Bay Area

Federal Judge Allows City to Evict Residents of Wood Street Homeless Encampment

The city failed to reveal to the judge that “many of the evicted and unhoused Wood Street residents will be rejected by shelters for an overnight stay because of rules preventing evictees from bringing their pets and belongings. Rest on a cot offers a temporary respite that must be vacated the following day between the hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.,” says housing rights activist James Vann.

Published

3 months ago

February 15, 2023

Oakland Post

Federal Court Judge William Orrick, who one month ago blocked the city of Oakland’s eviction of unsheltered residents off Wood Street in West Oakland, has now ruled the city can proceed with removing the encampment after he determined that Oakland has shown it has enough shelter beds for those who are displaced.

This ‘calamity … will force more unhoused people onto the streets and into other Oakland neighborhoods,’ says housing rights activist James Vann

By Ken Epstein

The city says it wants to clear the site to build 170 units of affordable housing. Residents of Wood Street, who have developed a self-help community at the site, want the judge to continue to protect the encampment, at least until alternative shelter sites are in operation.

Said Orrick, “The city’s obligation is to provide, in this context, alternative shelter. That’s the thing that I required of them. They have done that. It’s not preferable for you, but that is what they have now been able to put together.”

Responding to the judge’s decision, housing rights advocate James E. Vann, co-founder and advisor to the Oakland Homeless Advocacy Working Group (HAWG), said Orrick’s Feb. 3 decision to reverse his original temporary restraining order was not unexpected.

However, Vann said the city has “misrepresented” the facts to the judge. The city does not have “adequate replacement housing” available for the residents of Wood Street, he said.

“The calamity that will follow is another instance of the city’s failure to acknowledge the homelessness crisis as real and to implement timely actions to assure adequate accommodations and health and safety of the affected unhoused residents,” said Vann.

“Armed with the judge’s lifting of the restraining order, the city will proceed, beginning this week, to force more unhoused people onto the streets and into other Oakland neighborhoods,” said Vann.

He said Wood Street residents have organized themselves and made clear to the city “the solidarity of their mutually helpful and caring community … (and) the desire of the residents to remain a community and not be thoughtlessly dispersed throughout the city.”

“It is unfortunate that the city’s homelessness administrator was not up to the job and failed to interact with the unhoused residents, or to make adequate plans for temporary tiny house accommodations prior to the funding deadlines for the new housing development,” he said.

This action, once again, demonstrates “the city’s ineptness (and) its undefined homelessness program, (which) will force many unhoused residents onto the streets during the worse imaginable weather,” where they will face the ravages of hypothermia, frostbite, and continuing pandemic, said Vann.

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 – 30, 2023

Published

2 days ago

May 26, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 24 - 30, 2023

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Activism

Rise in Abductions of Black Girls in Oakland Alarms Sex-Trafficking Survivors

Nola Brantley of Nola Brantley Speaks states, “America’s wider culture and society has consistently failed to address the abduction and kidnapping of Black girls in Oakland and across the country, and this lack of concern empowers and emboldens predators.”

Published

1 week ago

May 20, 2023

Oakland Post

Nola Brantley and Sarai Smith-Mazariegos

By Tanya Dennis

Within the last 30 days there have been seven attempted kidnappings or successful abductions of Black girls in Oakland.

Survivors of human trafficking who are now advocates are not surprised.

Nor were they surprised that the police didn’t respond, and parents of victims turned to African American community-based organizations like Adamika Village and Love Never Fails for help.

Advocates say Black and Brown girls disappear daily, usually without a blip on the screen for society and government officials.

Perhaps that will change with a proposed law by state Senator Steven Bradford’s Senate Bill 673 Ebony Alert, that, if passed, will alert people when Black people under the age of 26 go missing.

According to the bill, Black children are disproportionately classified as “runaways” in comparison to their white counterparts which means fewer resources are dedicated to finding them.

Brantley, a survivor of human trafficking has been doing the work to support child sex trafficking victims for over 20 years, first as the director for the Scotlan Youth and Family Center’s Parenting and Youth Enrichment Department at Oakland’s DeFremery Park, and as one of the co-founders and executive director of Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting and Serving Sexually Exploited Youth (MISSSEY, Inc.)

“It really hit home in 2010,” said Brantley, “before California’s Welfare Institution Code 300 was amended to include children victimized by sex trafficking.”

Before that law was amended, she had to vehemently advocate for Black and Brown girls under the age of 18 to be treated as victims rather than criminalized.

Brantley served hundreds of Black and Brown girls citing these girls were victims so they would be treated as such and offered restorative services. “To get the police to take their disappearances seriously and file a report almost never happened,” she said.

Then Brantley received a call from the Board of Supervisors regarding a “special case.” A councilman was at the meeting, as well as a member of former Alameda County Board Supervisor Scott Haggerty’s Office who had called Brantley to attend.

“The child’s parents and the child were there also. They requested that I give my full attention to this case. The girl was white and there was no question of her victimization,” Brantley said.

Brantley felt conflicted that of all the hundreds of Black and Brown girls she’d served, none had ever received this type of treatment.

Her eyes were opened that day on how “they” move, therefore with the recent escalation of kidnapping attempts of Black girls, Brantley fears that because it’s happening to Black girls the response will not be taken seriously.

Councilwoman Treva Reid

“I thank Councilwoman Treva Reid and Senator Steven Bradford (D) for pushing for the passing of the Ebony Alert Bill across the state so that the disappearance of Black girls will be elevated the same as white girls. We’ve never had a time when Black girls weren’t missing. Before, it didn’t matter if we reported it or if the parents reported the police failed to care.”

Senator Steven Bradford

Sarai S-Mazariegos, co-founder of M.I.S.S.S.E.Y, and founder and executive director of Survivors Healing, Advising and Dedicated to Empowerment (S.H.A.D.E.) agrees with Brantley.

“What we are experiencing is the effects of COVID-19, poverty and a regressive law that has sentence the most vulnerable to the sex trade,” S-Mazariegos said. “We are seeing the lack of equity in the community, the cause and consequence of gender inequality and a violation of our basic human rights. What we are seeing is sexual exploitation at its finest.”

Both advocates are encouraged by Bradford’s Ebony Alert.

The racism and inequity cited has resulted in the development of an underground support system by Brantley, S-Mazariegos and other community-based organizations who have united to demand change.

Thus far they are receiving support from Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, and Oakland City Councilmembers Nikki Fortunato Bas and Reid of the second and seventh districts respectively.

For more information, go to http://www.blackandmissinginc.com