HOME: Oakland Equity Indicators | Housing | Housing Quality

Access to high quality housing is an important component of the Housing Theme. Substandard housing can have negative impacts on residents’ health and their ability to engage in different aspects of their lives outside of the home. The three Indicators in this Topic measure geographic disparities in housing habitability complaints, and racial and ethnic disparities in complete kitchen facilities and overcrowded conditions in Oakland housing units.

The Housing Quality Topic received a score of 33.0 out of 100. The first Indicator in this Topic, housing habitability complaints, received the Topic’s highest score of 40. The third Indicator, overcrowding, received the lowest score in the Topic (22). The score for the second Indicator, complete kitchen facilities, fell in the middle (37).

We found that 1.36% of housing units in zip codes that were more than 60% non-White reported housing habitability complaints, compared to 0.67% of housing units in zip codes that were more than 60% White. Housing units in racially and ethnically mixed zip codes were only slightly more likely than those in White zip codes to report a housing habitability complaints (0.80%). Overall in Oakland, 1.13% of housing units reported a housing habitability complaint. Housing units in predominantly non-White zip codes were 2.03 times more likely to report housing habitability complains than housing units in predominantly White zip codes.

African American individuals were the most likely to not have a stove/range, refrigerator, or sink in their homes (2.03%). Latino individuals were the least likely to lack complete kitchen facilities (0.79%), followed closely by White individuals (0.97%) and Asian individuals (1.05%). Citywide, 1.13% of Oaklanders do not have complete kitchen facilities in their homes. African Americans were 2.55 times more likely than Latinos to not have a stove/range, refrigerator, or sink in their homes.

Latino individuals were far more likely to live in overcrowded housing (14.2%) than other racial and ethnic groups. White individuals experienced the least overcrowding (3.0%), while 4.5% of African American Oaklanders and 7.0% of Asian Oaklanders lived in overcrowded housing. Citywide, 7.0% of individuals live in overcrowded housing. Latinos were 4.80 times more likely than Whites to live in overcrowded housing.