Bay Area
Hundreds March for Housing Now in Oakland
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”.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of September 9 – 15, 2026
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026
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Activism
Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association
The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”
Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association
The East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA) and Youth Alive! came together on Aug. 21 to share with their community all that Black August means to them.
Held on EOBA’s patio at 816 98th Ave. in Deep East Oakland, the two organizations hosted their second annual Black August Experience, featuring a food tasting, financial literacy and mindfulness workshops, and voter registration with the League of Women Voters Oakland (LWV).
Black August is known as a time to uphold the legacy of prisoners who protested their conditions by fasting, fighting, and educating themselves on the economic and political circumstances that contributed to their incarceration.
According to its website, “EOBA is a multi-service youth and community development hub that goes far beyond the ring. While rooted in the discipline of boxing, for nearly 40 years EOBA has also integrated robust programs in workforce development, food justice, afterschool enrichment, financial literacy, mentorship, and wellness.”.
The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”
Through Coro California, another leadership organization serving young people across the state for 80 years, they gained a broader understanding of Black August.
EOBA Executive Director Dawna Williams spoke about how much she learned about Black August from the youth who created it. “I let them educate me,” she said. Instead of talking about prison reform and mass incarceration, Williams and youth interns found that Black August meant so much more. “We would have done a disservice if we had just focused on who the people were and what their situation was…We tried to take their message from back in the day and make it relevant to the young people today. What do they need to know?”
Youth interns created and placed posters around the patio to help participants understand how traditional Black foodways, civic engagement, financial literacy, and the power of education are relevant to Black resistance today.
An EOBA member described Black August with Youth ALIVE! as “a whole vibe. “This year we added the Fun Zone for the kids, because you really cannot go wrong with a Fun Zone. I also loved seeing everyone chillin’ in the outdoor lounge, catching some Vitamin D and just enjoying a Friday evening together.”
The food tasting, a popular event from last year, featured traditional Black foods such as black-eyed peas, johnny cakes, and fried chicken. Led by Williams, the tasting included a talk about how these traditional foods were made and why they are forms of Black resilience.
The “‘Plate of History’ was a favorite of the online writers. “Fun, educational, and did I mention delicious? Our Taste of History cook, Angela Southall, served up some good eats while connecting food to history and culture.”
The writer also commended the “League of Women Voters Oakland for their civic leadership and for getting our young people informed, ready, and registered to vote.”
Overall, it was a “good Friday event in East Oakland,” the writer said.
Upcoming Black August events: Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The websites for East Oakland Boxing Association, Youth Alive! and CORO are sources for this report.
Jana Lang is an Oakland resident, teacher, gardener and poet participating in the Propel News Initiative.
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