![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sac-St-16.jpg\")
Raymond Kohl-Grant and his mother, Jeannie Kohl, stand in the communal backyard of the housing complex on Sacramento Street where they have lived for decades. The property went on the market earlier this year. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n
Jeannie Kohl always knew she could count on her neighbors in the row of apartments stretching back from Sacramento Street to keep an eye out for her son as he grew up with autism. Now 36, Raymond Kohl-Grant spends time at the Bancroft Community Garden a few blocks away, and volunteers at the arts nonprofit Creative Growth. The two of them live next door to one another in the rented duplex where Kohl-Grant grew up, the two units linked by a door built into his closet.<\/p>\n
But after the 23-unit property where they live went on the market in March, Kohl worries she might lose her home of 43 years. Decades of rent control mean the retired educator pays far below Berkeley\u2019s market rate; like her neighbors, many of whom are also retired, Kohl fears where her family might end up if a new owner were to push them out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t stay in Berkeley,\u201d she said, \u201cand Raymond\u2019s life is in Berkeley.\u201d<\/p>\n
A local land trust is hoping the city will step in and provide funding that could be used to buy the Sacramento Street property under a program in which Berkeley helps nonprofits purchase and fix up older buildings with low rents<\/a>. Supporters say the program protects tenants from displacement<\/a> while turning privately owned properties that provide what housing experts call \u201cnaturally occurring affordable housing\u201d into a dedicated stock of below-market-rate units.<\/p>\n Mayor Adena Ishii has proposed putting $1.3 million from Berkeley\u2019s pool of affordable housing funds toward the city\u2019s \u201cSmall Sites\u201d acquisition program<\/a>. When combined with another $2.5 million the program has available from past budgets, that could go a long way toward buying Kohl\u2019s building.<\/p>\n The strategy has its skeptics, however. The City Council narrowly voted to pull $1.4 million<\/a> from the Small Sites program last year, as members said they believed Berkeley\u2019s affordable housing money would be better spent on new below-market-rate developments, rather than acquisitions of existing housing.<\/p>\n That debate is shaping up to be one of the key questions before the council when it meets Tuesday to adopt the city\u2019s budget for the next two years<\/a>.<\/p>\n What comes after \u2018community-oriented\u2019 landlords?<\/p>\n Ruth and Henry Frantz were the kinds of landlords who would invite you to stay for a gin and tonic after you dropped off your rent check, Kohl recalls. They built the complex in the late 1950s, a row of cottages lining a driveway that leads to the house where they lived at the back of the one-acre lot. The house looks out onto a quiet communal lawn, a world away from the racket of busy Sacramento Street, where tenants gather for an annual \u201c0 party\u201d to celebrate whoever is turning a multiple of 10.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have been a lot more community-oriented than they have been profit-motivated,\u201d another tenant, Kristine Larsen, said of the Frantzes, who later passed the property on to their niece.<\/p>\n The railroad-style one-bedroom units are simple and small; tenants who wanted to raise a family would typically leave in search of more space. But the community is the kind of place where people stick around. Once they took down a wall and converted their cottage\u2019s garage into a bigger living room, Kohl and her then-husband found it was the perfect place for their two children.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt can be very isolating, raising a kid with severe autism \u2014 and I never felt isolated because I had the community around me,\u201d Kohl said. \u201cI felt like I was a part of something, and I know a lot of people don\u2019t have that, who live in single-family homes.\u201d<\/p>\n The Japanese maple tree she planted outside her front door for Earth Day when her daughter was a fourth-grader now towers over her home, while the duplex, where the two of them live along with one of Kohl-Grant\u2019s caretakers, gives her son the support he needs while letting each of them have their own space.<\/p>\n The property has an asking price of $3.2 million, according to a listing<\/a> that describes it as an \u201cadd value opportunity with below market rents.\u201d<\/p>\n Local laws would protect Kohl and other tenants from many changes under a new owner: Their units will still be subject to rent control, and they can\u2019t be evicted unless the owner cites circumstances that meet Berkeley\u2019s \u201cjust cause\u201d standards. Still, the property\u2019s tenants fear a new landlord might move \u2014 legally or otherwise \u2014 to push them out in search of higher rents, meaning they would lose the affordable corner of Berkeley they\u2019ve held onto through a spiraling affordability crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Small Sites program was designed exactly for situations like this,\u201d said Matt Gustafson, organizational director for the Bay Area Community Land Trust, which hopes to buy the building.<\/p>\n Berkeley has used the program to help land trusts acquire three properties, including a 13-unit building on Solano Avenue where tenants faced eviction from their landlord<\/a>. Existing tenants are allowed to stay in buildings bought through the program, but if they leave their units will be dedicated as affordable housing for low-income renters.<\/p>\n Gustafson and other backers of the acquisition strategy note it\u2019s typically much cheaper to buy and fix up an older property than it is to build new affordable housing, and instead of waiting years for affordable projects to break ground, deals to buy buildings can be done in a matter of months. According to data from the city, the three buildings acquired through the Small Sites program cost $459,000 per unit<\/a> to buy and rehabilitate on average, less than half the cost of recent newly built affordable developments Berkeley has funded, which averaged $930,000 per unit<\/a>.<\/p>\n But while Berkeley is one of several cities<\/a> that have launched acquisition programs<\/a>, the strategy hasn\u2019t gotten much support<\/a> from the state and federal government, which provide the bulk of funding for affordable housing.<\/p>\n Critics point out that means local governments wind up on the hook for a bigger share of the cost to buy existing buildings, since newly built affordable projects are far more likely to get money from Sacramento or Washington. Even though the Small Sites homes were cheaper overall, the city\u2019s data showed they were 37% more expensive to Berkeley: each unit required about $286,000 of local funding<\/a> on average, whereas units in new buildings cost the city $209,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gustafson said the land trust believes it could cost as much as $6 million to buy the Sacramento Street property and rehabilitate its nearly 70-year-old units. The trust is hoping to receive up to $4 million from Berkeley for the property, which would mean each unit could cost the city about $174,000.<\/p>\n The proposed boost in Small Sites funding wouldn\u2019t be specifically allocated to the complex where Larsen and Kohl live \u2014 another land trust is also seeking help from the city to buy a different property, Gustafson said, and Ishii\u2019s proposal wouldn\u2019t provide enough money to make both purchases. If the council votes to provide the funding, it would then be up to city staff to evaluate the proposals and decide which receives it.<\/p>\n City Council will decide on program\u2019s future<\/p>\n Ishii describes the Small Sites program as a critical but neglected piece of the housing strategy she and others often refer to as the \u201cthree P\u2019s\u201d<\/a>: production, meaning a \u201cyes-in-my-backyard\u201d approach to new development; protection, though rent control and other tenant rights; and preservation of existing affordable housing.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want people to be able to live in the communities and neighborhoods they\u2019re a part of, and not be forced to move,\u201d Ishii said. \u201cIf we\u2019re only thinking about building new housing, we\u2019re not thinking about how we support the community that already exists.\u201d<\/p>\n The $1.3 million Ishii has budgeted for the program comes from Berkeley\u2019s Housing Trust Fund. The money can only be put toward affordable housing programs, so it couldn\u2019t be used to patch other holes in the city\u2019s budget, which faces a nearly $30 million deficit<\/a> the council wants to bridge with a mix of service cuts, layoffs and increased sales taxes.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a change from last June, when the council voted 5-4 to cut $1.4 million that had been allocated to the Small Sites program from Measure U1, a business tax pitched to voters in 2016 as a funding source for affordable housing, though the money it raises is not legally restricted to that purpose. The council instead used the funding to address a deficit<\/a> in the general fund.<\/p>\n Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, one of the leading voices for redirecting money from the Small Sites program last year, remains unconvinced that it represents the best use of Berkeley\u2019s affordable housing funding.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sac-St-02.jpg\")
The 23-unit complex is mainly made up of duplex cottages that line a driveway leading back from Sacramento Street. The one-acre property has been listed for $3.2 million. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Sac-St-20.jpg\")
Like other tenants at the Sacramento Street property, Kristine Larsen fears she may not be able to find a similarly affordable place to live if she has to move. Credit: Hope Mu\u00f1oz\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n![\"Several](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/large-Sep-142022_-Stuart-Street-affordable-Co-op-apartments-opening.-1-1200x900.jpg\")
People gather for the 2022 opening of the Stuart Street Co-Op apartment building, an affordable housing acquisition funded in part by Berkeley\u2019s Small Sites program. Credit: Ximena Natera, Berkeleyside\/CatchLight <\/p>\n