs to be done.

Similarly, consulting both before home purchase and counseling when people get into problems with their loans are vital because we have learned those kind of programs can help people who can qualify for homes who wouldn't otherwise qualify and also help them avoid foreclosure if they get into financial difficulty, and the city has been involved in that.

Let me say the county does not have direct jurisdiction in Oakland. We have a small redevelopment-type program, community development-type program in the unincorporated area but the Federal Government recognizes the fact that while we have over 100,000 popula

tion, we don't have serious problems in the unincorporated area because most of the housing in those areas are relatively new compared with Oakland.

Oakland gets $12 million in funds and we get $375,000.

Similarly in terms of a housing authority, we have a County Housing Authority; Oakland has it. And the housing authority covers the city, some county and incorporated area, and we have just gotten approval for 700 or 800 units under the section 8 program; and we are proceeding with that.

That, of course, wouldn't help Oakland, but it will help some of the poor people.

One of the things I have been most concerned with is getting savings and loans involved in an urban homesteading program involved in East Oakland in terms of relaxing or reducing their requirements for home loans and loans for other homesteading and get them involved in the counseling programs. And to get banks and savings and loans to commit their funds, it is important for them to know whether the Federal agencies that are involved in mortgage lending will back up or purchase those mortgages.

Yesterday, I met with representatives from the Los Angeles office of GNMA who said GNMA would participate.

I have been working with the mayor on this. Last week, I met with the president of GNMA in Washington. He said he couldn't commit yet, but he would look into it and probably would be able to send a representative to a meeting.

We previously had a commitment from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, so as soon as we get a commitment from GNMA, I will work with the mayor in terms of setting up a meeting with the banks and savings and loans and mortgage bankers to meet with these Federal agencies and attempt to get commitments from the Federal agencies to back up or purchase the mortgages of the savings and banking institutions, maybe in East Oakland which will in turn enable them to make some commitment to get involved in these programs, to get more people qualified and able to buy homes in East Oakland.

Thank you.

Senator CRANSTON. Thank you very, very much, Fred.

Did you have a comment?

Mayor READING. Yes. I would like to reinforce Supervisor Cooper's statement, but we just received as of last week a recap of the number of new building permits that were issued in Oakland last year. We were staggered to find it was only 102 permits so you can see there really is obviously practically no new construction taking place throughout the whole city.

Senator CRANSTON. Councilman John Sutter. Delighted to have you with us.

Councilman SUTTER. Thank you, Senator. It is a pleasure to be here. My name is John Sutter, and I sit here with two hats on as does the mayor.

One is as a member of the city council and another is the council representative to the East Oakland Housing Task Force.

STATEMENT OF JOHN SUTTER, CITY COUNCILMAN, OAKLAND, AND REPRESENTATIVE TO THE EAST OAKLAND HOUSING TASK FORCE

Mr. SUTTER. About a year ago the citizen group which you have referred to, I think, Senator, in our walking tour of the East Oakland Housing Committee, brought to the attention of the community the serious problem of housing abandonment in Oakland. I suggested that the council sponsor an official body, the East Oakland Housing Task Force and that has been done.

I think that our studies indicate that this is really an emergency situation. The city council has passed a motion to that effect. As a matter of fact unless action is taken and taken rapidly, the situation deteriorates.

Anyone who lives on a street such as the one we toured today and sees around him abandoned houses becomes pretty demoralized. There is little incentive to maintain your own property when you see other properties around you deteriorating and deteriorating rapidly.

So there is an effect of more abandonment once you have one or two abandoned houses on the street. So we need whatever assistance may be available.

There is no one answer. I think the bill which we are discussing here today is one approach which will be useful and helpful.

I would hope that if this bill is passed, that Oakland is designated as one of the cities, and I would hope that the hearing here is some indication that that is what is in the back of our Senators' and Congressmen's mind.

It would be one approach that would be helpful for the reasons of which Mr. Chastain has mentioned.

I think there are a number of other things that can be done and which we need your help on. One of them requires appropriations. The others require some regulatory or administrative changes.

The one that requires appropriations is help with our public housing program.

One factor which is often overlooked in the abandoned housing problem is that it extends to public housing, not only in Oakland but in other communities. We have the phenomenon of some very new public housing, some of which was only built 5 or 6 years ago with abandoned units.

The reason the units are abandoned is that the Housing Authority does not have enough money to do the modernization or the repairs that are required in order to get those units rehabilitated and re-rented.

The Federal Government has decided to cut back on modernization grants and in general to try to reduce the cost of public housing in this country and we see one of the effects of that. One of the effects of that is that we have a substantial number of abandoned units and that's a very depressing situation for the other tenants who reside in public housing and for the people who reside in the neighborhood and that's a particularly serious problem for neighborhoods in Oakland because we have scattered-site public housing in East Oakland.