Homelessness and unhoused people are criminalized when laws are put in place that make it illegal to do things that unhoused people do to survive.
Most government funded interventions to homelessness are undignified, and temporary band-aid solutions. Most city interventions begin with the false premise that evictions of curbside residents is inevitable.
Most policy makers and people who have six figure careers in the homeless industrial complex have never been homeless. Most have a deep anti-homeless bias, and many have power and control issues that get played out on their “clients”.
For these reasons and more, the Village in Oakland prioritizes developing unhoused leaders to advocate for themselves and their curbside communities. Participating in the Homeless Advocacy Working Group; speaking out at City Council and County Board of Supervisor meetings; helping draft, write or inform policies that impact unhoused residents; and contributing to policy research reports are some of the ways we encourage and support unhoused residents to participate in policy advocacy work.
Other policy work The Village in Oakland has contributed and/or continues to work on:
- The implementation and renewal of the Shelter Crisis Ordinance in 2017, 2018, and 2020.
- Advocating and informing the COVID-19 moratorium on evictions of curbside communities and a moratorium on towing and impounding vehicles people live in.
- To date, advocating for more than $600 million in pubic funds to be used towards homeless interventions and solutions
- Advocating for and informing the City Auditor’s scathing findings on the City of Oakland’s interventions towards curbside communities
- Advocating for and informing humane and dignified unhoused interventions at the State and Federal Levels
- Advocating for the creation and legalization of sanctioned settlements, autonomous settlements, and co-governed communities on public land; portapotties at informal settlements; an end to evictions of settlements; the protection of civil and human rights; the creation of permanent housing below 30% the market rate built to the scale of the homeless crisis; to remove the use of police in responding to the mental health crisis at curbside communities or evictions of curbside communities; the removal of anti-homeless laws and ordinances in oakland; end the criminalization of vehicle dwellers
- Supporting curbside communities to file civil rights lawsuits when the city enacts eviction practices that violates unhoused residents rights. The lawsuits are used as a tool to change the city’s harmful policies and create new ones that protect people’s rights.
- Supporting curbside communities as they advocate for themselves in dealing with the city, police or department of public works.
- Deeply Rooted City of Oakland General Plan Community Consultant Team – Led by Eastside Arts Alliance and Just Cities, the Village in Oakland is honored to be a member of a team of several powerful community based organizations dedicated to equity, development without displacement, and justice. We will be consulting The City of Oakland’s process to develop the overall general plan and vision for Oakland that will span the next 20 years.
