I witnessed Oakland's encampment evictions most days for more than a year. AMA
What's up, Oakland. There was some news last week in the Chronicle about the City of Oakland destroying two tiny homes that had been built and donated by volunteers for homeless moms to live in during their "encampment evictions." I noticed people seem shocked that the city would destroy housing for poor mothers, but tbh, I read the news and was pretty sad because I've seen them do the same or worse, like, six times.
Basically, a couple years after I finished my grad degree in community health from a research university in the bay, I started observing the evictions-- often called sweeps-- for a project. I can't go into the details here, it's basically been derailed because the findings were so brutal and controversial. I also am on a burner account, sorry for all that. But suffice it to say, I saw what these daily evictions really consist of, and how devastating they are for the people who live outside and are trying to piece together a life with some safety. I also observed very inhumane and dangerous conditions at city run housing, and some really concerning signs of corruption among nonprofit and city entities involved in evicting very poor people.
I do not come from the communities pushed outside in Oakland, which I observed to be mostly black elders who had lived in Oakland 4-6 decades. This is the majority of people I interacted with, but I met others who were in Spanish speaking or bilingual communities with varying protections of citizenship, elders from Oakland who spoke Lao, Vietnamese, or Cantonese, a whole variety of white, indigenous, African, queer, trans, and young people, some really sweet families. But just to be clear, I am an academic researcher who grew up in the suburbs. I can only present my perspective, from conversations in English and Spanish, over engaging with this governnent program continually for many months. And context from academic literature if y'all are into that.
PLEASE NOTE: I understand that homelessness in the Bay Area is a polarizing and difficult conversation for many. I understand there are layers of misinformation and confusion about this. I will do my absolute best to answer all questions asked with curiosity and good faith honestly. Please understand as you ask that I made friends over this time period who have since lost their life, and I know they would have had more time if the government hadn't bulldozed their stuff. So this is sad for me, and I want to share what I saw, and this is not a theoretical/policy discussion for me after that.
Ok, ask if you're gonna ❤️