It worked. It was taken. We want it back.
The community put $1.2M into an abandoned building and built a working school in ten months. Then it was taken by landlords the Oakland City Attorney once called “textbook predatory landlords.”
With a one-time community grant from the City of Oakland, a chance for a neighborhood facing high crime, homelessness, and decades of disinvestment to prove a real alternative, we bought a long-abandoned building down the block and rebuilt it, floor by floor, into a working career center with housing for our students on-site. We train the next generation through our Barbering & Cosmetology and Nursing Assistance programs.
Watch the film.
Before.
During.
After.
The encampment outside wasn't swept away. It was invited in.
“This is actually a sanctuary, a hospital for second chances.”
It worked. It was taken. We want it back.
The community put $1.2M into rebuilding the building, with a contract to buy it at year's end.
The contract said the soil was fine. It wasn't: an estimated $600–800K of undisclosed remediation. No bank would refinance.
Our work raised the appraised value to $3.2M. The landlord foreclosed and sold it to himself for $300K.
22 students lost their housing. Two accredited programs went dark.
“If I wasn't part of the program, I would probably not be a contributing citizen to society.”
Jamel · First student
“She came out from the street life. She wanted to be a nurse instead, and she got her license. Now she does nursing.”
Arianna · Admissions director
87%
Of Oakland residents of color live in neighborhoods at risk of, undergoing, or past displacement. Nearly all live in the flatlands, home to roughly 111,000 low-income residents.
The Oakland Career Training Depot keeps Black and working-class residents rooted in East Oakland through earning power and housing.
15 YRS
The average African American in the Oakland flatlands dies fifteen years sooner than the average white resident in the Oakland Hills.
Career training that lands people in stable jobs directly attacks a life-or-death disparity.
68 / 20
Black residents are about 68% of Oakland's unhoused population but only about 20% of its total population.
Twenty-two students lived above the school. The housing was not an add-on to the training, it was part of it.
In 2019, the Oakland City Attorney sued the owners of six East Oakland rental properties over conditions at their buildings.
“Textbook predatory landlords who have profited for years from willfully violating the basic legal and human rights of tenants.”
Court records and reporting by The Oaklandside and NBC Bay Area identify the building's owners as Baljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann, a married couple, operating through companies including Dodg Corp. and SBMANN2. They have owned and managed Oakland real estate since 1980, about 130 properties. The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project counts at least 98 evictions by their entities between 2011 and 2021.
After a 13-day trial, an Alameda County judge ordered them to pay
$3.9 million
for a “willful, reckless” “pattern and practice” of violating Oakland's Tenant Protection Ordinance. A court of appeal affirmed those findings in 2024; the penalty was vacated on a technicality. The findings stand.
“by far the worst that I have seen.”
Fire sprinklers were present but not connected to a water source. After inspections, tenants were offered move-out agreements requiring a full release of claims, without being told of their right to relocation payments. The 2021 judgment barred them from any involvement in leasing at their Oakland properties for five years, requiring an outside property management company. That injunction was affirmed on appeal in 2024, and was in force when the Career Center's doors were closed in 2026.
Then it happened to us.
The record is public.
The pattern is documented.
The Career Center is its latest chapter.
We know an all-cash buyer is waiting, so this should be on the record. The building comes with $1.2M of community investment, unremediated soil, 22 displaced students, and an organized community with an active claim. Whoever buys it inherits the dispute and the campaign that comes with it.
This is an old system wearing a new deed. For generations, Black families and Black institutions in East Oakland have been stripped of ownership: redlined, displaced, and bought out of what we built. A quiet all-cash purchase here is not a neutral act. It funds that system's next chapter, and it takes another opportunity of ownership from the people who earned it.
There is no quiet version of this purchase.
Every future owner of this building becomes part of its public record.
Every signature is one more receipt handed to the Mann family and to Oakland's electeds: this does not get to be normal.
Remediate.
Pay for the soil cleanup the community was never told about.
Return.
Give the building back so the Career Center, its programs, and its student housing can reopen.
We, the undersigned, demand the remediation of the soil at the Career Center's East Oakland home, the return of the building, the protection of the $1.2M of community investment inside it, and the restoration of its programs and student housing.
The Career Center was taken with $1.2M of community money inside it. Getting it back is legal work, and it is not cheap.
Legal defense
The filings, the hearings, and the counsel it takes to challenge the foreclosure and pursue the return of the building.
The 22 students
Direct support for the students who lost their housing and their programs when the Career Center was taken, months from their licenses.
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The community paid for this building, so the paperwork belongs to the community too. We publish what we get, when we get it.
In September 2024, a building abandoned for 20 years began a second life. Over the next ten months our team refurbished it floor by floor, 85% complete when operations stopped.
Two accredited programs opened: Barbering & Cosmetology and Nursing Assistance. Twenty-two students were housed on-site with wraparound support. The encampment outside wasn't swept away. It was invited in.
The community invested $1.2M in renovations under an agreement to purchase the building at year's end. The initial contract stated there was nothing wrong with the soil. During refinancing, we learned otherwise: the soil needs an estimated $600–800K in remediation, and no bank would refinance without it.
Our investment and the neighborhood's turnaround raised the property's appraised value to $3.2M. Instead of remediating, the landlord foreclosed and sold the building back to himself for $300K. All-cash buyers are now lined up. Twenty-two students lost their housing.
If you or someone you know has been affected, tell us. Your story goes only to the campaign team.