In Oakland, we serve more than 45 curbside communities; hundreds of individual unhoused folks who live isolated in the streets, and seniors and families with children who are housing unstable or food insecure.
We work with four encampments in Berkeley, and we provide hot meal and grocery service to unhoused folks in downtown San Francisco.
Unhoused residents of the Housing & Dignity Village working with housed volunteers to prepare holiday dinners for more than 600 unhoused folks across Oakland.
Unhoused residents of the millennium are gentrification’s economic & racial refugees. Exceedingly more than 80% of Oakland’s unhoused are Black adults ages 24-75, a majority no-income seniors. A significant part of the unhoused population is Native American, Central American and South American. Women & children fleeing domestic violence are also a notable portion of the demographic that becomes unhoused. LGBTQ youth rejected by family are part of Oakland’s unhoused community. Hundreds of undocumented folks and refugees, veterans, formerly incarcerated, or sick cannot secure housing & end up curbside. Many struggle with mental-health issues, including addiction. None of us can afford “New Oakland” housing. Our demographic is vulnerable, criminalized, neglected, traumatized by our city; but resilient.
We are founding members and in the leadership of: The Homeless Advocacy Working Groups (HAWG), 510Day, Oaxxanda
We are members of Oakland Climate Action Coalition, National Lawyers Guild Right to Shelter Working Group, Bay Area Landless People’s Alliance, East Bay Permanent Real Estate Collective, Northern California Resiliency Hub, Deeply Rooted Oakland General Plan 2045 Community Consultants, Alameda County People With Lived Experience Coalition, National Coalition on Homelessness.
We are partners in the Housing and Dignity Project and Hotels Not Graves.
We work in community with Oakland Community Kitchens, East Lake Neighbors For Justice, Food Not Bombs, East Oakland Burrito Roll, Mask Oakland, First They Came For The Homeless, Phat Beats, North Oakland Restorative Justice Council, St. Mary’s Center, BayHeart, The East Oakland Collective, Homies Empowerment, Love & Justice in The Streets, Punks With Lunches, Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless, Ella Baker Center For Human Rights, Berkeley Friends on Wheels, Just Cities, La Marcha Restaurant, The Lumpia Lady, Lena’s Soul Food Kitchen, and Agave Restaurant, The Wood Street Commons, Oakland Revealed.
Housed & unhoused Feed The People volunteers sharing meals with unhoused folks in West Oakland. 
Housing and Dignity Village resident Pastor Preston held down the interfaith tent on site.
Volunteers
Village in Oakland is run off volunteer power. We believe homelessness, especially in its current state of emergency, is a humanitarian crisis that we want to end forever. Ending homelessness and supporting unhoused folks should not be a career choice, rather a moral obligation.
We have a pool of more than 150 volunteers from all walks of life that support our 11 programs and services, help with administration, secure funding and donations, and show up when we put out the call for non-violent direct actions or packing City Hall meetings.
Village volunteers and community supports show up early morning in December 2018 to stop the City from bulldozing the Housing and Dignity Village. 
Community members are quick to respond when The Village in Oakland puts out a call to mob on City Hall. 
unhoused advocates at oakland city hall 
the original Feed The People kru building at the park
Staff
Our paid staff is compromised of unhoused or formally chronically unhoused folks who work for specific projects: Living Room Block Parties, 510Day, Word On The Curb Media Advocacy Program, and Deeply Rooted Oakland Partnership General Plan 2045.
Leadership Team
Our Leadership Team is a mother-daughter duo who help steer Village in Oakland and manifest our mission and vision. They have been unhoused (living on the streets) and housing insecure (living in squats, couch surfing, etc) several times over the past 30 years.
Needa Bee
Anita De Asis Miralle aka Needa Bee is a mother, community activist, spoken word artist and chef. She has more than 40 years of community organizing, civil and human rights advocacy, and non-profit organizing and advocacy under her belt. She was the co-founder and an organizer for A.S.I.A.N. (Asian Sisters for Ideas in Action NOW!), Bay Area League of Filipino Students, Committee For Human Rights in the Philippines, and People’s Artists. She was the former Community Organizer for HERE Local 2 Restaurant and Hotel Workers’ Union; the former Executive Co-Director of both Critical Resistance Youth Force and Raperations Records; the former Program Manager of Mandela Arts Center; the former Program Manager of Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute. She was awarded a Hayward Burns Fellowship from the National Lawyers Guild, making her the first person who was neither an attorney or law student to be nominated for and receive the award. She also created Young Oakland, Healthy Hoodz, and 510Day. She is the co-founder and advocate of The Village in Oakland, volunteering in general with all 11 programs and services. When she is not engaging in community work or creating art, she is the legendary Lumpia Lady of Oakland. To learn more about Needa Bee.
Joyous Efiya De Asis Miralle
Born and raised in Oakland, Joyous co-founded The Feed The People program with her mother Needa Bee in January 2016. She is the founder and Program Coordinator for Village in Oakland’s newest service – The Soul Food Shack, and serves as a volunteer on Village in Oakland administration team. At the age of 10 she founded Young Oakland. She has worked as a peer-educator with Girls Rock Camp, the GIRL Project, and the theater project at East Side Arts Alliance. She is the former Gallery Manager at Pro Arts Gallery. She is a talented dancer, writer and visual artist. She helps run her family’s 30 plus year old food service business – The Lumpia Ladies.
Advisors
Our Advisors have been chronically unhoused and have done work in the community serving, supporting and advocating for unhoused folks.
Bobby Qui
Bobby is a co-founder of The Village. He is the former lead builder of The Housing & Dignity Build Team and Feed The People. Born in Mexico in 1974, Bobby immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 10 years old. He has been unhoused, deported or incarcerated countless times since he was 12 years old. He is currently serving time in Riverside County Prison, and is awaiting a hearing to obtain political assylum from Mexico. He serves as an advisor to The Village in Oakland thru regular scheduled phone calls to the Leadership Council.
April Anthony
Bio coming soon.
Janny Castillo
Janny Castillo has been a civil and economic rights activist for over 18 years. Her personal experience with homelessness fuels her passion to help reduce the effects of systemic poverty in California. She is the Director of the St. Mary’s Center Community and Outreach Services which includes the St. Mary’s Center Hope and Justice Program where older adults age 55 and older, housed and unhoused participate in social justice activities that improve quality of life for extremely low-income seniors and families. Under her leadership, St. Mary’s Center seniors actively participate in Housing California’s Residents United Network, The Senior Services Coalition, Californians for Retired Americans, and the SSI for Californians Coalition; instrumental in expanding CalFresh to SSI recipients. She has been a member of the Homeless Advocacy Working Group since 2017, and currently serves on The CIty of Oakland’s Homeless Commission.