An agency with the County obtained a grant to supply water to unhoused people over the summer. The grant is likely running out in a couple of weeks unless additional funding has been secured. The distribution is handled by enlisting community groups to each collect up to 10 cases of water per week and bring it to people on the streets. I’ve been bringing water to three communities in West Oakland. People are very thankful for the water, but often hungry and ask hopefully if I have food. Sometimes I do, but often I don’t. I’ve met people who are hoping to be allowed to move to the transitional site described in our last mailing, where participants were not allowed a refrigerator, microwave, or any kind of cooking facilities in their rooms, nor are these in the community areas, nor are the residents provided with a sustaining amount of food to eat. Some housed people are fond of saying that people are unhoused because they want to be. That you need to arrest them to force them to receive housing. And yet I know most people feel trapped, without meaningful help available. One man I spoke to wanted to move into the site with little food so he would have enough stability to be able to work again. He’s an electrician. I hope he’ll be accepted but there is certainly no guarantee he will be.
There is a policy change going before the Oakland City Council this month that will increase the pain inflicted on the unhoused population. The City calls it the “Encampment Abatement Policy,” as though the humans being targeted are rats or insects. Any time dehumanizing language is used to refer to a group of people, it’s to make it easier to harm them, to bring about their demise. This is no different. Already Oakland, and many other communities have pursued a policies that spend large sums of money on ineffective sweeps, destabilizing people who don’t have reasonable options to go to, sucking up the funds that could be used to provide food, water, and to build actual permanent affordable housing. The community is told the people are offered help, but very few receive any, and often the political lines about help offered are completely fabricated. This “Encampment Abatement Policy” appears to remove any pretense of offering help, and simply destroys. If someone is living in an RV, this policy removes the RV and leaves them living on the street with nothing at all. Money is spent pushing people around from place to place until they lose so much they drop dead. We have learned of so many deaths this summer alone.
This week, I received a donation to bread. When I brought it to one of the communities where I take the water, where people are also hungry, they showed me they had been posted. A sweep is coming. When the city workers came to post the notices there was no mention of available shelter.
If you are willing to help stop this cycle, here are some things you can do:
- Sign this petition
- Call or email the Oakland Council Members and ask them to vote NO on the “Encampment Abatement Policy” (Consider contacting even if you are not an Oakland resident. Let them know eyes are on them far and wide.)
- Attend public comment period at the Sept 10th Public Safety Committee meeting. Public safety should not exclude safety for people who are poor!
