How Berkeley residents turned apartment building into affordable housing cooperative

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) -- When the owner of a Berkeley apartment building passed away, tenants worried their building would be bought and flipped into an unaffordable luxury property.

So, the residents of the 12-unit building banded together and got help from a community partner to turn this building in South Berkeley into an affordable housing cooperative.

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The residents led the effort by convincing the city council to allocate funding for the co-op to the city's small sites program.

This ultimately allowed the Bay Area Community Land Trust to purchase the building.

"So this is our own little way in Berkeley of preventing price gouging and driving families to the street," Berkeley City Councilmember Ben Bartlett said. "Because nobody makes it alone. We're in this together. And right now these families here are protected."

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The cost to purchase and renovate these units is less than half the cost of building new affordable housing in the Bay Area.

Two vacant units will be made available as rentals to the public at $1,200 for a studio, and $1,800 for a one-bedroom.