By Emily Rodriguez
It’s early August, but inside La Peralta’s six-story building in downtown Oakland, the heat feels like it’s been turned up by weeks of elevator outages. For 52 days last summer, the elevator didn’t work. Residents with mobility issues couldn’t leave their apartments for basic needs. Trash piled up. Laundry went undone. Every errand became a marathon of stairs.
A day without service
Kathy Vaquilar lived this. Her husband fell on the stairs, but paramedics could not safely reach him because there was no working elevator. Richard Johnson, 80, spent weeks trapped in isolation simply because the machinery meant to serve them was broken. But they’re not alone. Across the city, thousands of renters face conditions like this—elevators down, plumbing failing, pest invasions, and landlords unresponsive.
Behind the lawsuit
In August 2026, the City Attorney sued Mosser Living for repeated failures at La Peralta. 93 units were impacted. The complaint spells out unsafe conditions: fire and structural damage, recurring outages—and emergency 911 responses where tenants couldn’t get out safely. These aren’t glitches. They point to deeper negligence. Tenants are paying rent, but not getting the living conditions they deserve.
Why this matters for all of us
Housing isn’t just a roof over our heads. It’s a foundation for health, dignity, belonging. When basic services fail, people suffer—and too often it’s those already vulnerable who pay the highest price. Oakland has strong tenant protections—rent adjustment, code enforcement—but enforcement lags, and many renters don’t know how to access them or fear retaliation.
What we can do
1. Speak up early: document everything—photos, dates, requests. File complaints with 311, housing inspection, city attorney.
2. Lean on tenant groups: Oakland Tenants Union and others can offer legal help and collective power.
3. Demand transparency from landlords and city oversight—show us inspection reports, overdue repairs, past enforcement actions.
Living in hope
Change isn’t always fast, but it’s real when renters share stories, stand together, and insist on what’s owed. When we lift up the voices inside these buildings—people like Kathy and Richard—they remind us all that a home isn’t a luxury. It’s a right.