The land where the site sits has seen protests and an occupation over the last two years as its use and who controls it has been a contentious issue among homeless residents and activists. While seven vehicles-homes have parked onsite, some worry how the site will affect the nearby homeless community.
On July 7, the Berkeley based non-profit Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) opened a site, sanctioned by The City of Oakland, for people to legally park and reside in RVs or trailers while having access to electrical hookups, fresh drinking water, and portable toilets. It sits just west of Wood Street, in West Oakland, and in the middle of a large community of homeless people. The site had been planned since 2019, but took over two years to open in part due to protests and an occupation. As of Tuesday, people living in six RVs and one trailer have moved…
Positive COVID-19 cases have dramatically declined in Alameda County from the peak of the pandemic’s spread in January but have seen a moderate rise since Governor Gavin Newsom lifted most COVID-19 related restrictions on June 15.
Data the county has gathered shows that, on an average day in January, about 673 residents tested positive for the virus. Since then, as vaccination has become increasingly widespread, average daily rates of positive cases have, in general, trended sharply downward. On an average day in February, about 239 people tested positive for the virus. This number decreased to about 94 daily positive cases…
Tenant Natalie Logusch is suing the UC Board of Regents to pressure them to release public records she requested about a year ago related to UC Berkeley’s demolition and development plans that could displace her and her neighbors from their apartments at 1921 Walnut Street.
“The public has to know the truth about what the plans are,” said Logusch. “The UC thinks they can push this through by withholding information.“
According to Kyle Gibson, Communications Director for UC Berkeley Capital Strategies, Logusch could receive the records soon.
“The university is discussing a settlement of the lawsuit with Ms. Logusch’s council…
Members of three organizations, Artists Building Communities, Essential Food and Medicine, and Living Earth Structures, have built a kitchen, clinic, free store, stage, toilet, oven, and shower with and for a homeless community near Wood Street in West Oakland.
Made out of wood covered in brown cob, the structures that house these facilities seem almost as natural extensions of the earth upon which they sit. Empty wine bottles serve as windows and old discarded clothes serve as insulation. Sculpted images of trees decorate the structures’ surfaces and succulent plants sprout along the perimeters of their roofs. Winding stone pathways connect…
On April 14, Oakland’s City Auditor Courtney Ruby released an audit of the city’s homeless encampment management interventions and activities for the fiscal years 2018–19 and 2019–2020. The 95 page report includes data and estimations about interventions, populations, costs, and availability of services related to homeless people and their communities. Claiming that the city “lacked an effective strategy…and did not provide sufficient policy direction or adequate funding,” Ruby also included recommendations for better addressing homeless communities. …
During a Feb 24th Oakland School Board meeting, the Board decided to delay a vote to approve The Reparations for Black Students Resolution until March 24, preventing the resolution from being approved during Black History Month and frustrating many who had organized and advocated for the resolution’s passing.
“There is not one Black family in OUSD that hasn’t experienced the pain of anti-Black racism in our schools,” reads a statement on reparationsforblackstudents.org, a website run by the Justice 4 Oakland Students Coalition in support of the resolution. …
A protest has delayed an Oakland eviction of unhoused people and forced negotiations about a co-governed relocation. After hearing news of the departure of the City Administrator who was heading the negotiations, residents are refusing to leave the land they live on unless certain demands are met.
As the City of Oakland has stated intentions to relocate unhoused residents living in Union Point Park in East Oakland, some residents say they will refuse to move unless they can receive a new place to live where they can have independence and services for survival.
“We’re trying to figure out solutions to…
Peralta Village tenants and supporters gathered outside of Oakland Housing Authority’s [OHA] offices from noon to 1 pm on February 13 to protest what they see as insufficient maintenance and unfair threats of eviction despite Alameda County’s and Oakland’s COVID related eviction moratoriums.
Peralta Village is a public housing project in West Oakland consisting of 390 units and over 700 residents. It was founded just after World War II as segregated all Black housing. Today, many of the residents, almost all of whom are still Black, feel they are being treated unfairly. Some are coming together to demand change.
“I…
While facing intense rain and protests on January 27 and 28, California Highway Patrol officers and California Dept. of Transportation (CalTrans) workers cleared tents, trash, broken branches, and homeless people from a tract of CalTrans-owned land that sits between Mosswood Park and the 580 Freeway in North Oakland.
CalTrans referred to the operation as a cleaning. Activists, local civil rights lawyers, and the site’s residents called it an eviction. Two residents successfully resisted being removed from the site and stayed on the tract of land.
“They posted signs saying everybody has to get off the property,” said Osha Neumann, a…
Since last fall, about a dozen Peralta Village residents have been meeting with each other and Bay Area-based housing rights activists to petition, organize for improved maintenance, and protest The Oakland Housing Authority (OHA).
85 Peralta Village residents, or about 11% of the West Oakland public housing project’s population, have supported the efforts by signing a petition residents and activists wrote accusing OHA of “unresponsive or slow…follow through on repairs and regular upkeep,” “threats of eviction” despite eviction moratoriums that are currently in place, “not clearing garbage…on a consistent schedule” or providing recycling bins, and unfair ticketing from OHA Police…
