The Village in Oakland

The Housing & Dignity Project is an alliance between The Village, The East Oakland Collective and The Dellums Institute For Social Justice. Together we aim to:

• use existing public resources and private resources to temporarily house 1,200 curbside residents in 6-8 self-governed Villages by Spring 2019
• use existing public resources and private resources to permanently house 2,000 curbside residents in the next 6 months
• support the passing of a community driven, comprehensive public lands policy
• create an alternative tax stream that taps into the new wealth that has come into Oakland and use that tax steam to house curbside communities
• change the narrative around the new face of homelessness created by the development agenda known as gentrification

to donate to our collaborative effort THE HOUSING & DIGNITY PROJECT please go here:

https://eastoaklandcollective.wedid.it/

 

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 15, 2018

 

Organizers of the First Annual Housing Oakland Now! Fundraiser’s
Public Statement on The New Parish Former Owner’s Abuse of Homeless Residents

 

Oakland, CA — On June 24, 2018, 3-9 PM, The Village, The East Oakland Collective, Dellums Institute for Social Justice, Gina Madrid and Equipto will be hosting a star studded benefit concert as the first annual fundraiser for grassroots organizations The Village and The East Oakland Collective’s on the ground and in the trenches work. Both these organizations tirelessly advocate and serve on behalf of Oakland’s unhoused brothers and sisters to provide housing, address hunger, bring dignity and implement immediate and long term permanent solutions to Oakland’s housing and homelessness crisis. The event will be hosted at the popular venue, The New Parish.

 

Recent news stories and media have brought to light disturbing allegations against Jason Perkins, a former partner of Parish Entertainment Group, who controls The New Parish. The allegations against Jason Perkins are for the gross mistreatment of unhoused persons in San Francisco and Oakland — allegations that we demand be fully investigated by the proper authorities. These allegations are contrary to the work of The Village, The East Oakland Collective and Dellums Institute for Social Justice are doing to change the narrative on homelessness– efforts to share the many lived experiences of our unhoused brothers and sisters, eradicate the stereotypes on who is homeless and why people are unhoused, and ultimately decriminalize homelessness and frame it as a human rights crisis.

 

From the actions of Henry Sintay “Jogger Joe” at Lake Merritt to the allegations of Jason Perkins in San Francisco, now more than ever, is the time for community members to join us in changing the narrative on homelessness and unite against the mistreatment, stereotypes and criminalization of our unhoused brothers and sisters. After investigating and learning that Perkins is no longer with the New Parish, we decided not to move the first annual fundraiser from The New Parish venue, but instead ask the community to support this cause, join our efforts and most importantly, unite with us to change the narrative! We will pack the venue with our unhoused brothers and sisters, advocates, activists and community members– bringing our collective energy and demands to The New Parish.

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Housing Oakland Now! is the kick off campaign and first annual fundraiser for the collaboration between The Village and The East Oakland Collective. We organize housed and unhoused residents in Oakland to come together for the goal of  implementing immediate emergency and long term permanent solutions to the housing and homeless crisis in Oakland. We overstand that that the agenda of gentrification has wrongfully used Oakland’s public resources to create the housing and homeless state of emergency and massive human rights violations. This agenda needs to end and public resources such as land, funds and labor must be used to house Oakland’s displaced Black and Brown poor and working class communities.

 

We work in service and support with some encampments.

Other encampments we work in partnership with.

We promote mutual-aid (aka sharing) and unity building between encampments.

We build partnerships, alliances, and coalitions with other organizations to assert and ensure that our unsheltered brothers and sisters basic needs are met with respect and dignity.

We show solidarity and support with First Response efforts during crisis and evictions.

We engage in education, advocacy and policy work to decriminalize homelessness.

We defend and assert housing, shelter and safety is a human right that all should have access to.

We share meals with folks.

We have, maintain or build personal relationships with our displaced friends, families, neighbors and community.

We engage in direct action. We see that for curbside communities there is a thin line between survival and direct action. We assert that curbside communities have far more to lose in a direct action than housed communities. We believe it is the duty of our housed folks to join our curbside brothers and sisters.

We function in committees.

We are funded primarily thru in-kind donations, community donations, monthly patrons, anonymous donors, and occasionally small grants.

Two Three Hunid Tent City

in October 2017 after8months of advocating the City administration gave us land in East Oakland on e12 and 23rd. but the administration operated in ill faith. rather than allow us to move forward obstacle after obstacle was laid in our path. people were herded against their will on the land without any notice to us and threatened with arrest if they attempted to leave – including rival gangs and families with generation old beef.  Folks did not choose to be on the land and were not interested in going into recovery. we had moments where we were able to build a fragile unity between the encampment of residents that at it’s largest was 100 deep. We spent most of the year on the land dealing with crisis after crisis, keeping people from killing each other and chasing off predators. We built six homes to house 11 people – senior citizens and a woman with a child, advocated for adequate sanitation services the to date have remained unmet, made sure folks on the land had food & water, and provided support as necessary for folks individual needs.

In the end, the land should have never been offered to us as it was CalTrans not City owned. CalTran was unaware that we even were offered the land. Cal Trans intends to edit us this January 2019 to retrofit the overpass that spans the parcel an the administration is in the process of offering us new parcels to manifest our vision correctly and without sabatoge.

They tried to burry us….

From The day we were bulldozed to present day The Village had advocated or the legalities of their actions and vision, the human rights of curbside communities, a decriminalization of homelessness, the need for permanent houses and that existing encampments be upgraded and supported not criminalize, ignored or evicted.

 

The Bulldozing of The Promised Land

Feb 2, 2017

The First Village

Jan 20, 2017 – February 2, 2017

The First Village was located atMarcus Garvey Park in West Oakland. the Direct Action lasted for 13 days. From Jn 20, 2017 to Feb 2, 2017. we housed 16 residents who were chronicly homeless and addict. all 16 were sober during the two weeks we existed. we offered several services that were available free of charge and hundreds of curbside residents and housed residents in need utilize them.  word of the village spread across curbside communities throughout Oakland and even Berkeley. Unsheltered folks called it “The Promised Land” because community activists and advocates kept promises to their unsheltered neighbors, unlike city officials