Bay Area

PG&E Increases Rates While Bay Area Households Are Struggling to Stay Afloat

Prior to the pandemic, less than 2% of callers were asking for utility assistance, but in the last year that percentage has grown to 8.2%, according to Eden I&R data. Oakland made up 40% of the calls to 211, with Black and Latino individuals and single parents making up the majority of the callers. Female callers made up over double that of male callers and most ranged from 25 to 64 years old.

Published

2 months ago

July 12, 2024

Magaly Muñoz

PG&E is increasing utility rates for Californians causing the cost of living to rise as millions of residents struggle to pay their bills. Photo: iStock image.

By Magaly Muñoz

The cost of living is growing as millions of California customers will soon start to see the effects of PG&E raising their rates after a case ruling that will hike up monthly utility bills and ultimately raise the cost of living for struggling residents.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) agreed in November to a request by the electric company for $13.5 billion for wildfire system enhancement and undergrounding, vegetation management, and capacity upgrades.

Starting Jan. 1, residents will see a nearly $33 increase in their upcoming electric and natural gas bill.

Mark Toney, Executive Director of The Utility Reform Network (TURN), an advocacy group, said that low-income families would be most affected by the change.

“I like to say we want the most green for the least green, and the cost of ‘greening the grid’ should not be cutting off low-income families of color from the grid because the monthly bills are too doggone high,” Toney said.

Toney said he was worried that if the cost of utilities continues to increase, some families would be unable to make their payments and would therefore, lose power.

If families choose cost-saving alternatives like using candles, the potential for a fire rises if families with small children accidentally knock something over and don’t put it out in time. People also rely on medical devices for health-related reasons to be hooked up for long periods of time, which could contribute to high costs in electricity bills.

Some Bay Area residents are already struggling to pay their utility bills.

Longtime Oakland resident, Rev. Dr. Barbara Jim-George has found herself using odd, potentially dangerous, alternatives to using her central heat, such as leaving open a hot oven to warm her living room because her apartment is “like a walk-in freezer.”

The CDC has warned against using this method to heat up your home as it can disperse dangerous pollutants and gasses, like carbon monoxide, and worsen already existing lung diseases.

“I can leave something sitting out on my table at night and it’s just fine as it would be in the refrigerator,” Jim-George said.

She had retired from her job in 2014 and was living on a tight budget for a few years until she found herself back at work in 2018 because her social security checks weren’t enough to pay bills.

As the cold and rainy weeks persist, the reverend anticipates a higher utility bill in the mail soon.

Jim-George shared that she had a cousin who lost their home in the Camp Fire of 2018, the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, and blamed PG&E for not learning from these tragedies to do what was best for customers.

“They [PG&E] should have buried lines long ago because we’re eating the cost for [their mistakes]. I think it’s negligent on their side to not have had the foresight to understand the issues beforehand,” Jim-George said.

While the reverend is one of many who will have to resort to budgets and taking on second jobs in order to keep up with high housing bills, organizations across the area have seen a large intake of housing and emergency needs for decades, increasing with the effects of the pandemic in the last four years.

The need for utility assistance has grown exponentially, with four times the amount of calls coming in about families who have been without energy or are months behind in bills and are at risk of losing power in their homes.

“Housing [and related needs] remains our top concern for callers calling 211,” Allison DeJung said.

DeJung is the Executive Director of Eden I&R, which operates the calls and messages from 211 Bay Area- a multilingual 24/7 information hotline that connects callers with resources in Alameda County.

She said that in the last fiscal year, her team received over 69,000 calls and they made about 113,000 referrals to programs and organizations in the county for issues related to housing, utilities, food assistance and more.

DeJung said most callers looking for help paying their utility services were connected to Spectrum Community Services.

Spectrum is a nonprofit organization that has financially assisted low-income families and individuals through utility, water, and food aid since 1971.

Last year they received nearly 10,000 applications for their Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps households pay overdue energy bills. The organization was only able to help 5,000 of those applicants.

Black households, similar to data from Eden I&R, were the majority of applicants for utility assistance at Spectrum, along with the majority of assistance coming from Oakland residents.

Lara Calvert, Executive Director of Spectrum Community Services, said the lack of funding is the primary reason they have to turn away applicants.

Assistance can be granted once every 12 months, with a cap of $3000 in overdue bills. Calvert said the large cap is what also contributes to helping less people every year because if multiple people apply for large quantities of assistance, funding runs out quicker.

Spectrum prioritizes households that have people who are over 60, anybody who’s disabled in the home, people who have children five years or younger, as well as people with a higher overall energy burden for their home.

A high energy burden is when a family’s energy or utility bills take up the majority of a household’s monthly income, making it difficult to maintain a sustainable quality of life.

Calvert shared that although the beginning of the pandemic brought more attention to the organization, 2023 was the largest year for residents asking for assistance from the program and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down soon.

“We are anticipating continuing to have a large number of people seeking assistance this year that will far outstrip our amount of money that we have to give out,” Calvert said.

Magaly Muñoz

A graduate of Sacramento State University, Magaly Muñoz’s journalism experience includes working for the State Hornet, the university’s student-run newspaper and conducting research and producing projects for “All Things Considered” at National Public Radio. She also was a community reporter for El Timpano, serving Latino and Mayan communities, and contributed to the Sacramento Observer, the area’s African American newspaper.

Muñoz is one of 40 early career journalists who are part of the California Local News Fellowship program, a state-funded initiative designed to strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities.

The fellowship program places journalism fellows throughout the state in two-year, full-time reporting positions.

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Magaly Muñoz

A graduate of Sacramento State University, Magaly Muñoz’s journalism experience includes working for the State Hornet, the university’s student-run newspaper and conducting research and producing projects for “All Things Considered” at National Public Radio. She also was a community reporter for El Timpano, serving Latino and Mayan communities, and contributed to the Sacramento Observer, the area’s African American newspaper. Muñoz is one of 40 early career journalists who are part of the California Local News Fellowship program, a state-funded initiative designed to strengthen local news reporting in California, with a focus on underserved communities. The fellowship program places journalism fellows throughout the state in two-year, full-time reporting positions.

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Bay Area

Advocates Hold Rally to “Issue a Citation” to City to Stop Homeless Encampment Sweeps

Advocates in San Francisco held a rally Thursday afternoon in front of City Hall to issue a symbolic citation to Mayor London Breed, urging an immediate end to the sweeps of homeless encampments in the city. “What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!,” the group chanted. The group of allies and advocates originally intended to start their rally off on Jessie Street, where a sweep of an encampment was going to take place around noon. But, the group had to change their plans because the city allegedly heard about the rally and chose to sweep the area earlier in the day.

Published

3 days ago

September 16, 2024

Oakland Post

San Francisco homelessness advocates held a rally in front of City Hall to issue a symbolic citation to Mayor London Breed to stop sweeping encampments. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

“What do we want? Housing! When do we want it? Now!,” the group chanted.

The group of allies and advocates originally intended to start their rally off on Jessie Street, where a sweep of an encampment was going to take place around noon. But, the group had to change their plans because the city allegedly heard about the rally and chose to sweep the area earlier in the day.

The streets adjacent to Jessie St., such as Mission and Market St, are lined with multiple encampments and unhoused individuals. Many stand in groups or walk along the streets by themselves.

One member of the group, Leah, said she lived in District 6 and what politicians claim is an “open drug market” area. She criticized the extra funding that has gone to the San Francisco Police Department to “solve homelessness” but no positive results have been shown.

“If giving the police more money actually solved the housing crisis, the homelessness crisis…then it would’ve gotten better, but it has actually just been getting worse and worse as more services for poor people have been cut,” Leah said.

Other speakers said the problem with sweeping and citing people for living on the streets is that the homeless problem is being exacerbated, and it’s ultimately not helping those who are struggling.

In order to help alleviate the problem, advocates have called for expansions to permanent supportive housing, resources and services, housing vouchers, and rent relief for struggling residents.

According to the 2024 Point in Time Count, 8,323 people were experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. A seven percent increase since 2022 where there were 7,754 sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals.

In her mission to get people off the streets, Mayor Breed has directed city crews to clear encampments more frequently than before. This decision comes after the landmark case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, was overturned by the U.S Supreme Court and cities were given the authority to ban people from camping or sleeping on the streets.

The mayor also instructed city workers to offer transportation tickets to people before offering shelter with the intent that those who are not originally from San Francisco can return to family or friends elsewhere and services can then be used for long-time residents.

A former homeless resident, Yolanda, in attendance at the rally said it was difficult to get off of living on the streets because of the barriers to housing and services.

Yolanda told the Post that she had grown up in the city with her family, but once her father passed away, there was no one to maintain the bills so they had to relocate to Oakland for a few years. She said her family stayed there for a few years before returning to San Francisco.

As she got older, she found herself living on the streets or in temporary shelter. But these shelters would only allow people to stay for a few months at a time and were very restrictive in what people could do, such as leave when they wanted or have guests with them.

After some time, Yolanda and her boyfriend were selected for housing through a housing allocation program, where she still currently lives now. She said they were one of the lucky ones, but others do not get to experience this same fortune.

She shared that at one point in her journey to find a housing placement, there was a 2,000 person waitlist, making it nearly impossible and disheartening for those looking for a roof to put over their heads.

Yolanda said it was unfair to criminalize people for not being able to afford housing, considering the extremely high costs of living in the area.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Oakland Students Learn to Foster Solidarity Through Multiracial Leadership Organization

For over 25 years, an Oakland leadership organization has worked to foster multiracial relationships amongst students, where historically, there has been division. Youth Together was created by Raquel Jimenez, a Latino history teacher at Castlemont High School, who noticed tension between Black and Latino students. Through a coalition of other Oakland-based organizations, Youth Together was established to provide resources to students and give them skills to build community with other racial groups.

Published

3 days ago

September 16, 2024

Oakland Post

Student members of Youth Together told the Post that the reason they joined the organization was to build skills around social justice and connect with people they otherwise wouldn’t have met.

By Magaly Muñoz

For over 25 years, an Oakland leadership organization has worked to foster multiracial relationships amongst students, where historically, there has been division.

Youth Together was created by Raquel Jimenez, a Latino history teacher at Castlemont High School, who noticed tension between Black and Latino students. Through a coalition of other Oakland-based organizations, Youth Together was established to provide resources to students and give them skills to build community with other racial groups.

Student members of Youth Together told the Post that the reason they joined the organization was to build skills around social justice and connect with people they otherwise wouldn’t have met.

One student, Oli, said the group helped her to grow confidence in speaking with new people and to learn more about the history of racial issues in Oakland, which she wishes teachers did more of to include in their curriculum.

Lena, another student who attends Skyline High School with Oli, said the groups at school are typically divided by race because “students fall into stereotypes”. She explained that kids would put her in a “stereotypical Asian” persona but once they got to know her, they started treating her differently.

Berlin, a student Youth Together member, shared that he transferred to three different schools because of racial tensions with other students. He said other groups attempted to start problems with him because he didn’t come from the same background as them.

Lena said people would be more open to being friends with other races if they were taught about them more frequently in school.

“It’s really important to understand different ethnicities and their backgrounds and struggles that they’ve went through,” Lena said.

Asian, Latino and Black students make up the biggest racial groups in Oakland Unified School District. Latino students in particular make up over half of the student population with almost 24,000 kids in the 2022-23 school year.

The Youth Together students shared that over the years more white students have started attending their schools and the diversity is no longer what it used to be. They also said the teachers do not reflect the student body diversity.

Oli said although there are student fights at Skyline, she doesn’t feel that they are racially motivated. But she claims that most of the racial tensions actually come from teachers who express negative rhetoric to students during their lessons, especially in history classes.

Through these conversations about race and social justice, the students are better prepared to speak to their peers at an annual event called Unity Day.

Unity Day was hosted at Skyline and Oakland High School at the very beginning of the school year. Kids participated in activities and group discussions about diversity and the ongoing disparities in their education.

The Youth Together team said they looked forward to having these talks with students and to connecting them with others.

Lead organizer Seanna said she wants Unity Day to bring folks together and undo the years of division that Oakland schools have experienced. Her two high school aged brothers, who are also members of Youth Together, have told her that tensions run higher now than they did when she was in high school several years ago.

Seanna wants the cycle of tension and detachment among different racial groups to end, both in school and in the city. She said people felt more united and like a community when she was growing up, but that doesn’t feel like the case anymore.

If Unity Day is what the school and larger community need in order to get along, she hopes the idea continues and expands until things start to come together again.

“It just takes one person to want to keep fighting, to inspire other people to keep fighting, and that’s the domino effect I would love to see. Maybe that change that we all crave for will come,” Seanna said.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Man Charged in Deadly Hit-and-Run Collision That Killed an Oakland Teenager and Injured Her Mother

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced that Agusto Matias has been charged with multiple felonies as the alleged driver in a deadly hit- and-run incident, killing a teenage girl and injuring her mother. Matias, 37, is charged with felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, D.U.I/alcohol causing injury, driving with a 0.8% blood alcohol causing injury, leaving the scene of an accident [death/permanent serious injury], and misdemeanor hit-and-run driving and unlicensed driver.

Published

3 days ago

September 16, 2024

Oakland Post

District Attorney Pamela Price.

Special to The Post

Matias, 37, is charged with felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, D.U.I/alcohol causing injury, driving with a 0.8% blood alcohol causing injury, leaving the scene of an accident [death/permanent serious injury], and misdemeanor hit-and-run driving and unlicensed driver.

According to the complaint, the incident happened on or about August 19. It is alleged that Matias was fleeing the scene of a bumper-to-bumper collision on Havenscourt near International Boulevard when he allegedly struck and killed one victim and injured a second victim.

Both victims were in the crosswalk when the collision occurred.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce that my office has filed charges against an individual accused of extremely reckless driving that resulted in the tragic loss of a young life,” said District Attorney Pamela Price.

“I want to extend my condolences to the family. No parent should ever have to bury their child under such avoidable circumstances. Our thoughts are with them during this incredibly difficult time.

“This incident is a stark reminder of the dangers of impaired and reckless driving,” Price said. “It is a preventable crime that destroys lives, devastates families, and places all of our lives in danger unnecessarily. This type of unconscionable behavior will not be tolerated on our city streets.”

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office (DAO) is one of California’s largest prosecutors’ offices and is led by Alameda County’s first Black woman District Attorney Pamela Y. Price. Price brings her vision to this office to fairly administer justice in the pursuit of thriving, healthy, and safe communities for every person who steps foot in Alameda County, no matter their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, income, or zip code.

Price has been recognized as one of the most progressive prosecutors through her forward-thinking, innovative strategies to interrupt cycles of violence and crime and bring change to a criminal justice system rooted in systemic racism. Follow Madam DA on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and @AlamedaCountyda on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.