Pressure Mounts For Oracle Corp. To Pay Displaced Tenants

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- Public pressure is mounting for Oracle Corp. to pay displaced low-income residents who were evicted to make room for their East Austin expansion.

Boston-based Nonprofit Quarterly on Monday suggested Oracle officials should help defray relocation costs for more than 100 low-income residents who once lived at Lakeview Apartments, located on property previous owner Cypress Real Estate Advisors of Austin sold to Oracle Corp.

The families--including dozens of children in the middle of their school year--were forced out by their landlord last year as Cypress Real Estate Advisors prepared to sell the property to Oracle Corp.

Patch was the first to report about Oracle Corp.’s indirect role in the mass evictions.

Residents--many of whom had leases that didn’t expire until the end of December--were told months before to vacate immediately amid threats of utilities disconnections if they didn’t vacate immediately.

Spencer Wells wrote in Nonprofit Quarterly that Oracle Corp. might want to pay something akin to a severance package to the families they indirectly helped displace, if only to build community goodwill.

“What if Oracle were buying a local company and terminating the employees?” Wells asks. “It is not hard to imagine that, if only for public relations purposes, Oracle would offer some kind of severance package.”

Wells noted the unique nature of the Oracle Corp. move that separates it from other stories on gentrification: In announcing their displacement-causing expansion, Oracle officials also noted they’d be buying an adjacent apartment complex to house a largely millennial workforce seeking a “life-work” balance.

The adjacent apartments for employee housing is the 295-unit Lakeshore Azul, also owned by Cypress Real Estate Advisors.

Meanwhile, former Lakeview Apartments tenants were forced to scramble to find new homes and figure out which schools their children would be able to attend once they moved elsewhere, as the Austin Chronicle previously reported.

Former Lakeview Apartments tenants staged a spontaneous protest on Christmas Eve across from their former home calling for Oracle to help defray their relocation costs.

Attorneys with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid is representing potential tenant claims against Cypess Real Estate Advisors. Former residents of the Lakeview Apartments could have a cause of action if their landlord took steps to force them out before their leases were up, Wells writes.

In the wake of the mass evictions, Austin City Council members are considering an ordinance that would require developers to pay for relocation costs in the event their projects displaced existing tenants. The measure would come to late to benefit former Lakeview Apartments tenants, but could provide some measure of protection for tenants that could be displaced in the future.

Recently, city council members approved formation of three affordable housing preservation districts aimed at providing housing for low-income residents.

The council action is a response to a wave of gentrification that has swept over rapidly expanding Austin in recent years, often pricing people out of their homes as property values increase with new commercial development in their neighborhoods.

Oracle Corp. spokespeople have not returned several requests for comment made by Patch.