2018 Reflection by Wanda Sabir

Bay Area Landless People's Alliance at press conference

As 2018 concludes, Oakland remains in a state of crisis around housing for its residents. There are too many people unhoused and underhoused in the Bay Area despite the promising skyline dotted with luxury apartments or condominiums and houses. Long time residents are being pushed out by city officials who are intent on clearing public spaces of people. The forced removal of citizens occupying vacant lots doesn't make sense when said land is not slated for development. When Councilmember Desley Brooks mentioned to her constituents over three years ago next month to allow sanctioned encampments on city owned land, she was not supported. The sanctioned encampment experiment on Peralta and 35th Street was a success; 50 or so people were moved into transitional housing, perhaps permanent now, but the increasing development in that area and the growing population of underhoused persons is bigger now than before.

Bay Area Landless People's Alliance Organizers,
Dayton Andrews and Larry Coke

The housing crisis, which is larger than the bay area and the state remains unaddressed in any real sustainable way, especially when local, state and federal agencies are not acting as a team with those affected at the same dinner table.

Oakland has a Tuff Shed solution -- sounds like "tough love," as well as more beds in its Winter Shelters, but what about people with pets. I meet many people who own pets who are working animals-- dogs provide a level of protection for women alone and for men too. The pet also serves as a companion. The solution is not sheds or tents, it is permanent housing.

Steven DeCaprio, Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute

I met one man at the press conference who lost his job at AAA when it moved to Oklahoma ten years ago. He did not want to relocate. I didn't know that the California Automobile Association has been out of state for a decade. He applied for jobs and then after nothing came through, he lost his housing and has been on the street since.

The last time the Auset Movement was at the Wood Street Encampment was on Father's Day. That day not that many people joined us for a meal. We like to stay in closer touch. This particular strip of land near 26th Street has been in the news recently. Purchased by a family to open a brewery, quite a while back, it is just a matter of time before the folks living here will be forcibly removed as folks have been told to leave. First 48-72 hour signs go up and then the police come.

The Bay Area Landless People's Alliance's third goal includes an "end to evictions of informal settlements of poor people."

Other goals are:
1. All criminalization of homelessness must end.
2. To live in dignity landless people in "safe havens" will be allowed to self-govern.
4. All confiscation of landless people's property will not end, all property musct be returned and the people need to be compensated.
5. Resolve that all landless people have the human right to assert self-defen=se against prosecution for activities necessary for survival.
6. All new housing shall prioritize housing for homeless and poor people.

Organizers Dayton Andrews and Yesica Prado

Gaza is also in Oakland. Border walls and policing checkpoints. Instead of bulldozers there are police who confiscate people's belongings, smash their homes and scatter their lives into the street. Crushed underfoot. If people do not accept shelter referrals, they cannot return. This happened recently to a clean and sober village in East Oakland, home to women and children.Housing and Dignity Village was a service hub at S. Elmhurst Avenue and Edes Avenue. "Over 20 Oakland Police officers led residents away in handcuffs, as Public Works employees worked overtime to destroy everything on site."

West Oakland site on Wood Street

The Auset Movement wanted to pop through Wood Street before Martin King Day next year to greet our friends and let them know that we have not forgotten them.

There are lots of luxury homes going up within view of the encampment, plus the old 16th Street Train Station is used for programs, along with a playing field. The city has paved the street and it will not be long before development marches up to the doors of folks living in cars, trucks, campers and tents.

Bay Area Landless People's Alliance & Allies

I went to a press conference last week at the Alameda County Administrative Building, Oakland and 12th, for a Bay Area-wide coalition: Bay Area Landless People's Alliance. Just a week earlier Free Brown's "Hope Task Force" hosted a Multi-service Day, Dec. 15, for our under-housed and houseless community members at the West Oakland Youth Center.

Saturday, Dec. 22, Phyllis Magee, founder & CEO, Luxe Laundromat, hosted "A Wash Houze Christmas." It was a fun day filled with with music and door prizes at Poppy's Bubble Wash in East Oakland, 7851 MacArthur Blvd. To support visit: https://www.facebook.com/Luxelaundromat/
 

A week before that, Candice Elder's East Oakland Collective hosted, Feed Da Hood where hundreds of volunteers passed out 1000s of lunches and socks and toiletry bags cross multiple counties, Alameda and Contra Costa.

There are folks like those already mentioned along with The Auset Movement putting band-aides on this larger-than-any-one-municipality can-address issue-- housing, employment, mental health services, trauma informed care, education, family reunification, addiction, violence(in its many iterations).

Broadcast Interviews with Supporters

Listen to these two radio shows with allies who are standing with the under and unhoused people who are demanding their human right to shelter, food, employment, education, safety.

Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2018
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2018/12/12/wandas-picks-radio-show


Candice Elder, East Oakland Collective, Free Brown & Chef Shelby (Experience FUEL Oak) discuss the Homeless Black Women: Multi-Service Day Dec 15th at the West Oakland Youth Center. Visit https://hopetaskforce.org/  . 

Wanda's Picks Radio Show, Wednesday, Dec. 19

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wandas-picks/2018/12/19/wandas-picks-radio-show

Phyllis Magee, founder & CEO, Luxe Laundromat: A Wash Houze Christmas. Dec. 22. 10 AM to 2 PM @ Poppy's Bubble Wash, 7851 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland, 94605 https://www.facebook.com/Luxelaundromat
To learn more about The Bay Area Landless People's Alliance contact. There are regular weekly meetings allies can attend:

Anita De Asis, Housing and Dignity Village Organizer, maowunyo@gmail.com & 510-355-7010
and Dayton Andrews, United Front Against Displacement Organizer, wewontgo@riseup.net & 626.826.9426; Yesica Prado, Berkeley Friends on Wheels Organizer & UC Berkeley alum, yesica.prado13@gmail.com & 773.751.9522

We plan to have members of BALPA on Wanda's Picks early January. Stay tuned.