SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Oak Park was Sacramento's first suburb and home to mostly white and wealthy residents during the early 20th century, and though it later became more accessible to low income residents — neighborhood leaders say the area is once again becoming harder to afford.
"It wasn't until the white flight of the 60s where the neighborhood became more diverse, it became home to the Sacramento chapter of the Black Panthers," Oak Park Neighborhood Association President Adrian Rehn told ABC10. "Now, gentrification is changing things again."
The neighborhood association's recent Feb. 1 meeting hosted the Sacramento Community Land Trust and heard from a representative who raised similar concerns about gentrification in the area.
Executive director of the Sacramento Community Land Trust Tamika L'Ecluse was once also the president of the Oak Park Neighborhood Association until she said she was priced out of the neighborhood.
Now, she said she wants the community to be more aware of projects that could raise nearby renting and housing prices for existing residents.
L'Ecluse focused some of her recent efforts on digging into the Aggie Square project on Stockton Boulevard & 2nd Avenue and what the $1.1 billion development could do to the neighborhood.
According to UC Davis, Aggie Square will have research facilities and office space along with housing for students and business partners.
"The question for me has always been, are these services that I'm going to be able to utilize?," said L'Ecluse. "Because the price of properties are going up all around me, is that an incentive for my landlord to displace me?"
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While UC Davis and Sacramento city officials signed a community benefits partnership agreement that guaranteed $5 million toward anti-displacement efforts and residential stabilization, Rehn said this was not enough.
"The public wasn't very involved in it, so there are different perspectives," he said. "Frankly, it's not enough."
Sacramento Community Land Trust member Ahmed Naguib said he's lived in the Oak Park neighborhood for seven years and has seen multi-generational families who have rented homes for years lose their housing after their landlord sells the home to a different family.
"That's where an organization like a community land trust steps in to support a family that says, 'I can't buy the house for full price, but I've lived here for 10 years and have rented this home over the course of 10 years and have no equity,'" Naguib said.
A community land trust acts as a partner in purchasing a home by helping pay for the purchase in exchange for some long term equity. Homeowners can also sell their property through a land trust to ensure the future homeowners can purchase at a more affordable subsidized rate.
Public and private funding of community land trusts can ensure more longtime residents can get a chance at affording a nearby home purchase, Naguib said.
He added that Sacramento city officials should have considered a community partnership agreement for the University of the Pacific's new 15,000 square-foot sports medicine center.
"You're going to bring a lot of students and a lot of people into a neighborhood that's already highly dense with people, and there's not enough housing," Naguib said. "I think it falls to community activists in neighborhoods that steadily hold that torch and say, 'What are you doing?'"
Rehn said his neighborhood has a community-funded program that helps residents with bills and housing payments. They have raised $20,000 thus far.
"We're trying to keep the OGs around and existing residents here so they're able to weather the changes," he said.
