Oakland may impose a new tax on landlords to fund homelessness

[Joseph M.]

If this passes , I could see other cities getting the same idea . I have never heard of such a tax and it would set a bad precedent . This Councilwoman says landlords are “raking in cash “ .. in Oakland where cap rates are super low these days .. if one can cash flow at all .. Once they get 1% of landlords revenue I could see it going up to 2% ,3% in the next years . On the related note San Francisco is also proposing an additional tax on businesses for the homeless . https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/17/san-francisco-to-consider-tax-on-companies-to-help-homeless.html —— OAKLAND — As the Bay Area struggles with an alarming homelessness crisis, voters may soon decide whether to force Oakland’s biggest landlords to pay up to help house the city’s most vulnerable residents. Oakland Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan wants to impose an extra 1 percent annual tax on rental revenue that exceeds $200,000, and use that money to fund homeless shelters, help homeless residents secure permanent housing and clean up the sprawling encampments that line many of the city’s sidewalks. The city needs more money to tackle the problem, and collecting it from Oakland’s biggest-earning landlords makes sense, Kaplan said. Rising rents are pushing people out of their homes, but at the same time, landlords are raking in cash, she said. “We’re capturing revenue where it is,” Kaplan said, “and we’re capturing the revenue that has a relationship to the problem of homelessness.” https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/17/proposed-landlord-tax-would-raise-money-to-house-oaklands-homeless/

[Kody Foster]

“You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
-Adrian Rogers
This is just the “beginning” of how many more to come will think. What you allow will continue, I’ll say that again, what you allow will continue. There’s no guarantee that this will help the homeless population, or even if the homeless will willingly accept this and try to make their situation better. This is wrong in every way possible.
That being said, I do not see the to abandonment of helping homeless or less fortunate as the answer either. But, charging someone who is financially making a difference with their income(rental housing) to their community in the first place is totally wrong and people in Oakland should put their foot down now to stop this before it gets out of hand worse then now.