By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.

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By Ken Epstein

After 20 years under state control, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) will regain local authority over its budget and day-to-day decision-making, emerging from an era of austerity when the district was forced by state-appointed overseers to close more than 40 mostly flatland schools, eliminate educational programs, and cut millions of dollars in services for students and classrooms.

After making its final payment on a $100 million state loan at the end of June, the district in July will again be under the authority of the local school board, like other districts statewide.

The decades of direct intervention by state officials, Alameda County education officials and a powerful, state-funded regulatory agency, the Fiscal Crisis Management and Assistance Team (FCMAT), will finally come to an end in July, according to the office of State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond.

The official narrative of the state takeover is a simple one: the district overspent its budget, and the state altruistically stepped in to rescue it.

But the truth behind the takeover is far different. It’s a story of raw power, greed, and racism.

When the state declared the district insolvent in 2003, OUSD had a $39 million deficit, and funds in a reserve account sufficient to loan itself funds to cover the deficit, a practice that was common in other districts. However, the state would not allow Oakland to use its own money to cover the shortfall.

The state stepped in, fired Supt. Dennis Chaconas, eliminated the authority of the Board of Education, forced the district to take a $100 million loan that it neither needed nor requested, and appointed a receiver, Randolph Ward, who reported to the state schools’ superintendent, making all the decisions related to the operation of OUSD, including how to spend the $100 million loan.

Not only did the district have to repay the loan, it had to pay the salaries of the various overseers it was required to hire.

Involved in the drive to take control of the district and sell school properties was Oakland’s then powerful State Senator Don Perata, who had been pushing for several years to take control of the district, unsuccessfully attempting to sell the district’s Second Avenue headquarters to real estate developers.

Other local business and political leaders, including State Supt. of Schools Bill Honig, were determined to eliminate the power of the Black majority school board, which was seen as an impediment to the agenda for business as usual.

Among recent interventions by Oakland’s outside overseers was in 2021, when the district, with broad community support, was about to adopt a resolution for “Reparations for Black Students.” The outside trustee spoke at a school board meeting to block the passage of the measure until the board removed wording that would have protected predominantly Black schools from being closed.

In 2024, during district negotiations with administrators, the trustee did not allow the board to approve more money unless it agreed to guidelines to close and merge schools.

In a letter to the district, Alameda County Superintendent of Schools Alysse Castro agreed that the district has done what is necessary to regain local control but that challenges remain.

“These improvements co-exist with ongoing concerns that OUSD must still confront its structural deficit and address the long-standing overinvestment in small schools,” she wrote.

“However, these are challenges of local policy and the domain of a locally elected board of education, not of mismanagement or financial misconduct,” Castro wrote.

“Continuing to require a trustee to backstop them risks continued delay in local ownership and accountability and reinforces a counterproductive narrative that feeds resistance and undermines the board’s willingness to engage their community in making necessary tradeoffs.”

Going forward, the district still faces financial difficulties. According to reports, the board must make $73 million in cuts to the 2025-2026 budget and an additional $17 million from the 2026-2027 budget.

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Special to The Post

The East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) announced the first round of grantees for the Oakland Small Business Resiliency Fund, an initiative supporting small businesses in Oakland’s most underserved neighborhoods.

The Fund is dedicated to helping businesses overcome the challenges of accessing capital, particularly those in communities historically impacted by disinvestment and community violence.

This year’s grantees represent neighborhoods like Downtown Oakland, East Oakland, Eastlake, Fruitvale, and West Oakland. Many grantee partners have been long-standing pillars in their communities, underscoring their resilience and ongoing impact.

• 96% of grantees identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color; almost half identify as Black, African American, or African.
• Over half of business owners identify as women, transgender, or non-binary/gender variant/non-conforming.
• Over half of grantees have been operating in Oakland for 10 or more years, with 20% serving the community for over 20 years.

Among the more than 140 grantees are (randomly selected): Elevate Golf Academy, Healthy Potter, International Coin Laundromat, Kinfolx, Mothers Touch, FlyLady Tee, High Street Hand Car Wash, Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Hasta Muerte Coffee Cooperative, RBA Creative, This Is Baba’s House, Soulflow Enterprises, Sirius Creativity, Xin Da Di Salon and Marcus Books.

These businesses are innovative and essential to the cultural and economic fabric of Oakland, EBCF said in their announcement. “We encourage you to learn more about their efforts and support their continued work in creating impactful change for their communities,” the statement says.

As part of EBCF’s commitment to shifting power in funding decision-making structures and sharing power with the community, it co-created and collaboratively implemented the Oakland Small Business Resiliency Fund with a diverse ecosystem of partners who are committed to supporting and uplifting Oakland’s beautiful small business community.

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