Activism

Local Orgs. Unite Against Housing Crisis

Speakers painted a devastating picture of the housing crisis in Oakland: an estimated 4,000 people unhoused, a quarter of whom are children and almost three quarters of whom are Black. A 24% increase in homelessness—and 800 deaths on the streets—in the past three years. And the so-called “CARE courts” proposed by Governor Gavin Newsom to address homelessness only threaten to restrict the rights of the unhoused even further, say these activists.

Published

10 months ago

June 8, 2022

Oakland Post

Councilmember Caroll Fife launches summer action to end homelessness in Oakland.

APTP Activist Slams Gov. Newsom’s ‘CARE Courts’ Plan

By Maria Schindler

On Saturday, several local organizations kicked off their plan to end the growing housing and homelessness crisis in Oakland.

Gathering in Oscar Grant Plaza, in front of the new art installation that calls out police murders of Black people, the groups sought to mobilize the crowd around another kind of racialized violence: displacement. “The stress of worrying about being evicted creates health problems that are killing people. It’s not just gentrification. It’s genocide,” said Sharena Thomas. She is one of six organizers, now known as Moms 4 Housing, who sparked an international call to make housing a human right with their occupation of a home in West Oakland in 2019.

“This piece of legislation that we’re fighting against at the state level is incredibly damaging for the unhoused community; incredibly damaging for Black, Brown and Indigenous communities; incredibly damaging for people with disabilities, especially those with mental health disabilities,” said Anti-Police Terror Project Policy Director James Burch. Rather than funding much-needed resources for the unhoused, the legislation will spend $65 million to build a court system that will funnel unhoused people in conservatorships that remove decision-making power over their own care. “I have been doing this for a while and nothing scares me more than this piece of legislation. Nothing.”

Council Member Carroll Fife took the stage to detail some of the resources to end homelessness that the activists believe are already available to the community, if they demand them:

Funding: The State of California is heading into its budget year with a $97.5 billion surplus. According to a 2021 report by the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute, an $11.8 billion investment (less than 15% of this budget surplus) could end homelessness in the Bay Area.

Land: City-owned lands could be utilized to provide emergency shelter and accommodation. One prime example is the 22-acre Northgate Parcel, which could hold up to 1,000 unhoused residents.

Housing: There are an estimated 4 empty homes for every homeless person in Oakland. Publicly-funded programs could be implemented to employ Oakland residents to rehabilitate dilapidated, abandoned buildings into deeply affordable housing.

Calling for a “summer of action,” Council Member Fife also shared some of her policy solutions, which included:

Repealing Article 34, which requires voter approval before low-income housing can be built.
Requiring landlords to be transparent about how many housing units they own, how much they are charging for rent and how many units are vacant.
Creating a moratorium on foreclosures to protect homeowners who may have fallen behind on mortgage payments during the pandemic.
Lessening minimum income requirements for new tenants and give tenants the right to know why their rental application was turned down.

Energized by the impassioned speeches, the audience then received a basic training in canvassing techniques from the newly launched organization, Care 4 Community. Over a dozen volunteers then disbursed into surrounding neighborhoods to connect with community members and build power for the new campaign.

To learn more, visit Oaklandc4c.org.

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 – 21, 2023

Published

3 days ago

March 17, 2023

Oakland Post

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 15 - 21, 2023

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.

Activism

Richmond Promise Scholarship Application Deadline Closes March 17

Qualifying applicants can receive up to $1,500 annually for four years toward their post-secondary educational goals at a two-year or four-year college and/or while pursuing a Career Technical Education Certificate at any not-for-profit institution in the U.S.

Published

5 days ago

March 15, 2023

Oakland Post

Scholarships are available for high school graduates who want to go to a two-year or four-year college or a nonprofit vocational/technical school. Photo courtesy of Richmond Promise.

Calling all high school seniors from Richmond and North Richmond: The Richmond Promise Scholarship Application period for the 2022-2023 school year closes on Friday, March 17.

High school seniors and GED students under the age of 24 who reside in Richmond and North Richmond and attend public, private, or charter schools in West Contra Costa County are eligible to apply for the scholarship.

Students can also petition for an additional two years of extra funding. Throughout the process, the program provides supportive services to participating scholars from high school through college graduation, including support with identifying and applying for financial aid.

Richmond Promise launched in 2016 with a $35 million, 10-year investment by Chevron Richmond. The funds are part of a $90 million community benefits agreement between the City of Richmond and Chevron connected to the $1 billion Refinery Modernization Project.

To apply for the Richmond Promise Scholarship, go to https://richmondpromise.tfaforms.net/81. Need some help? Reach out to Richmond Promise at scholarships@richmondpromise.org. Learn more about the organization https://richmondpromise.org/

Kathy Chouteau contributed to this report

Activism

Bay Area Native Dr. Terri Jett Honored by Indiana’s Butler University

Terri Jett arrived at Butler University in 1999 to begin her teaching career as an assistant professor of Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies after earning her Ph.D. in Public Policy and Public Administration from Auburn University. Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

Published

6 days ago

March 14, 2023

Oakland Post

Dr. Terri Jett poses with Butler Blue, the mascot of Butler University. Photo courtesy of Butler University Stories.

By Jennifer Gunnels
Butler University Stories

Bay Area native Terri Jett was received a Distinguished Faculty Award at Indiana’s Butler University.

Originally from California, Jett was unfamiliar with the Hoosier state, but was drawn to the energy of the faculty and students she met at Butler and the opportunity she saw for connecting her teaching and research with the broader Indianapolis community.

More than 20 years later, Jett has excelled at the work she set out to do. Last year, she was named a 2021-22 Distinguished Faculty Award recipient for her profound contributions to Butler University over the course of her career.

In many ways, Jett has been a trailblazer at Butler, including becoming the first Black female to earn tenure, and in 2020 becoming the first Black female to be promoted to full professor. Along with her teaching responsibilities as a member of the faculty, Jett has taken on numerous additional roles over the years including faculty director of the Hub for Black Affairs and Community Engagement (the Hub), member of the Steering Committee of the Race, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program (RGSS), faculty senator, and Faculty Fellow at the Desmond Tutu Peace Lab Think Tank. She also served as Department Chair from 2007-2014, a role she has currently resumed as interim while the current Chair is on sabbatical.

Jett has developed almost two dozen courses — core, departmental, honors, and even taught in our Washington D.C. Semester Program — and is always eager to seize on opportunities to take her students beyond the borders of campus. She has led students on numerous occasions to Selma, Alabama with the Honors course Voting Rights in Black and White: The Case of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. She says walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge is always a moving and eye-opening experience for her students that brings the Civil Rights Movement to life in new ways.

Of the many courses she has taught, Jett says one of her favorites to teach is the Politics of Alice Walker, which she teaches nearly every summer. Prior to the pandemic, Jett also offered the course several times at the Indiana Women’s Prison and was able to bring some of her Butler students to visit her class in prison.

Jett is committed to doing good things in the world herself and is known in the Indianapolis community for her service and activism. She currently serves on the board of Indiana Humanities and is appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to the Indianapolis Land Improvement Bond Bank Board. She also moderates a series on local PBS station WFYI called Simple Civics, which provides short civics lessons and was nominated for a Great Lakes Region Emmy in 2020 and again in 2021.

Jett says her community activism is inspired in part by a desire to demonstrate how to be an engaged citizen for her students as well as a desire to connect her teaching and research to issues happening within the community.

“And I do it because it’s fulfilling,” she said.

Though Jett has various roles within and outside of Butler, she finds satisfaction in discovering ways to integrate her teaching, research, and service. For instance, her research focuses on agriculture and food justice, and last year she leveraged her area of academic expertise and her role as Faculty Director of the Hub to partner with Indy Women in Food in hosting the organization’s first conference on Butler’s campus focused on food insecurity in the city.

“I’m thrilled when I’m able to do that,” Jett said. “All of the hats that I wear are sort of constantly engaged at the same time, and I like that I get to work like that. I’m not running from one thing to the next, I feel like my work is layered with multiple connection points.”

This article is part of a series honoring the 2021-22 recipients of the Butler University Distinguished Faculty Award. Printed with permission.