Oakland Council Declares Ghost Ship Remembrance Day; Passes Tenant Eviction Assistance Ordinance

Vikram Babu read the names of the 36 people killed in the Ghost Ship warehouse fire to Oakland City Council members and others gathered Monday for a special meeting at City Hall. Babu's roommate, Alex Ghassan, was one of the victims.

The council on Monday declared Dec. 2, the day of the conflagration in the Fruitvale neighborhood, as Ghost Ship Remembrance Day.

The council also unanimously approved an emergency ordinance introduced by Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan that would increase the amount of money landlords have to pay to tenants evicted or displaced due to building code violations and repairs.

The ordinance was introduced before the deadly Ghost Ship blaze, but has taken on additional urgency following the fire, which has led to increased inspection of warehouse living spaces used by many artists. But Kaplan said the ordinance was not only about artists.

"A wide array of tenants, particularly low-income tenants in communities of color, have been displaced due to enforcement, and it applies whether it's enforcement for lead paint or enforcement for any other type of code violation," Kaplan said.

Dozens of warehouse tenants and advocates spoke at the meeting in favor of another ordinance that calls for a moratorium on evictions from non-residential housing -- in places zoned for commercial usage, for example.

One of them was Carmen Brito, who lived at the Ghost Ship warehouse.

"People want to be safe. Everybody here wants their buildings to be safe and up to code," Brito said. "But if they're afraid that they're going to get evicted, they're not going to ask for help."

The proposed ordinance, which hasn't been voted on yet, would also prevent red-tagging of buildings for violations that are not life-threatening and would provide ample warning to tenants about upcoming building inspections.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf issued an executive order on Jan. 11 to increase safety at non-permitted live-work spaces while not displacing tenants.