Bay Area

Hundreds March for Housing Now in Oakland

Published

4 years ago

November 27, 2019

Hundreds of East Bay residents gathered at Mosswood Park in Oakland around noon on Sat., Nov. 23, 2019, to participate in The March for Housing Now, which called for the City of Oakland to house its unhoused residents.

“We believe that housing is a human right,” said Carol Fife, Director of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), the organization who hosted the march. “I know you all do, too. And we need to make Oakland the model for what can happen when people say ‘enough is enough’ and are putting their feet down around the carnivorous, brutal, evil, malevolent, capitalist, white supremacist [housing market].”

The march had several dozen speakers and at least nine other organizations, non-profits, and labor unions joined ACCE at the march including East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), IFPTE Local 21, East Bay Democratic Socialists of America, Moms 4 Housing, Sunrise Movement Bay Area, Youth Vs The Apocalypse, Youth for Positive Direction, Strike Debt Bay Area, and Tenants and Neighborhood Councils Bay Area (TANC.)

Calls to join the march highlighted the fact that there are far more vacant housing units in Oakland than there are homeless people. The march’s Facebook invite called on the City of Oakland to “move thousands off the streets and vehicles into safe, healthy homes by filling vacant units.” The call comes after formerly homeless Oakland residents Dominque Walker and Sameerah Karim of Moms 4 Housing, moved into a vacant home on Magnolia street in West Oakland with their children, which is owned by Wedgewood, a Southern California real estate investment company.

Speakers at the march spoke at three locations and stood atop the flatbed of a vehicle they used as a stage. Starting at Mosswood Park, next to an unhoused community of several dozen people who lived in tents, Oakland Education Association President Keith Brown spoke of how difficult it is for teachers to find housing they can afford in Oakland and that many Oakland teachers are forced to live elsewhere.

Daphine Lamb-Perrilliat of EBHO, spoke of how Mayor Libby Schaaf had promised in 2016 that market rate developers would pay impact fees to construct affordable housing but that those funds have not been made available. She claimed there were $50 million missing from affordable housing funding.

Amin Robinson, a student at Laney College, spoke of the secondary homelessness many college students experience, where students don’t have stable housing and stay with others who offer them space.

“Students are focusing on: what am I going to eat tonight? Where am I gonna lay my head?” said Robinson. “They can’t even have a full-time student mentally.”

Robinson suggested that Laney College should build affordable housing at an underused parking lot.

Those who attended the event marched from Mosswood Park down MacArthur boulevard holding signs and banners. One read “Housing is a Human Right,” another read “Housing for All, Not for Profit,” and another read “The Working Class Produces Homes, Capitalism Produces Homelessness, Cestroy capitalism.” Two TANC members carried a large red banner that read “No Landlords.”

While stopping outside of homes along MacArthur set to be demolished to make room for market-rate housing, youth activists spoke. Many were from Youth Vs The Apocalypse, and spoke of how housing insecurity is related to climate catastrophe.

“People should not have to live in the street, people should not have to live in tents, people should not have to live in sheds, ” said Youth Vs The Apocalypse member Isha Clarke. “And especially when we’re in this time of severe climate catastrophe, when California is on fire, how dare we allow someone to live in a tent where they’re facing lethal asthma attacks, cancer and lung disease. This is not how we treat our people.”

Marchers then moved to Telegraph Avenue and walked north until they reached MacArthur Commons, a luxury housing development that has 97% market rate units. As they marched they chanted “Housing is a what? Human right,” and “Fight, Fight”.

Zack Haber

Posts by Zack Haber

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

Published

9 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

DA Pamela Price Stands by Mom Who Lost Son to Gun Violence in Oakland

Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018.

Published

4 days ago

April 22, 2024

Oakland Post

District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones

Publisher’s note: Last week, The Post published a photo showing Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price with Carol Jones, whose son, Patrick DeMarco Scott, was gunned down by an unknown assailant in 2018. The photo was too small for readers to see where the women were and what they were doing. Here we show Price and Jones as they complete a walk in memory of Scott. For more information and to contribute, please contact Carol Jones at 510-978-5517 at morefoundation.help@gmail.com. Courtesy photo.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

State Controller Malia Cohen Keynote Speaker at S.F. Wealth Conference

California State Controller Malia Cohen delivered the keynote speech to over 50 business women at the Black Wealth Brunch held on March 28 at the War Memorial and Performing Arts Center at 301 Van Ness Ave. in San Francisco. The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.

Published

6 days ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

American Business Women’s Association Vice President Velma Landers, left, with California State Controller Malia Cohen (center), and ABWA President LaRonda Smith at the Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the ABWA at the Black Wealth Brunch.

By Carla Thomas

The Enterprising Women Networking SF Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association (ABWA) hosted the Green Room event to launch its platform designed to close the racial wealth gap in Black and Brown communities.

“Our goal is to educate Black and Brown families in the masses about financial wellness, wealth building, and how to protect and preserve wealth,” said ABWA San Francisco Chapter President LaRonda Smith.

ABWA’s mission is to bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and provide opportunities for them to help themselves and others grow personally and professionally through leadership, education, networking support, and national recognition.

“This day is about recognizing influential women, hearing from an accomplished woman as our keynote speaker and allowing women to come together as powerful people,” said ABWA SF Chapter Vice President Velma Landers.

More than 60 attendees dined on the culinary delights of Chef Sharon Lee of The Spot catering, which included a full soul food brunch of skewered shrimp, chicken, blackened salmon, and mac and cheese.

Cohen discussed the many economic disparities women and people of color face. From pay equity to financial literacy, Cohen shared not only statistics, but was excited about a new solution in motion which entailed partnering with Californians for Financial Education.

“I want everyone to reach their full potential,” she said. “Just a few weeks ago in Sacramento, I partnered with an organization, Californians for Financial Education.

“We gathered 990 signatures and submitted it to the [California] Secretary of State to get an initiative on the ballot that guarantees personal finance courses for every public school kid in the state of California.

“Every California student deserves an equal opportunity to learn about filing taxes, interest rates, budgets, and understanding the impact of credit scores. The way we begin to do that is to teach it,” Cohen said.

By equipping students with information, Cohen hopes to close the financial wealth gap, and give everyone an opportunity to reach their full financial potential. “They have to first be equipped with the information and education is the key. Then all we need are opportunities to step into spaces and places of power.”

Cohen went on to share that in her own upbringing, she was not guided on financial principles that could jump start her finances. “Communities of color don’t have the same information and I don’t know about you, but I did not grow up listening to my parents discussing their assets, their investments, and diversifying their portfolio. This is the kind of nomenclature and language we are trying to introduce to our future generations so we can pivot from a life of poverty so we can pivot away and never return to poverty.”

Cohen urged audience members to pass the initiative on the November 2024 ballot.

“When we come together as women, uplift women, and support women, we all win. By networking and learning together, we can continue to build generational wealth,” said Landers. “Passing a powerful initiative will ensure the next generation of California students will be empowered to make more informed financial decisions, decisions that will last them a lifetime.”