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Coliseum Connections opened on 71st Avenue in 2019. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\nColiseum Connections opened on 71st Avenue in 2019. Credit: Natalie Orenstein\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n
An East Oakland housing complex that made headlines when a flood displaced hundreds of residents<\/a> for a year could soon see an ownership change.<\/p>\n The Oakland Housing Authority<\/a> is beginning to explore taking over Coliseum Connections \u2014 a move that appears to be welcomed by most people and agencies involved.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the public lenders, BART and the lender \u2014 Citibank, support, as we do, OHA becoming an owner in the property,\u201d said Michael Johnson, the current owner and developer of Coliseum Connections. This transfer would \u201chelp stabilize the property\u201d after \u201ctenants not paying rent on the heels of COVID and the eviction moratorium from 2020 \u2013 2024,\u201d Johnson wrote in an email.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what the Oakland Housing Authority\u2019s exact role might be, and whether the agency could become the sole or a partial owner. OHA is a federally funded agency that operates about 1,600 public housing units in Oakland and administers Section 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s company, UrbanCore Development<\/a>, opened Coliseum Connections in 2019. The property has 110 units, spread among several townhouses and the large apartment building that flooded on New Year\u2019s Eve 2022. Half of the homes are affordable for low-income residents, and the other half are market-rate. A number of families with children live at the site.<\/p>\n The property is located on BART land, near the Coliseum station, and Johnson pays rent to the transit agency.<\/p>\n As 2022 turned to 2023, a vicious storm<\/a> hit Oakland, and water deluged the main building\u2019s parking garage, damaging the electrical system throughout the property. Tenants had to evacuate on New Year\u2019s Day. Nobody knew it was the last time they\u2019d be able to sleep at home for months.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the flood, tensions erupted, first between the tenants and Johnson and the property management company, FPI, and then between Johnson and the city. UrbanCore and FPI covered hotel costs for displaced renters for the first few weeks, but the city ended up shelling out more than $5.5 million<\/a> after that, for both relocation payments and repairs, arguing that Johnson was responsible for paying back much of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Johnson instead filed a legal complaint<\/a> against Oakland, arguing that poorly maintained city infrastructure was to blame for the flood damage. Meanwhile, at least four tenants sued the landlord.<\/p>\n Jasmine \u201cDream\u201d Braggs, a former tenant who helped organize her neighbors after the flood, said the saga has left emotional \u201cresidue.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I think about the rain this time of year, or the holidays, it brings back the trauma of it all,\u201d Braggs said in a phone call last week. \u201cEvery time you see the Coliseum and drive by it, that\u2019s what a lot of us think about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But the chaos that ensued after the flood is unrelated to the talks of an ownership transfer, according to the city.<\/p>\n \u201cLike many affordable housing developments, it\u2019s struggling with rent arrears,\u201d said Oakland housing director Emily Weinstein. \u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing concern across the industry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n A number of local nonprofit developers successfully petitioned the county recently for a $15 million emergency fund<\/a> to make up for missing rent since COVID-19.<\/p>\n The city, state, BART, and the housing authority are working together to \u201cstabilize\u201d the \u201cdistressed asset\u201d and avoid foreclosure of Coliseum Connections, Weinstein said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn response to a request from sister government agencies, the Oakland Housing Authority began exploring whether OHA could participate in the effort to preserve affordable housing at the Coliseum Connections property,\u201d said Laura Burch, a spokesperson for the agency. OHA is still in the \u201cpreliminary due diligence stage,\u201d and it\u2019s too early to share details on the possible outcome, she said.<\/p>\n In a joint letter<\/a> to Johnson and associates in February, the city, county, and state housing departments, as well as BART, laid out a litany of compliance issues at the property.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have serious concerns related to the operation of the project and the well-being of the residents,\u201d the authors wrote in the letter obtained by The Oaklandside.<\/p>\n They wrote that the owner mismanaged finances, failed to resolve health and safety issues at the property, was behind on rent to BART, didn\u2019t adequately report updates to lenders, and lacked a business tax certificate for the property, leaving the owner delinquent by over $200,000.<\/p>\n The prior year, the state had sent the owner a notice of default<\/a> on a loan for Coliseum Connections.<\/p>\n Alicia Trost, spokesperson for BART, confirmed that Johnson is delinquent in rent, saying, \u201cBART is in active negotiations with the developer, City and other funding partners to resolve the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Based in Oakland, UrbanCore both develops and consults on the development of market-rate, mixed-income, and affordable housing. UrbanCore owns a number of properties, with most of its large developments<\/a> located in San Francisco and Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another high-profile development deal with Oakland was squashed by the City Council in 2022, after Johnson received numerous extensions<\/a> to find financing and overcome disruptions caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n