The Village

By Ayat Jalal

I am Ayat Jalal, a 46 year old Black Seminole, son of Black Panthers.

Because of them I’ve been president of a nonprofit corporation, and have had two businesses. I am a father-of-six, a founding member of “First They Came For The Homeless”, member of The Village, carpenter, published poet, artist and organizer, who is currently couch surfing in Oakland. 

Homeless, like the victims of unfair housing practices introduced to Oakland when Jerry Brown became Mayor, that denied public housing to families who had a member who was a felon. I am part of the 70 percent homeless Black population in Oakland, unable to find peace between the rent hikes and camp closures. 

For the past 20 years, Blacks in Oakland have lost their homes to abatement laws and fines to the courts and bail bondsman. Generations and families that have only known Oakland as home, have lost the only anchor in the only communities they have known before Gentrification hit Oakland. 

However, gentrification is nothing new. It’s just a different name for the same colonial racism. The same systematic displacement and shaming of targeted populations. We minorities, who make up the majority of the population, have had our families and lives torn apart by unjust laws. Gang injunctions made our youth targets for wearing the same gear or same hats. Schools in Oakland are closed down and our children are harassed, cited and arrested by police. Given criminal charges. For not being in school. Our families lose strength and we’re made unwhole and broken. 

Our schools are still being closed, and housing blocked as an inhumane tactic of social and economic oppression of Oaklanders. And police are used like assassins, and pawns in this war to maintain poverty. 

Our schools are still being closed, while police receive new equipment to hunt us down in the street like prey.

Affordable housing continues to be denied, while private industry builds prisons and above market  rate housing. 

Oaklanders still want decent housing fit for the shelter of human beings. And if the government and landlords will not give decent housing to the Red, Black, and Brown communities, then as my parents and the other Panther taught us, housing and the land needs to be made into cooperatives so that our communities, with the people’s aid, can build and make decent housing for its people.

The Civil Rights struggle has helped inspire the fight for human rights almost everywhere in the world. Black people once led that struggle. The assasination of our leaders, the flooding of our streets with drugs, the lack of adequate jobs and education, the inaccessibility of adequate housing, the decimation of the Black economic base – all destroyed our communities. And its cost us decades of cultural and generational attacks on Red, Yellow, Brown and Black people. 

That struggle continues still. Still to this day, no matter the jury, no matter the administration, we’re not judged by peers nor given proper government representation. The struggle continues. The silencing of protestors, the crystal meth and heron epidemic currently flooding our communities, the closure of schools, the lack of access to jobs, the lack of adequate housing. Libby Shaft and Joe Devrey have repeated history. They have no compassion, nor the capacity to be humane. They have proven this in their actions during this emergency crisis on homelessness. The current administration don’t care about the culture or people of the Real Oakland – the Black, Red, Brown, working class and poor. And we need to do something about that. We insist The City Council turn the Village demands into policies that are implemented and enforced. We insist that the people of Oakland move forward forever. The government is obviously not for us or with us in this struggle.

By Yanna Johnson

My name is Yanna Johnson, I am a single mother, an entrepreneur, a longtime taxpayer and voter, born and raised in Oakland, who worked with and voted for Libby Schaaf. I survived the Encampment Management Team’s demolition of my emergency home while I was homeless. 

Mayor Libby Schaaf has been lying to the public regarding city actions against unhoused Oakland citizens. She “claims” to have taken a compassionate and humane approach. Her current actions have been ineffective: taxpayer and voter resources wasted on knocking down Oakland residents who need her help the most. Libby Schaaf destroyed a yurt the community built for me at the Housing & Dignity Village almost a year ago today. Now I am seeing her organizing to provide the same fate to my community. She has met unhoused residents attempts to create stability during this crisis with aggressive tactics, which is why in addition to the Housing Justice Village demands, i am seeking at this time to recall Libby Schaaf from office.

Libby has often left the media, and voters in the dark. Especially,when they violate unhoused citizens 4th/8th/14th amendment rights by illegally searching and seizing property, punishing and criminalizing unhoused residents for trying to survive while unhoused, and not giving unhoused residents the same rights and protections as housed residents. Libby & her Encampment Management Team’s actions have resulted in 5 separate, ongoing civil rights lawsuits against the city of Oakland. Libby and her team’s action also earned the United Nations attention. Last year, the United Nations internationally recognized the city of Oakland as one of the top human rights violators of unhoused people in the world. What an embarrassing record to hold. Could it be why she also does not inform the public or allow media to display the current response tactics used against unhoused citizens??? The demolishing of miniature built housing, the towing of unhoused vehicles, and criminalizing her citizens leaving them in total despair??

These tactics trigger emotional, mental and physical setbacks. Responses such as depression /ptsd/ anxiety and panic attacks are common. Imagine losing something you have known as your residence. Now, imagine how disruptive it is to your equilibrium when someone disposes your personal belongings. It also increase chances of losing employment or employment opportunities.

The way The City is using resources is not effective. We do not see our tax dollars hard at work for the citizens of Oakland who need it most. In fact she approved our tax dollars (700k annual income ) without proper protocol to David Silver – a man directing her favorite non profit Oakland Promise. He is not an Oakland Voter, nor resident. All while we see our local people dying without housing in the streets.

All of Libby Schaaf’s solutions to the homeless crisis are temporary and don’t match the size or need of this crisis, The main approach she has been pushing as a success are her “Tuff Sheds.” Not only does the manufacturer of the Tuff Sheds report that human inhabitation in their product will cause respiratory disease and cancer, but their mismanagement by non-profits receiving a half a million to staff them has resulted in dozens of testimonies of abuse, mistreatment, suffering and harm. Why is the two years that Libby and the Encampment Management Team has had access to unprecedented millions, there are no resolutions are for permanent housing for Oakland’s unhoused demographic.Why over the next 5 years are there only 200 units for low income residents and over 50,000 housing units that are market rate and above? Libby’s goal is to drive long time citizens to relocate to alternative cities, while the city attempts to bring a new market to Oakland … and still driving out national sport teams.

City Council recommendations have been ignored…especially for public land for sanctuaries /village land/and immediate alternatives to traditional permanent housing. We are tired of the lack of assistance for the unhoused and racial disparity felt throughout the Oakland community, while OPD makes $30million in overtime pay ANNUALLY the last 3 years. This can no longer be ignored. We don’t want anymore of Libby’s Oakland…or her Promises. Please help me recall Libby Schaaf as Mayor it would open doors to new prosperity and hopefully get us some professional sporting teams back into rotation.

This Tuesday and Wednesday Libby Schaaf plans to use more of our tax dollars to destroy curbside communities of Kirkham (between 16th/18th,West Oakland), Joaquin Miller Park, and in East Oakland ( 83rd and 84th on e13th & e14th), in the rain. The city plans on taking their homes and with no permanent alternative, destroy the tight knit communities that lean on each other to survive, and erase any stability they have created for themselves. Their idea of housing is in an overnight shelter that city reps would die before bringing themselves or children and families to be placed. I personally challenge the city to stay overnight at any of the facilities they attempt to place the unhoused. The Housing & Dignity Village  provided a safe shelter space for myself and other single mothers of Oakland and our families. Her greed took that away. We demand the city of Oakland turn our demands into policies that are implemented and enforced. And I call upon the community to join the recall effort.

By Tracy Lee

 “The blind can not lead the blind.” “Each one teach one.” “I can show you better than I can tell you”. 

Oakland is a city of so many races and cultures. Different, diverse, and from so many kinds of backgrounds. But one thing that unites us is the caring and loving people we are. No matter how hard the struggle may be, we always take care of each other. We all in the same boat – struggling to live. We take matters into our own hands to get thru life.

“The blind can not lead the blind”. ”Each one teach one”. And my favorite –  “I can show you better than i can tell you”. These are all phrases that we can say we heard or even used before in life. It’s usually when we want to express deeply how we feel and feeling like ‘Man fuck this! I’m gone do it myself!’ Sometimes we don’t realize we are doing this. But instead of waiting for the city to do something, instead of just going in and out of the city hall talking to actors trained by the theatrics of city officials, instead of waiting for politicians design to make impossible promises that we cannot ever see – we do it ourselves.

While this homeless state of emergency and the affordable housing crisis is being debated in and out of city hall by anti-homeless politicians and housed residents, the unhoused are still hurting and being hurt. The most in need continue to be neglected. The unhoused are still unhoused, and our numbers grow. 

The label of “homeless” has unfortunate connotations. It implies that one is a failure, is “less than”, and it undermines self-esteem and progressive forward motion. The use of the term unhoused, instead of “homeless” has a profound personal impact upon those in insecure housing situations.The general understanding of the “homeless” by the greater public is often based upon legal definitions of homelessness, set down by specific governing bodies. The term “homeless” is not static. It was first recognized by the UN in the 1940s, as an effort to categorize people lacking regular living quarters.

The fact that the numbers of unhoused residents continues to grow is not acceptable. And it makes no sense that California is the richest state in the U.S., but we1 dr a1re leading the nation in the unhoused state of emeq1rgency. California has almost half of all this county 3’s unhoused. The United States is a rich country, and to see these deplorable conditions that the government is allowing, by international human rights standards, it’s unacceptable. I’m guided by human rights law as one of the leaders and advocates with The Village. We are one of Oakland’s leading service and advocacy movements for the unhoused. And we believe we must take matter into our own hands. “The blind can not lead the blind”. “Each one teach one”.  And my favorite – “I can show you better than I can tell you”.  We must create our own solutions to deal with this problem. We must rely on ourselves because the city who should have dealt with it has failed to do so. If we keep on waiting, more of us will be unhoused, more of us will be suffering, more of us will be ignored on the streets.

By Needa Bee

“Victory”

The devil is mad.

everyday i rise bright, strong,

Solid. Feelin’ myself.

“Homefull”

Houseless on the streets.

But with love and unity

We fam. We are Home.

“Politricksters”

Babylon leaders

Rule with lies, harm those with less

Get paid for their crimes

By Needa Bee

As California’s homeless state of emergency continues to soar above the rest of the crisis that sweeps the United States, so do falsely claimed government controlled  “solutions.”

The state and the nation are turning their eyes to the Bay Area governments who are patting themselves on the back for their successful approaches, while the housing affordability crisis and homeless state of emergency continue to be some of the worse.  Unfortunately the programs to prevent homelessness and the pathways to end homelessness many times do not result in a permanent roof over your head. Rather they are a revolving door (and sometimes a one way door) back to the streets.

The next three issues, we will look at how different Bay Area Cities are addressing the affordable housing & homeless crisis. First city: Oakland

Oakland: Working on Making Homeless People Disappear, While the Homeless Crisis Grows

Over the past two years, the City of Oakland has spent unprecedented millions of dollars on so called solutions to homelessness. But during that time Oakland’s unhoused population has more than doubled, and hundreds of curbside residents who have been thru Tuff Sheds and Bay Area Community Services Rapid Rehousing efforts have been recycled back on the streets. 

Meanwhile, rather than heed the October 19^th, 2018 United Nations report from the Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing who visited Oakland homeless encampments in the Fall 2017 and described the conditions as “cruel and inhuman,” Mayor Libby Schaaf’s Encampment Management Team has increased its inhumane treatment of its most vulnerable residents. The only U.S. cities called out for violations in the UN’s new report on global homelessness conditions are San Francisco and Oakland.  As stated in the new UN report:

The Oakland conditions of discrimination and harassment of encampment residents and punitive denials of access to basic services constitute “cruel and inhuman treatment and is a violation of multiple human rights…Such punitive policies must be prohibited in law and immediately ceased.”

Since that report, there has been a massive increase in the already inhumane practices described in the UN report. There has also been new tactics the Encampment Management Team deploys including demolishing entire communities of self-built homes or taking vehicles people live in. Adding insult to injury, trauma to more trauma, no alternative adequate shelter is being offered to the communities it destroys – not even a tent or one night in a homeless shelter, but leaves people vulnerable and traumatized on the side of the road where their homes & RVs once stood.

From The Curbs to To BandAid Shelter to The Curbs 

When The City pats itself on its back for offering one night at St. Vincent de Paul, it’s still not offering adequate shelter. Because the shelter system is broken. The City knows this. The homeless service providers know this. And the unsheltered know this. Yet The Mayor wants to use millions of dollars to build more homeless shelters without drastically fixing this broken system. Many of us have advocated and advised that if The City is set on shelter beds, they should in the very least improve the existing system instead of wasting public funds in a system that recycles people in and out of the streets. And why should millions be spent on beds when those resources could be used to build permanent housing?

The main push prior to the creation of new homeless shelters was the multi-million dollar Tuff Shed Scam. Tuff sheds do not work. They do not improve the lives of the vast majority of people who are pushed through them. Much like the shelter system, a majority of people are recycled back onto the streets after spending 6 months to a year in the tuff sheds. In addition, the mismanagement of the tuff shed sites by non-profits receiving a half a million dollars to run them is unacceptable. The Village and Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute has documented dozens of testimonies of abuse, punishment, loss of personal property, dismal conditions, harm and violence from former residents of the Tuff Sheds. The Tuff Shed program is merely a cosmetic approach that gives the illusion of doing something, while making homeless residents – not the homeless crisis – disappear. 

The Mayor and her Encampment Management Team needs to come clean. Approaching homelessness as a humanitarian crisis is not their priority. However,  approaching homelessness as an eye sore to their profit driven development plans is a priority that is making a handful of people very rich. The money is not reaching the people it has been intended to help.

There are literally thousands of Oaklanders, mostly Black, mostly born and raised in Oakland, living on the streets tonight. Meanwhile, for every one unhoused person, four residential units stay empty in Oakland. Meanwhile, 200 permanent housing units have been approved to be built over the next five years. Over that same time 50,000 market rate and above market rate units will be built.

 The City is lying. They have no intention to solve the affordable housing crisis or the homeless state of emergency. They have every intention of building for rich, white people who do not live here, while they leave The Town on the streets to freeze to death.

By Ayat Jalal

Coffins are not carpeted

There not for standing

Linolium is useless

As the imagined dreams,

some believe they’ll be having

The padding is for comfort

to those left standing,

Imagining death’s visions

going over the width,

Linoliums length and pattern

hoping for a like padding.

Maddening.

How many comrades

died for standing.

For them

do more than stand.

Ancestral Spirits

Have no care for carpets 

The padding useless as

linolium in the streets.

Where some are taking back land

Because coffins are not carpeted

We must do more than stand