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Lack of Shelter After Mosswood Eviction Causes North Oakland Tension
by Zack Haber
In February, the city of Oakland evicted a large community of unhoused people from Mosswood Park and announced plans to help the evicted residents secure shelter through the nonprofit Operation Dignity. While the city did secure shelter for some, others did not receive help, remained homeless, and moved to nearby areas where, in at least one case, tensions have escalated with housed residents.
“It’s a mess — dangerous and unhealthy for everyone. I live on Shafter and now I steer clear of that block,” wrote Valentina Gnup in an online petition that a group called Mosswood Neighbors created in mid-June.
The petition asks that people living along Manila Avenue and between 38th and 40th Streets be moved to a new location and that the city institute regulations that would prevent overnight parking in the area. It is titled “City of Oakland: Relocate and House the Manila Avenue Encampment” and has over 140 signatures.
Jacob Alexander* currently lives in the encampment on Manila Avenue which sits less than a quarter mile north of Mosswood Park. He had lived in the park for about four and a half years in a tent until the February eviction. Since the eviction, his living situation has not improved. He still lives in a tent, but now on the street, much closer to where housed residents live.
“There was nowhere else to go,” Alexander said when I asked him why he moved into a nearby neighborhood.
Alexander said after the eviction he wasn’t able to move his possessions a long distance and was worried about joining a new encampment. So he and seven other people who he had lived with in the park moved to their current location. He wanted to move into a hotel or permanent housing but was not offered to do so.
Just before the February eviction, the city of Oakland and Kaiser Permanente received positive press from ABC, Mercury News and KTVU which stated that Kaiser, whose Oakland Medical Center sits right across the street from Mosswood Park, was giving Oakland a million dollars to help house residents that would be moved from the park.
A section of Kaiser’s webpage boasted at the time that they were collaborating with the city of…
