Activism
Oakland Officials Present New Homeless Policy, Faces Criticism from Advocates

On Sept. 21, Oakland’s Homelessness Administrator Daryel Dunston shared recommendations with the Life Enrichment Committee (LEC) about new proposed regulations for managing areas where people experiencing homelessness live.
“In my humble opinion this policy is a step in the right direction, and I welcome the opportunity to strengthen the areas that may fall short in your estimation,” said Dunston during the meeting.
The Encampment Management Policy (EMP) outlined by Dunston and proposed by the City Administration, was largely based off of a report submitted in July that Joe DeVries, the director of Interdepartmental Operations, wrote.
The proposed EMP classified current areas where homeless people live as high-sensitivity areas and low-sensitivity areas. Language in the legislation suggests that low-sensitivity areas would be tolerated, but that, with some exceptions, living in high-sensitivity areas would not be tolerated.
“Encampments located within a high-sensitivity that are not approved by the City Council will be subject to a closure intervention,” reads the EMP.
While the EMP clearly defines high-sensitivity areas, low-sensitivity areas exist mostly by virtue of not being high sensitivity areas.
High-sensitivity areas exist within 150 feet of schools, within 25 feet of emergency shelter interventions, and within 50 feet of a protected waterway, residence, business, playground, public park, golf course, soccer field, baseball field, tennis court or basketball court.
“These are the high-sensitivity areas that we are recommending. And obviously, it will be up to the City Council to deliberate on these [distances],” said Dunston during the meeting. “Maybe you all decide that some of these distances are too narrow. Maybe you decide they could be expanded in some places.
Traffic lanes and bike lanes are also high-sensitivity areas.
“Essentially, everywhere else in the city that was just not described…would be become a low-sensitivity area,” said Dunston.
The EMP does not suggest any new services for homeless people but suggests expanding current services that already exist in some areas homeless people live.
These include hand-washing stations, portable toilets, weekly mobile showers, and waste collection. The waste collection does not include dumpsters and the city currently encourages residents to put their trash in piles.
City Council President Rebecca Kaplan and City Councilmember Dan Kalb both claimed they have heard complaints from residents that many toilets are not being serviced regularly.
Public comments on the EMP were mixed, with some residents supporting and some criticizing it. But homeless advocates, homeless advocate groups, and formerly and current homeless residents criticized it, claiming it expanded the criminalization of homelessness while not offering any new services.
They also criticized how the meeting was set up without including homeless people. While around 60 people gave public comments, only two people currently experiencing homelessness spoke.
Representatives from The Village, Love & Justice in The Streets, The Homeless Advocacy Working Group (HAWG), The Ella Baker Center, The Berkeley Free Clinic, and Shelter Oak all criticized the policy and suggested the LEC should not send the proposal to City Council, essentially asking them to ask the City Administration to create a new EMP. The Village, HAWG and Shelter Oak also sent e-mails to the city denouncing the current EMP.
“When taking into account all the locations listed as high-sensitivity areas, the policy would leave unhoused residents with effectively zero options as to where they can live without fear of displacement,” said Katie Kelly-Hankin of Love & Justice in The Streets. “Furthermore the policy lacks common-sense action steps to address the human rights crisis in our city, such as providing access to safe cooking facilities, safe electrical outlets, and offering hotel rooms to residents if and when encampments must undergo a deep cleaning.”
Kelly-Hankin asked that the LEC refer to suggestions outlined in an email ShelterOAK wrote to improve the EMP.
The LEC consisting of Kaplan, Kalb, and Councilmembers Lynette Gibson-McElhaney and Loren Taylor unanimously approved sending the proposed EMP to City Council but questioned whether the current low-sensitivity areas would offer enough and appropriate space.
They suggested exploring options for property, including unused county fairgrounds, which unhoused people could possibly live in. Kaplan specifically asked for the City Administration to offer a map of high-sensitivity and low-sensitivity areas to have a clear view of where homeless people could live under the policy.
The EMP is currently set to be brought to City Council on Oct. 20. It will not go into effect unless the council approves it.
Activism
How the Crack Cocaine Epidemic Led to Mass Sex Exploitation of Black People PART 3: The Case Against SB357: Black, Vulnerable and Trafficked
Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, it opened up a Pandora’s box loophole that hinders the ability of law enforcement to halt human trafficking, especially of young Black and Brown girls. This segment continues to explore the history that led to this latest form of exploitation in Oakland.

By Tanya Dennis and Vanessa Russell
Although California Senate Bill 357 was intended to alleviate arrests of willing sex workers under anti-loitering laws, it opened up a Pandora’s box loophole that hinders the ability of law enforcement to halt human trafficking, especially of young Black and Brown girls. This segment continues to explore the history that led to this latest form of exploitation in Oakland.
It was 1980: The beginning of the end for the Black family and Black community as we knew it.
Crack cocaine was introduced to the United States that year and it rendered unparalleled devastation on Black folks. Crack is a solid smokable form of cocaine made by boiling baking soda, cocaine, and water into a rock that crackles when smoked.
The tremendous high — especially when first smoked — and the low cost brought temporary relief to the repeatedly and relentlessly traumatized members of the Black community.
What was unknown at the time was how highly addictive this form of cocaine would be and how harmful the ensuing impact on the Black family when the addicted Black mother was no longer a haven of safety for her children.
The form made it easy to mass produce and distribute, opening the market to anyone and everyone, including many Black men who viewed selling crack as their way out of poverty.
These two factors — addicted Black women and drug-dealing Black men — would lead to the street exploitation for sex as we know it today.
Encouraged to try it free initially, most poor, Black women in the 1980s used crack cocaine in a social setting with friends. When the free samples disappeared the drug dealer offered to supply the women crack in exchange for allowing him to sell their bodies to sex buyers.
The increase in the supply of women willing to exchange sex for crack — a.k.a. the “sex for crack barter system” — caused the price of sex to decrease and at the same time increased the demand for sex because more buyers could afford it.
The desperation of the women to get their hit of crack made them willing to endure any form of abuse and treatment from buyers during sex, including unprotected and violent sex.
It also pushed desperate Black women onto the street to pursue sex buyers, flagging down cars and willing to have sex anywhere actively and desperately. Street prostitution grew and buyers were able to buy oral sex for as little as $5.
This sex-for-crack barter system resulted in a dramatic increase in sexually transmitted diseases including HIV and AIDS, both of which are disproportionately represented among Black people.
It also resulted in unplanned pregnancies by unknown fathers, which then resulted in children born addicted to crack who were immediately placed in the foster care system where they were often abused and/or neglected.
For his part, the Black man who engaged in the mass production and distribution of crack was often killed by gun violence while fighting over drug territory or incarcerated for long periods of time as use and sales and distribution of crack carried longer sentences than powdered cocaine.
Crack unleashed an entire chain of new trauma upon the Black family which then all but collapsed under this latest social attack that had started with chattel slavery, followed by Jim Crow, redlining, school segregation, food deserts, et. al.
Exploitation was and is at the root of the crack cocaine epidemic. It is the latest weapon used to prey upon Black people since the beginning of our time in the United States.
The sex industry and legislation like SB357 have only increased harm to Black people who have been historically oppressed with racist laws and epidemics including crack. More must be done to restore the Black community.
Tanya Dennis serves on the Board of Oakland Frontline Healers (OFH) and series co-author Vanessa Russell of “Love Never Fails Us” and member of OFH.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tanya-Leblanc/publication/236121038_Behind_the_Eight_Ball_Sex_for_Crack_Cocaine_Exchange_and_Poor_Black_Women/links/0c9605162c8f362553000000/Behind-the-Eight-Ball-Sex-for-Crack-Cocaine-Exchange-and-Poor-Black-Women.pdf?origin=publication_detail
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of March 22 – 28, 2023
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Activism
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