Timothy Busby, a 56 year old writer who lives in a van in Berkeley, just started chemotherapy for cancer in his neck. He has tried to plan ahead by arranging indoor shelter for his recovery through his healthcare, non-profit, state and county programs but has been unable to secure it. A friend of his, Alastair Boone, is putting together a fundraiser to secure him a hotel room to recover in, and Busby is accepting the help.
“There are so many different systems that are failing in this case,” said Boone, who criticized Busby’s healthcare provider for not taking into account his shelter needs. Busby pays $507 a month to Blue Cross Blue Shield Mississippi, the vast majority of his $733 disability income. …
A coalition of ten different organizations have asked Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program (RAP) to amend proposed regulations to the Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) in an effort to make replacing vacating roommates and filling extra space in rental units easier for tenants.
“In Oakland tenants already have one-to-one replacement rights,” said Jackie Zaneri, a tenant attorney with ACCE Action, a grassroots organization that is leading the push to amend current proposed TPO regulations. “So if you have three roommates, and one of them moves out, you already have the right to bring in someone else. …
San Francisco based company, GameChanger LLC, and seven unhoused residents ended a land use dispute on Monday when residents agreed to leave a 1.5 acre tract of company owned land just west of Wood Street in West Oakland in exchange for accepting material or monetary concessions.
Both sides agreed to each other’s terms after a year long standoff that involved a court battle, law enforcement actions, several protests, and civil disobedience.
Over the last year, the United Front Against Displacement (UFAD), a grassroots group that organizes to prevent displacement, supported the residents during the standoff by organizing several protests and defensive actions. …
As final votes are being tallied, three Oakland School Board Director candidates backed by the Oakland Education Association who ran on platforms against privatization, cuts, and public school closures hold significant leads poising them to win against candidates who, backed by political action committees, spent between two to three times more money on their campaigns.
District 1 candidate Sam Davis, District 3 candidate VanCedric Williams, and District 5 candidate Mike Hutchinson, each thus far have secured between 10–13% more votes than their opponents Austin Dannhaus, Maiya Edgerly and Leroy Roches Gaines. …
Late on October 20, Oakland City Council unanimously passed an Encampment Management Policy that codifies where people experiencing homelessness are and are not allowed to live, but firm plans for what shelter options people will be offered if cleared from a prohibited area have not been set.
The policy defines any space within 50 feet of a residence, business, protected waterway, public park, or sports court, and within 100 feet of a school, as a “high sensitivity area” and further states that “encampments located within a high sensitivity area that are not approved by City Council will be subject to closure intervention.” …
Bay Area residents have been gathering together to stop the Alameda County Sheriff from executing an eviction order against unhoused residents who live on an approximately 1.47 acre tract of land just west of Wood Street in West Oakland.
So far the eviction has not been enforced.
“They were supposed to evict us on Tuesday [Oct 13], but the activists showed up,” said Puffy, an unhoused person who is 66 and claims he has lived in West Oakland since 1989 and on the tract for two years and seven months. …
Members and supporters of SMC Tenants Council formed a car and bike caravan rally on Sunday to protest their landlord, SMC East Bay, serving them Pay Rent or Quit notices. The notices demanded that within 15 days tenants pay back rent or fill out and sign COVID-19 financially related distress forms. That same day, the SMC Tenant Council also emailed their landlord asking them to rescind the demand to pay or sign. On Monday, the following evening, their landlord agreed, and no longer demanded tenants pay or sign the forms.
“SMC East Bay is just trying to squeeze out any rent that they can by scaring people,” said Katie Brown, just after receiving the demand to pay or sign. She lives in an SMC household, one of over a dozen who received the notices in Oakland. …
Last weekend, as smoke continued to blow into Oakland from wildfires throughout California and Oregon, Mask Oakland, a queer and trans led community relief project that has responded to smoke crises in the Bay Area since 2017, collaborated with seven grassroots groups to distribute over 11,000 K95 and N95 masks, mostly to people experiencing homelessness in Oakland. The United Front Against Displacement (UFAD), a housing justice organization, and SMC Tenants Council, a tenant union, distributed around 1,200 of those masks.
“I definitely feel a sense of urgency when I see folks and know that they’re out there for an unlimited amount of time,” said Jazmine Lopez, who works with The UFAD. …
About 175 tenants gathered on the steps of Alameda County’s Superior Courthouse for a rally called Life Over Rent / Nuestrxs Vidas Si Renta No on Saturday September 5 from 3 pm to 5:30 pm.
A Facebook invite for the rally claimed “Our needs come before our landlord’s profits” and showed that five different tenant unions organized the event: Tenants and Neighborhood Councils (TANC), SMC Tenants Council, Lonay Tenants Council, Village Residents Association at UC Berkeley Family Housing and JDW Tenants Union.
The invite also listed three goals: canceling rent during the pandemic, recognition and negotiation from landlords of collectively organized tenants, and prohibiting all evictions and expanding unemployment and food stamps for those hit hardest by the pandemic. …
Moms 4 Housing, a coalition of support groups and about 150 local residents gathered outside the Alameda County administration building in downtown Oakland on Tuesday September 2 to participate in a rally called Board of SuperMoms Demands Homes Not Harm.
Members of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), the Anti Police-Terror Project and Decarcerate Alameda County also spoke. Bay Area People’s Strike and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) hosted the rally.
“After voting to give this notoriously racist Sheriff’s Department a budget increase of over $100 million a year, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors has canceled their meeting set for September 1st,” read a Facebook invitation calling for supporters to attend the rally, which took place from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. …
