Community

Homeless Need Trash Removal and Toilet Services

Published

7 years ago

July 4, 2019

The city of Oakland requires Richard Milton, who’s lived in an encampment behind Home Depot since the mid-1990s, to vacate with all his belongings for bi-monthly cleanups. But Milton finds vacating burdensome and says workers don’t clean much.

Residents in homeless encampments in Oakland complain that inefficient trash services and lack of access to toilets makes it impossible for them to live in a sanitary manner.

“I’ve never seen rats this big in my life,” said Nichole, who’s lived in a tent on Kirkham Street near West Oakland BART for five months. “They look like rat-squirrel hybrids.”

She said city officials refuse to provide a dumpster to her and the approximately 20 other residents at her encampment, so residents organize trash into piles for pick up. But the piles attract rodents and cause other problems.

Nichole’s experience is not unique. Homeless residents living near Wood Street and Raimondi Park in West Oakland, 23rd Street in downtown, and near the Home Depot in East Oakland all report that although they have asked for dumpsters, city officials instruct them to organize waste into piles.

“The trash goes everywhere once the wind starts blowing,” said Diablo, who’s lived in a tent by 23rd Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way for two years. When he and others who live near him bought a trashcan and put it on the street for trash pick-up, he reports city workers threw it away as it wasn’t city issued.

Toilet services vary from site to site. Larry Coke, who has been homeless for seven years and lives next to Raimondi Park, reports that within the last few weeks the city has finally provided him with portable toilets that are emptied and cleaned regularly.

But the several dozen people living in the nearby Wood Street encampment no longer use their portable toilets because they are overflowing with feces. A form on the door of one toilet shows it hasn’t been serviced in over a month.

Markaya S, who has lived in a tiny home she made near Home Depot in East Oakland for five years, reports that about 100 unhoused people live with her in The Community of Grace. But the city has only provided them with three portable toilets.

Although the city received $8.6 million in Homeless Emergency Aid Program funding last year, about $5 million went to Tuff Shed housing and RV parking sites.

However, many homeless people don’t want to move into those sites, and by the city’s own numbers they can only house a small portion of the homeless population.

Councilmembers Nikki Fortunato Bas, Sheng Thao, Loren Taylor and Council President Rebecca Kaplan have allocated $400,000 in their Oakland Together budget for mobile showers, restrooms, storage, and trash removal for homeless. But the City Council does not directly control how those funds are managed.

City administrator Sabrina Landreth and Assistant City Administrator Joe DeVries manage how city funds are used for homeless services.

They have faced many challenges as homelessness continues to surge in Oakland and the city tries new approaches to deal with the problem. “It’s a work in progress,” said DeVries. “I don’t know of other cities that have supplied portable toilets in the way we have.”

DeVries says that residents have moved toilets to locations that make them impossible to service and that although the city has provided trash receptacles, individuals have moved them and/or used them for other purposes. He has also suggested more mental health funding from the county.

Many homeless people find that the help the city claims to offer is not helpful.

“Every other week we have to pack up all our stuff and leave, but they don’t clean sh*t,” said Richard Milton, who has lived in an encampment behind a Home Depot on the Emeryville/Oakland border since the mid-1990s.

Although the city pays for city workers to clean the site, they require Milton to move all of his belongings during the cleaning, which he finds burdensome.

“There is a difference of opinion in terms of how the city administration says they’re managing homeless encampments and the direct experience of homeless residents and their advocates,” said Councilmember Bas.

Zach Haber

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

Published

1 day ago

June 9, 2026

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.

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#NNPA BlackPress

Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.