‘Make Housing a Human Right’: Activist Carroll Fife on Joining the Oakland City Council

Carroll Fife, the longtime Oakland community organizer and social justice advocate will soon become the newest member of the Oakland City Council, after defeating two-term incumbent Lynette Gibson McElhaney in a major upset.

On Monday, Fife was announced as the winner of the race for the District 3 seat, which was among the most fiercely contested of the five council contests in the November election. She campaigned on a platform of police reform, environmental justice and the concept of housing as a human right.

Fife, who takes office in January, will represent a district that includes parts of West Oakland, Downtown, Uptown, Jack London Square and Lake Merritt.

Fife gained widespread recognition as the lead organizer behind Moms 4 Housing, a grassroots collective launched after a group of homeless mothers occupied a vacant West Oakland house late last year that was owned by a real estate investment firm.

KQED Forum’s Michael Krasny spoke with Fife on Tuesday about her vision for Oakland and the progressive political movement she is building. Below are excerpts from the interview, edited for brevity and clarity.

What do you mean by “housing as a human right?”

I have to clarify, because I think there’s still some misunderstanding about that particular civil disobedience action. It was completely to highlight the fact that we believe that housing should not be a commodity. It should not be something that is sold to the highest bidder. And if you do not have the wherewithal to compete in the process of acquiring housing, then you are out of luck.

We’re seeing the ramifications of that throughout not just Oakland, but the state of California and the world, really. So we say that housing should be a right and everyone should have access to it, just like they have access to clean water, public education and all of the things that are necessary to build a basic and decent life.

So, you’re talking about changing the whole nature of what you call the commodification of housing and moving more toward housing for low-and, frankly, no-income people?

Right. There are many people that are unable to work and have no income. There are seniors who cannot work and can’t earn the money that is necessary to afford to live here. There are people who are disabled permanently, who are born that way or through any situation that leads to disability, just unable to earn income. So are we saying that they shouldn’t have housing because they can’t afford to to live here?

Can you talk about your support for expanding rent control, particularly in light of California voters rejecting Proposition 21, which could have helped expand it? 

The mayor [Libby Schaaf] and the outgoing city councilmember [McElhaney], are far more moderate on their views around rental protections, particularly rent control. They are part of a waning chorus of detractors for rent control. Because the reality is … the state of California and the residents and the voters of California overwhelmingly supported affordable housing. What they are responding to is millions, hundreds of millions of dollars in ad propaganda that say exactly what we are saying, exactly the same thing that I’m saying, which is Californians want more affordable housing.

The proponents of Prop. 21 just lied in their advertising. So when you lie in your advertising and say that Prop. 21 will kill affordable housing and people were like, ‘No, we need affordable housing,’ it’s just the voters being lied to. And there’s never enough money on the opposing side to counter the hundreds of millions of dollars that the real estate industry puts into ads that pop up on every possible medium that you can think of. So what needs to happen is just more organizing on the other end, because that’s what’s telling the truth about our current conditions.

Can you outline where you want to go with police reform?

For years, city workers, public workers, firefighters, teachers, sewer workers and nurses have received cuts to their budgets. The only institution that consistently gets raises and never has to go through any type of cuts is our police department.

I’d like to see an audit of where we’re actually spending our time and have the police bear the same responsibility to caring for our city as all other city workers. I would like to see mental health responses to 911 calls. I would like to see — similar to Albuquerque, New Mexico and Berkeley, California — civilianized traffic stops and things like that.

But I do think that we really need to look at where this $330 million dollars a year is going and find out where we can invest some of those funds into city services that truly keep us safe.