The Causa Justa / Just Cause Organizational Records, 1996 -2017

Title: The Causa Justa / Just Cause Organizational Records, 1996 -2017

Dates: 1996 - 2017

Collection Number: CES ARC 2019/1

Creator/Collector: Causa Justa / Just Cause (CJJC) Just Cause Oakland St. Peter's Housing Committee Peoples United for a Better Oakland (PUEBLO) City of Oakland

Extent: 4 boxes, 2 cartons, 1 oversized folder – 6.17 linear feet

Repository: UC Berkeley. Ethnic Studies Library

Abstract: Causa Justa / Just Cause (CJJC) is a membership based organization committed to organizing Bay Area tenants to advocate for fair housing as a basic human right, to fight against community displacement, and to mobilize for policies that produce social and economic justice in low-income communities of color. This collection contains materials related to the organizational history of CJJC, as well as tenants’ organizations St. Peter’s Housing Committee and PUEBLO; extensive campaign planning and development documents; campaign flyers, resources and media; documents highlighting internal discussions and administrative decision making and newspaper articles and media focused on tenants’ rights and the struggle against gentrification and displacement.

Language of Material: English

Collection is open for research.

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Comparative Ethnic Studies Librarian, Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94720-2360. Consent is given on behalf of the Ethnic Studies Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. Additional restrictions may apply to parts of the collection. Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

The Causa Justa / Just Cause Organizational Records, 1996 -2017. UC Berkeley. Ethnic Studies Library

In 2010, Causa Justa / Just Cause (CJJC) emerged from the strategic collaboration of two organizations focused on housing justice and tenants’ rights in the San Francisco Bay Area: St. Peter’s Housing Committee and Just Cause Oakland (JCO). These two organizations represent more than thirty years combined experience working toward housing and racial justice for African Americans and Latinx communities. Working in the Mission District since 1985, St. Peter’s Housing Committee worked to preserve affordable rental housing units and protect the rights of low-income tenants. An important part of that work was the operation of a Housing Counseling program that aided tenants in retaining affordable rental units and improve housing that had fallen into disrepair. Founded in 1999 and developing out of a community-organizing model that prioritized door-to-door outreach to recruit large numbers of members to participate in campaigns, Just Cause Oakland was launched by Oakland activists to head the effort to mobilize for a citywide Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance. One of the most notable accomplishments of CJJC was successfully organizing the passage of Measure EE, approved by Oakland voters in November 2002. Also known as Just Cause for Eviction Ordinance, it meant that Oakland renters are protected from eviction without a “just cause” reason. This victory for Oakland tenants was the result of over three years of grassroots organizing and coalition building as well as collecting over 36,000 signatures to place it on the ballot. Furthermore, CJJC’s has maintained a tenants’ rights clinics that has served more than 1,000 tenants each year, stopping hundreds of evictions, prevented rent increases, and forced landlords to do needed repairs. Throughout its history, CJJC has brought together diverse communities in San Francisco and Oakland to engage in campaign work and fight collectively against gentrification and displacement – successfully passing over a dozen tenants’ rights ordinances in those cities. More recently, the organization has fought deportations of immigrant communities, winning sanctuary city status in both cities and later helping to get motions passed by both counties pledging due process and not to cooperate with Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) on immigration holds.

Causa Justa / Just Cause (CJJC) is a membership based organization committed to organizing Bay Area tenants to advocate for fair housing as a basic human right, to fight against community displacement, and to mobilize for policies that produce social and economic justice in low-income communities of color. In addition to campaign work, CJJC maintains a tenants’ rights clinic that has served thousands of people, stopping hundreds of evictions, preventing rent increases, and forcing landlords to do needed repairs. This collection contains a variety of formats relating to the organizational history of CJJC, as well the organizational histories of their predecessors St. Peter’s Housing Committee and PUEBLO; extensive campaign planning and development materials; campaign flyers and resources; and documents highlighting internal discussions and administrative decision making. Also present in this collection are materials representing the in-depth coalition work that CJJC engaged in as well as minutes and notes from conferences and meetings, banners and posters from mobilizations and demonstrations, photographs and audiovisual materials. Important to understanding the larger context of housing struggles, this collection contains reports, organizational newsletters, mainstream news coverage / clippings about housing in the Bay Area as well as CJJC actions and relevant City of Oakland government documents and secondary information pertinent to housing in Oakland and the Bay Area.