Board Approves Historic $10 Property Sale for Affordable Housing in East Oakland

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors completed its first tax-defaulted property transfer in a decade, sending a vacant East Oakland lot to the Black Cultural Zone for $10 — and signaling that 10 more such conversions are coming. The board also introduced a firearms safe storage ordinance, endorsed an underground freight rail concept for the Port of Oakland, and paused to honor late Supervisor Scott Haggerty, whose fiscal discipline and transportation vision shaped the county for a quarter century.

• First tax-defaulted property transfer in 10 years sends a vacant East Oakland lot to the Black Cultural Zone CDC for $10, with 10 more properties in the pipeline
• Firearm safe storage ordinance passes first reading unanimously, requiring trigger locks or lock boxes in unincorporated residences
• Underground freight rail resolution adopted, backing CyberTran technology to cut I-880 truck traffic and create 5,000+ jobs
• Fairgrounds pavilion renamed for late Supervisor Scott Haggerty, who served 24 years and helped cut the county's projected deficit in half
• Russell City Redress Fund reaches $1.3M but the $950K administration agreement is delayed to Aug. 4 — even as two more elderly former residents die
• $5.2M eviction prevention contract renewed with Centro Legal de la Raza as filings remain at 150% of pre-pandemic levels
• 27,000 residents at risk of losing CalFresh due to federal recertification requirements, advocates warn

The board unanimously approved selling a tax-defaulted property at 8215 MacArthur Blvd. in East Oakland to the Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation for $10 — the county's first Chapter 8 agreement sale in a decade.