Census teams to hit the streets this month!

Causa Justa :: Just Cause will be launching its first ever cross-bay program on March 17th! Our census outreach program will be hitting the streets in both Oakland and San Francisco. Our paid teams, along our members and volunteers, will be going door to door and phone banking to outreach to our community about the importance of filling out the census forms. We will be contacting people in East and West Oakland and in San Francisco’s Mission and Excelsior districts.

On March 28th, 2010, Oakland will host its first marathon in 25 years. Causa Justa :: Just Cause is honored to take part in this historic event and celebrate Oakland’s rich history of community resistance in the Fruitvale, Chinatown, and West Oakland neighborhoods. We have more than 30 runners on our team who plan to run the marathon, half-marathon and 5K to support our fight for economic and racial justice.

Across the nation, the foreclosure crisis has hit working class families the worst. In San Francisco alone, foreclosures have increased by as much as 450% over the past year. As the situation worsens, more and more renters of foreclosed homes are left vulnerable to tenant rights violations and illegal evictions. The banks received a huge government bailout to save them from being put out in the cold by the economic crisis. Yet these same banks have been quick to shut-off the utilities of foreclosed properties leaving tenants in the dark about how to defend their rights. Thankfully, Causa Justa :: Just Cause (CJJC) and other housing rights groups were able to win some protections for San Francisco tenants. Among these protections are mandatory fines that banks must pay for each day tenants in a foreclosed home are left without utilities.

On the East side of the Bay, the fight against foreclosures continues with CJJC’s weekly foreclosure prevention group. As part of out Reinvest and Rebuild Campaign, the foreclosure prevention group is a member-led, each-one-teach-one space where the real experts lend advice to folks to keep families housed. Most private attorneys charge up to $3,000.00 for the services that our group provides for free. In return, we ask that the participants support others in similar situations and in this way build a united front against foreclosures in our community. The foreclosure prevention group meets every Wednesday in our East Oakland office. For more information, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

But that’s not all. Cause Justa :: Just Cause hit the ground running this year and worked with the City of Oakland to pass a Foreclosure Registration Ordinance that will require banks to register the properties they foreclose on and fine them for neglecting the maintenance and security of vacant properties. We see this as a step in the right direction of holding the banks accountable to our communities and will be pushing in the future to ensure that banks are held responsible for not only vacant properties in our neighborhoods but also for maintaining and managing foreclosed properties that are tenant occupied. This ordinance represents the first actual policy remedy passed in Oakland to address the devastating impact the foreclosure crisis on our city and neighborhoods, and we are committed to seeing even more local policies passed in the next year.

Along with this policy, we are fighting for Mandatory Foreclosure Mediation in Alameda County, which will make it law that Banks meet with homeowners before foreclosing on their home. We see this as a way to hold banks accountable while protecting homeowners, tenants and neighborhoods. A Mandatory Foreclosure Mediation policy would significantly reduce the number of foreclosures in the Bay Area by creating an incentive to the lender to negotiate and a more level playing field for the homeowner during the foreclosure process.

It’s a new decade. Another census is upon us, and Causa Justa :: Just Cause is leading the Bay Area grassroots effort for Census 2010! It’s no secret that the Census historically undercounts low-income communities of color and leaves our people without their fair share of the resources and democratic power that are allocated by census every ten years. This time, we are determined to make it different.

As part of Right to the City’s national Yes We Count! campaign, we are working with dozens of groups in the Bay Area to lead a massive door-to-door outreach drive and get our people counted. Our members and leaders will join a paid canvassing team to talk to people in their neighborhood about the importance of the census and of getting involved in their community. The census is just one step in fighting for a genuine investment in places like East Oakland and the Excelsior district in San Francisco.

Our outreach will begin in the middle of March. To hit the streets with us, contact Sanyika at 510.763.5877 ext. 307, or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .