HOME: Oakland Equity Indicators | Housing | Displacement 

The influx of development in the Bay Area, soaring housing costs, and a lack of affordable housing, have all contributed to the displacement of Oakland residents. Displacement is difficult to measure, but the three Indicators in this Topic serve as proxies for this larger, more complex issue. Homelessness is one possible consequence of displacement, and it is also a possible consequence of eviction, which is measured in the third Indicator. The second Indicator in this Topic is a measure of housing stability, which may help to prevent displacement among homeowners.

The Displacement Topic received a score of 29.0, making it the lowest scoring Topic in the Housing Theme, and the Indicator scores are widely variable. The second Indicator, homeownership with a mortgage, received the highest score of 78. The score for the third Indicator, eviction notices, was dramatically lower at 8. The first Indicator, homelessness, received the lowest possible score of 1 out of 100.

The homelessness rate among African Americans was 1,797.0 per 100,000, compared to 43.0 per 100,000 for Asians. The rate among Whites fell in the middle (268.6 per 100,000) but was still much lower than the rate for African Americans. Looking separately at ethnicity, the homelessness rate among Latinos (329.3 per 100,000) was lower than that for non-Latinos (774.2 per 100,000). African Americans were 41.76 times more likely than Asians to be homeless.

White homeowners were the least likely to still have a mortgage or loan on their homes (69.8%), while African American homeowners were the most likely to have a mortgage (79.7%). The percents of Asian homeowners (71.1%) and Latino homeowners (69.9%) who still had a mortgage were similar to that of White homeowners and the citywide percent (72.2%). African American homeowners were 1.14 times more likely than White homeowners to still have a mortgage on their homes, meaning that they did not own their homes free and clear.

Majority African American census tracts had the highest rates of eviction notices (141.6 per 1,000 renter-occupied housing units). This rate was much higher than the rate for majority Asian census tracts (17.4 per 1,000). The rates for majority White census tracts (41.0 per 1,000) and majority Latino census tracts (66.2 per 1,000) fell in the middle. Citywide, 72.7 eviction notices were filed per 1,000 renter-occupied housing units in 2016. Renter-occupied housing units in majority African American census tracts were 8.14 times more likely to receive eviction notices than renter-occupied housing units in majority Asian census tracts.