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Press kit

Reclaim the Career Center.

An East Oakland community put $1.2M into an abandoned building on International Blvd and turned it into an accredited career school in ten months. Their landlord then foreclosed on it and sold the building to himself for $300K.

The school, the Oakland Career Training Depot, ran two accredited programs, Barbering & Cosmetology and Nursing Assistance, and housed 22 students on site with wraparound support. The buildout was 85% complete when operations stopped. Community investment had lifted the property's appraised value to $3.2M. The 22 students were displaced; both programs are dark.

The owners are Baljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann, a married couple who operate through Dodg Corp. In 2019 the Oakland City Attorney sued them over conditions at six East Oakland rental properties, and City Attorney Barbara Parker called them “textbook predatory landlords.” In 2021, after a 13-day trial, an Alameda County judge found they had acted in bad faith. Separately, the soil at the Career Center site needs an estimated $600–800K of remediation that was never disclosed to the community; the initial contract stated there was nothing wrong with the soil.

The campaign asks for three things: remediate the soil, return the building, and reopen the Career Center and its student housing. Filings and hearings are documented publicly as the case moves. Fact sheet, film, sources, and media contact are below.

The film

Short documentary on the Career Center, its students, and what was taken.

The one-pager

10 months

from empty building to accredited career center.

85%

of the buildout complete when operations stopped.

2 programs

Barbering & Cosmetology and Nursing Assistance. Both accredited.

22 students

housed on-site with wraparound support.

$1.2M

of community investment in the property.

$600–800K

estimated soil remediation; the initial contract stated there was nothing wrong with the soil.

$3.2M

appraised value after community investment and neighborhood turnaround.

$300K

price at which the landlord foreclosed and sold the building back to himself.

The demand

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 timeline

  1. The community invested $1.2M in renovations under an agreement to purchase the building at year's end.
  2. The initial contract stated there was nothing wrong with the soil.
  3. During refinancing, we learned otherwise: the soil needs an estimated $600–800K in remediation, and no bank would refinance without it.
  4. Our investment and the neighborhood's turnaround raised the property's appraised value to $3.2M.
  5. Instead of remediating, the landlord foreclosed and sold the building back to himself for $300K.
  6. All-cash buyers are lined up for the building and the neighborhood we transformed.
  7. 22 students lost their housing.

The pattern: Baljit Singh Mann, Surinder Mann, and Dodg Corp

In 2019, the Oakland City Attorney sued the building's owners, Baljit Singh Mann and Surinder Mann, operating through Dodg Corp., over conditions at six East Oakland rental properties. Announcing the case, City Attorney Barbara Parker called them “textbook predatory landlords who have profited for years from willfully violating the basic legal and human rights of tenants.”

In 2021, after a 13-day trial, an Alameda County judge found they acted in bad faith: “willful, reckless, or grossly negligent,” and ran a “pattern and practice” of violating Oakland's Tenant Protection Ordinance. A court of appeal affirmed every one of those findings in 2024.

The court ordered a $3.9 million penalty. On appeal, the penalty was vacated, not because the facts were wrong, but on a technicality about which city ordinance authorized it. The findings stand. The punishment evaporated.

The public record

  1. Court of Appeal opinion, People v. DODG Corp. (2024)Alameda County Superior Court No. RG19022353. Copies available on request from save@oaklandctd.org.
  2. The Oaklandside (2021) →
  3. Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, Worst Evictors (Oakland list) →
  4. Oakland City Attorney announcement (2019) →

Media contact

For interview requests, background, and asset access.

Email
save@oaklandctd.org