Oakland Built a Shelter for Unhoused Residents of Wood Street. Now, It’s Evicting Them
Oakland’s Wood Street Shelters to Close on June 30
‘It’s a Mess’: Homeless Services Nonprofits Say Oakland Routinely Fails to Pay Contracts
The End of Wood Street: Inside the Struggle for Stability, Housing on the Margins of the Bay Area
Oakland Begins Evicting Unhoused Residents at Wood Street Commons
The Last Residents of Oakland’s Wood Street Commons
Judge to Allow Evictions at Long-Running Oakland Homeless Encampment, Residents Vow to Fight
Last Remaining Portion of Oakland's Largest Homeless Encampment Faces Eviction
Rain and Eviction Loom Over Oakland’s Wood Street Encampment
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:05 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Oakland officials are expected to begin evicting residents of two city-run homeless shelters along Wood Street, the site of what was once the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949327/the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area\">largest community of unhoused people\u003c/a> in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two sites — a safe RV parking site with 40 spots and a 100-bed cabin community — were always meant to be temporary shelters, but ceased operation in mid-May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/30/oakland-wood-street-cabins-shelter/\">when the shelter operator abruptly left\u003c/a>. While some residents have found permanent housing, others have already left to find shelter in tents, RVs or other makeshift homes, according to SheMika Crawford, who was living in the cabins until she moved out on Thursday. At least five residents remain, city officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks ago, Crawford signed the lease on a new home. She was only meant to stay at the cabin for 90 days, but June marked two years living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re looking at the cabin falling apart,” she said. “We fix it ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After BOSS stopped managing the sites in May, Crawford said, “We’ve been winging it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the city and Caltrans began evicting unhoused residents from a sprawling, nearly milelong encampment on a vacant lot underneath Interstate 580 that runs parallel to Wood Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12047669\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12047669\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Resident SheMika Crawford stands near the Wood Street Cabins in Oakland on July 10, 2025, before the city shuts down the temporary tiny-home site, which opened in 2023 to shelter people displaced from a nearby encampment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of the RVs and makeshift homes were on Caltrans’ land, which the agency closed in the fall of 2022. A portion of the encampment, which was on city-owned land, remained there until the spring of 2023, when the city moved many of the remaining residents into the newly opened cabin community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It partnered with nonprofit Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) to operate \u003ca href=\"https://www.self-sufficiency.org/post/wood-street-community-cabins-registration-is-open\">both sites\u003c/a>. Along with RV spaces and cabin beds, BOSS also promised to provide services to find stable housing and employment opportunities. During its two years of operation, 185 people lived between the two sites.[aside postID=news_12032734 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1020x680.jpg']But in late May, the nonprofit stopped operating the sites \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032734/homeless-services-nonprofits-oakland-fails-pay-contracts\">after months of late or missing payments\u003c/a> from the city of Oakland. In June, the City Council voted to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12045763/oaklands-wood-street-shelters-to-close-on-june-30\">decommission the two sites\u003c/a> and return them to the owner by December. According to a city notice, residents remaining after 5 p.m. on Monday will be arrested. Any belongings will be discarded and vehicles will be towed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city estimates that the work to restore the property to returnable condition will require up to six months,” Sean Maher, a spokesperson for the city of Oakland, wrote in an email to KQED. “Work to implement this closure and find alternative support for the program residents has been underway for the last several months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BOSS started providing housing and employment services for people living at the RV safe parking site on Wood Street in July 2022, according to the company. From then through late May, the nonprofit served 48 people. Of those, 75% found permanent housing before the nonprofit left the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the numbers look more grim for those who lived in the cabins. Of the 137 residents, fewer than a quarter found permanent housing and nearly 84% went to other shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donald Frazier, CEO of the nonprofit, said the program had its issues — the roads leading to the sites were riddled with potholes, staff slowly left and services dwindled as the city’s payments to the nonprofit grew less frequent. Though people are remaining on the sites, he said it’s not for a lack of trying on BOSS’s part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12047668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12047668\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Wood Street Cabins in Oakland on July 10, 2025, before the city shuts down the temporary tiny-home site, which opened in 2023 to shelter people displaced from a nearby encampment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were brought in from the beginning to provide housing navigation services, clinical services and just day-to-day services, food and making sure that everything is operational,” he said. “A vast majority of people were successful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.acgov.org/homelessness-assets/docs/infographic/Oakland%20PIT%202024%20Infographic.pdf\">city’s latest count\u003c/a>, roughly 5,480 unhoused people were living in Oakland last year, about two-thirds of whom were living in tents, cars and RVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maher said the city is working with Alameda County officials to place those remaining at the sites into temporary housing. In the meantime, John Janosko, a former resident of the Wood Street cabins, hopes the city and the county consider the solutions he and other housing rights advocates proposed to address housing insecurity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>The city needs to really start listening to us,” he said. “We have an opportunity because of Barbara Lee right now to change the narrative, to change how things are being done, how we treat unhoused people in Oakland right now and in Alameda County and be a leader in change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/blaberge\">Beth LaBerge\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "While some left the site and found permanent housing, others remain and could face either arrest or a return to street homelessness.",
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"title": "Oakland Built a Shelter for Unhoused Residents of Wood Street. Now, It’s Evicting Them | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 2:05 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, Oakland officials are expected to begin evicting residents of two city-run homeless shelters along Wood Street, the site of what was once the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949327/the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area\">largest community of unhoused people\u003c/a> in Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The two sites — a safe RV parking site with 40 spots and a 100-bed cabin community — were always meant to be temporary shelters, but ceased operation in mid-May, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/30/oakland-wood-street-cabins-shelter/\">when the shelter operator abruptly left\u003c/a>. While some residents have found permanent housing, others have already left to find shelter in tents, RVs or other makeshift homes, according to SheMika Crawford, who was living in the cabins until she moved out on Thursday. At least five residents remain, city officials said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two weeks ago, Crawford signed the lease on a new home. She was only meant to stay at the cabin for 90 days, but June marked two years living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re looking at the cabin falling apart,” she said. “We fix it ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After BOSS stopped managing the sites in May, Crawford said, “We’ve been winging it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2022, the city and Caltrans began evicting unhoused residents from a sprawling, nearly milelong encampment on a vacant lot underneath Interstate 580 that runs parallel to Wood Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12047669\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12047669\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-03-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Resident SheMika Crawford stands near the Wood Street Cabins in Oakland on July 10, 2025, before the city shuts down the temporary tiny-home site, which opened in 2023 to shelter people displaced from a nearby encampment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of the RVs and makeshift homes were on Caltrans’ land, which the agency closed in the fall of 2022. A portion of the encampment, which was on city-owned land, remained there until the spring of 2023, when the city moved many of the remaining residents into the newly opened cabin community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It partnered with nonprofit Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) to operate \u003ca href=\"https://www.self-sufficiency.org/post/wood-street-community-cabins-registration-is-open\">both sites\u003c/a>. Along with RV spaces and cabin beds, BOSS also promised to provide services to find stable housing and employment opportunities. During its two years of operation, 185 people lived between the two sites.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But in late May, the nonprofit stopped operating the sites \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032734/homeless-services-nonprofits-oakland-fails-pay-contracts\">after months of late or missing payments\u003c/a> from the city of Oakland. In June, the City Council voted to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12045763/oaklands-wood-street-shelters-to-close-on-june-30\">decommission the two sites\u003c/a> and return them to the owner by December. According to a city notice, residents remaining after 5 p.m. on Monday will be arrested. Any belongings will be discarded and vehicles will be towed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city estimates that the work to restore the property to returnable condition will require up to six months,” Sean Maher, a spokesperson for the city of Oakland, wrote in an email to KQED. “Work to implement this closure and find alternative support for the program residents has been underway for the last several months.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BOSS started providing housing and employment services for people living at the RV safe parking site on Wood Street in July 2022, according to the company. From then through late May, the nonprofit served 48 people. Of those, 75% found permanent housing before the nonprofit left the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the numbers look more grim for those who lived in the cabins. Of the 137 residents, fewer than a quarter found permanent housing and nearly 84% went to other shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Donald Frazier, CEO of the nonprofit, said the program had its issues — the roads leading to the sites were riddled with potholes, staff slowly left and services dwindled as the city’s payments to the nonprofit grew less frequent. Though people are remaining on the sites, he said it’s not for a lack of trying on BOSS’s part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12047668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12047668\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/07/250710-WoodStreetCabins-01-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Wood Street Cabins in Oakland on July 10, 2025, before the city shuts down the temporary tiny-home site, which opened in 2023 to shelter people displaced from a nearby encampment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We were brought in from the beginning to provide housing navigation services, clinical services and just day-to-day services, food and making sure that everything is operational,” he said. “A vast majority of people were successful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.acgov.org/homelessness-assets/docs/infographic/Oakland%20PIT%202024%20Infographic.pdf\">city’s latest count\u003c/a>, roughly 5,480 unhoused people were living in Oakland last year, about two-thirds of whom were living in tents, cars and RVs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maher said the city is working with Alameda County officials to place those remaining at the sites into temporary housing. In the meantime, John Janosko, a former resident of the Wood Street cabins, hopes the city and the county consider the solutions he and other housing rights advocates proposed to address housing insecurity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>The city needs to really start listening to us,” he said. “We have an opportunity because of Barbara Lee right now to change the narrative, to change how things are being done, how we treat unhoused people in Oakland right now and in Alameda County and be a leader in change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/blaberge\">Beth LaBerge\u003c/a> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Wood Street encampment in West Oakland was at one point the largest homeless encampment Northern California. In 2023, the city of Oakland completed its final evictions of the unhoused residents living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of Wood Street residents ended up at a city-funded shelter site where part of the encampment used to be. It includes an RV park and a “community cabins” site. Now, this shelter site is scheduled to close on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Oakland journalist and filmmaker Caron Creighton tells us about the cabin sites, and introduces us to two unhoused people who have been living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC7837568161&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:02:16] So the city of Oakland built a cabin site at Wood Street. They’ve definitely improved their tiny cabins. It’s one person or you can choose to have a roommate. There was laundry on site, there were showers, there were toilets, there was a small kitchen, a little bit of a space for people to sit and hang out. But I still wouldn’t call it a home. I mean, people can’t have keys to their own space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:52] But basically what they were offered were these tiny homes with showers and a kitchen, not a key, but a roof over their heads. What exactly were people promised when they moved into these tiny home? Because they weren’t necessarily expected to live there forever, right? They were supposed to be temporary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:03:11] When folks moved into these tiny homes, they were told that they could stay for 90 days with the option to extend for another 90 days. And some folks have stayed there for the entire two years they’ve been open. The city of Oakland often does not have enough shelter beds available, so this site was created for the people at Wood Street. They were essentially told that this is the way that you get into permanent housing is by moving into this cabin site, and then if you get your documents ready, if you work with us, we can get you in the pipeline for permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:46] How did the people that you met at these tiny homes describe what it was like to live at these tiny homes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:03:54] I spoke with a couple of different folks who are currently living at the cabins. One of those people was Larry Coke. He’s someone who kind of keeps to himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:04:04] Well, I’ve been in this one, Wood Street encampment for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:04:09] He was okay with living at the cabins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:04:11] It’s not bad because we have showers and stuff, you know, so that was a plus they tried to help us, you know with as far as getting also security cards and stuff like that all our documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:04:22] He didn’t mind not having a key. I think he mentioned not liking places that have a lot of rules that kind of feel infantilizing, but he was definitely happier to be in the cabins than on the street, for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:37] And I know you met one woman who had a sort of less positive experience. Tell me about Tamra Lynn Rosselli.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:04:44] So I spoke with Tamara Rosselli, who I had met from living at the 1707 Wood Street lot before it was evicted. Tamara has a very typical experience to, I think, what a lot of unhoused folks have, which is, you know, she was living at The Cabins for what she said was 16 months, and she was informed by another housing service provider, folks who were not running the cabin site that she was not on the list for housing yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:05:10] And I’m like, excuse me? She was like, no. She’s like, you’ve been doc ready since the second week you were there, correct? I said, yes. She said, they never put you in the housing queue. So all that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:05:22] One time I sat there for nothing, you know. And so that person helped her get on the housing list. Eventually she moved into another apartment, but she felt like, you know, she didn’t really like this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:05:34] I had crazy neighbors that broke our glass windows in front. She knocked on my doors and windows all night long, screaming, and their answer is call the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:05:43] You know, she didn’t like her neighbors there. She said that someone tased her dog, like it was not a space where she really felt like she wanted to stay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:05:50] I mean, it was more uncomfortable than the encampment. It was just, that place, it just wasn’t for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:06:00] And so she eventually left that placement and came back to the cabin site. But at that point, I think she couldn’t get an official cabin there, so she kind of ended up just squatting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:06:11] And I say, I’m not leaving, you do what you have to do, but this is a place for homeless people that need housing and I’m homeless and I need housing. You’re asking me to go live on the streets so that you can hold this empty until you guys leave? That’s insane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:06:24] I’d also like to say, like, it wasn’t necessarily, like permanent housing. Like, she was moved into, you know, a housing spot for domestic violence survivors. She had also been offered SROs. I don’t think these are things that you or I would consider permanent housing. It’s still kind of a transitional space. Even the way she talked about, you know, being kicked out of the cabin site now was that, you know, she really stressed out about it at first, but she, I think she’s experienced so much. Instability in her life that she can handle it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:06:56] I’ve learned in the last five years not to become attached to things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:04] Coming up, why the cabins are closing down, and why the process has been so messy. Stay with us. I mean, now these cabins are closing sort of officially, right? What does it mean now that these are closing? What happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:07:30] Yeah, so what I can gather from what the cities told me is that, you know, they need to close the cabins because they have to clear the site to give it back to the actual landowner. The city’s leasing it from a private developer. And so they need have a certain amount of time to clear a lot again, get everything off of it before the end of the year when it has to go back to them. So the cabs were definitely set to close at the end June. It was really just the there was a lot of back-and-forth about when that would happen and whether the service provider, BOSS – Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, would stay there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:11] For the last few months, people living at the cabins have been jerked around by the timeline of its closure. First, the cabin’s nearly shut down in March, three months early, because of several missed payments from the city of Oakland. The service provider, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency or BOSS, said it wasn’t until it started sending out layoff notices that the city sat down with its CEO, promising to make good on its debts. So BOSS rescinded its layoff notice with the intention of closing down as planned at the end of June. But then, at the end of May, people living at the Wood Street cabins got another piece of unexpected news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:09:05] BOSS pulled out of the cabins last month because they said they weren’t being paid by the city of Oakland. They said they would lose $400,000 if they had to spend another month working there unpaid. On May 30th, folks at the cabins got notices on their doors that said 24-hour notice, no trespassing. And that was kind of the big indicator. That was when Boss stepped out. The city says that they think BOSS put up the signs. BOSS says they think the city put up signs. I know a lot of folks who live at the cabins were pretty disturbed when they got those notices. It didn’t state a time of day when they would have to leave. And then, of course, the city came by and took down the notices, said, you don’t have to live now, but you do have to on June 30th.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:48] What has it meant that BOSS has been unpaid for the last couple of months? What has that meant for the services that this provider is supposed to offer and also the timeline of how this closure even happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:10:02] Since BOSS has pulled out, there are other people who’ve kind of moved into the cabin site and are maybe squatting there. Those folks probably won’t get a placement even though they’re still homeless. Over time, residents complained about the toilets and bathrooms not being cleaned up. The photos looked really disgusting. And so I think it’s just created a lot more chaos for folks who were really hoping to kind of get rid of some of that chaos in their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:10:25] Here, we were never like really informed of much, you know? They weren’t really telling us anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:10:33] When folks got those notices. I think they were pretty stressed out for about 24 hours and then realized they’d been abandoned by the service provider. And that’s when Tamara tried to step up and help take care of her friends who were living there and kind of tried to organize people to keep things clean together while they were kind of waiting to see what their next steps would be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:10:57] I know a lot of people from when I lived in the encampment, I used to be really involved and maybe this is my time to get re-involved. And I said, I’ll make some phone calls tomorrow and see if I can get us some resources. And so that’s when I started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:09] I mean, that sounds so chaotic. How does Larry describe what it was like to get that notification and what has been explained to him about what is even happening?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] Yeah, I spoke with Larry the day that they that the notices had been put up and has anybody like come to talk to you in person about the notice?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:11:28] No, they just taped a piece of paper on the door and that was it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:11:35] He was pretty confused. We were heading into a weekend. It was a Friday. He wasn’t sure if he would, I mean, he assumed that he’d be able to stay the weekend at least, but you know, he thought maybe he’d be kicked out on Monday. But I think like so many unhoused people who face such instability, again, like he was just like, well, whatever it is, I’ll deal with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] I’ll take anything really, as long as I’m by myself, not sharing spaces with anybody. But, you know, I just need a place that’s decent and I can have my dog with me that allows animals and stuff like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:14] Caron reached out to BOSS, the service provider for the cabins, but didn’t get a reply to calls or emails. The City of Oakland provided a written statement and did not respond to follow-up questions. In their statement, the city says that as of May 30, there were roughly 37 residents in the Safe RV and cabin sites. The statement also said that the city is providing, “short-term emergency support” through June 30. But it’s still unclear just how many former Wood Street residents will be permanently housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:56] Going back to two years ago when the Wood Street encampment folks were told that this was the only pathway to housing, if you move into these tiny homes, I mean, how many people actually got that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:13:09] When I asked the city about how many folks had moved into permanent housing this year, reporting for this story, they said basically that since the spring, more than 50 people had either left the program or transitioned into alternative programs. So, you know, that’s not information on how many people had moved into permanent house, that’s just, you now, 50 people went somewhere. So, as you can see, it’s kind of tough to get this information from the city. I spoke with someone at Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless who told me that they’re working with the City of Oakland. To try to get folks into placements, but getting folks into permanent placements can take a long time. I don’t know how many people have moved into permanent housing from this program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:50] So, I mean, now that the cabin sites are closing, Caron, what are the plans for this specific location at Wood Street for this land?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:14:00] The neighborhood has been changing a lot since the Wood Street encampment’s been evicted. There’s the Prescott Market, there’s the Ballers Stadium, there’s some new housing developments, there’s plans to build a new beer garden up there. So I don’t know what’s happening at 2601 Wood Street where the cabins are. I would assume, based on everything else that’s happening in that neighborhood, that they’re probably going to build housing, but I couldn’t say exactly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:31] I mean, you’ve been covering Wood Street for a long time now. What do you make of this latest chapter, I guess, in the Wood Street saga?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:14:42] It really feels kind of like, you know, the perfect ending for the Wood Street saga. I mean, it was really disorganized when the city was talking to folks and trying to get them to come to the cabins. When they first started evicting people off of the lot on state land, the cab ins didn’t even exist. There was nowhere for them to go. And when they talked to people, there was so much miscommunication about what would be at the site. Would they have kitchens? Would they had bathrooms? Would they get keys? It’s clearly still very disorganized. So yeah, it makes sense to me that it would end this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:19] Well, Caron Creighton, thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:15:30] Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:30] Caron checked back in with Larry Koch and Tamara Lynn Rosselli to ask what they plan to do when the cabins close on June 30th. Larry says the city placed him in a room in downtown Oakland. He says the room seems okay and that it is permanent housing, although he doesn’t like the rules. Like no visitors, no cooking, and no cats. Tamara has applied for a room at the Harrison Hotel, a single room occupancy. She also says there isn’t running water at the cabins right now and that the pipes were stolen. Some residents are talking about staying to fight the closures, but Tamara told Caron that she doesn’t want to go to jail.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Wood Street encampment in West Oakland was at one point the largest homeless encampment Northern California. In 2023, the city of Oakland completed its final evictions of the unhoused residents living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of Wood Street residents ended up at a city-funded shelter site where part of the encampment used to be. It includes an RV park and a “community cabins” site. Now, this shelter site is scheduled to close on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Oakland journalist and filmmaker Caron Creighton tells us about the cabin sites, and introduces us to two unhoused people who have been living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC7837568161&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ci>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/i>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:02:16] So the city of Oakland built a cabin site at Wood Street. They’ve definitely improved their tiny cabins. It’s one person or you can choose to have a roommate. There was laundry on site, there were showers, there were toilets, there was a small kitchen, a little bit of a space for people to sit and hang out. But I still wouldn’t call it a home. I mean, people can’t have keys to their own space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:52] But basically what they were offered were these tiny homes with showers and a kitchen, not a key, but a roof over their heads. What exactly were people promised when they moved into these tiny home? Because they weren’t necessarily expected to live there forever, right? They were supposed to be temporary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:03:11] When folks moved into these tiny homes, they were told that they could stay for 90 days with the option to extend for another 90 days. And some folks have stayed there for the entire two years they’ve been open. The city of Oakland often does not have enough shelter beds available, so this site was created for the people at Wood Street. They were essentially told that this is the way that you get into permanent housing is by moving into this cabin site, and then if you get your documents ready, if you work with us, we can get you in the pipeline for permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:46] How did the people that you met at these tiny homes describe what it was like to live at these tiny homes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:03:54] I spoke with a couple of different folks who are currently living at the cabins. One of those people was Larry Coke. He’s someone who kind of keeps to himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:04:04] Well, I’ve been in this one, Wood Street encampment for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:04:09] He was okay with living at the cabins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:04:11] It’s not bad because we have showers and stuff, you know, so that was a plus they tried to help us, you know with as far as getting also security cards and stuff like that all our documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:04:22] He didn’t mind not having a key. I think he mentioned not liking places that have a lot of rules that kind of feel infantilizing, but he was definitely happier to be in the cabins than on the street, for sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:37] And I know you met one woman who had a sort of less positive experience. Tell me about Tamra Lynn Rosselli.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:04:44] So I spoke with Tamara Rosselli, who I had met from living at the 1707 Wood Street lot before it was evicted. Tamara has a very typical experience to, I think, what a lot of unhoused folks have, which is, you know, she was living at The Cabins for what she said was 16 months, and she was informed by another housing service provider, folks who were not running the cabin site that she was not on the list for housing yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:05:10] And I’m like, excuse me? She was like, no. She’s like, you’ve been doc ready since the second week you were there, correct? I said, yes. She said, they never put you in the housing queue. So all that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:05:22] One time I sat there for nothing, you know. And so that person helped her get on the housing list. Eventually she moved into another apartment, but she felt like, you know, she didn’t really like this place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:05:34] I had crazy neighbors that broke our glass windows in front. She knocked on my doors and windows all night long, screaming, and their answer is call the police.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:05:43] You know, she didn’t like her neighbors there. She said that someone tased her dog, like it was not a space where she really felt like she wanted to stay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:05:50] I mean, it was more uncomfortable than the encampment. It was just, that place, it just wasn’t for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:06:00] And so she eventually left that placement and came back to the cabin site. But at that point, I think she couldn’t get an official cabin there, so she kind of ended up just squatting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:06:11] And I say, I’m not leaving, you do what you have to do, but this is a place for homeless people that need housing and I’m homeless and I need housing. You’re asking me to go live on the streets so that you can hold this empty until you guys leave? That’s insane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:06:24] I’d also like to say, like, it wasn’t necessarily, like permanent housing. Like, she was moved into, you know, a housing spot for domestic violence survivors. She had also been offered SROs. I don’t think these are things that you or I would consider permanent housing. It’s still kind of a transitional space. Even the way she talked about, you know, being kicked out of the cabin site now was that, you know, she really stressed out about it at first, but she, I think she’s experienced so much. Instability in her life that she can handle it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:06:56] I’ve learned in the last five years not to become attached to things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:04] Coming up, why the cabins are closing down, and why the process has been so messy. Stay with us. I mean, now these cabins are closing sort of officially, right? What does it mean now that these are closing? What happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:07:30] Yeah, so what I can gather from what the cities told me is that, you know, they need to close the cabins because they have to clear the site to give it back to the actual landowner. The city’s leasing it from a private developer. And so they need have a certain amount of time to clear a lot again, get everything off of it before the end of the year when it has to go back to them. So the cabs were definitely set to close at the end June. It was really just the there was a lot of back-and-forth about when that would happen and whether the service provider, BOSS – Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency, would stay there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:11] For the last few months, people living at the cabins have been jerked around by the timeline of its closure. First, the cabin’s nearly shut down in March, three months early, because of several missed payments from the city of Oakland. The service provider, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency or BOSS, said it wasn’t until it started sending out layoff notices that the city sat down with its CEO, promising to make good on its debts. So BOSS rescinded its layoff notice with the intention of closing down as planned at the end of June. But then, at the end of May, people living at the Wood Street cabins got another piece of unexpected news.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:09:05] BOSS pulled out of the cabins last month because they said they weren’t being paid by the city of Oakland. They said they would lose $400,000 if they had to spend another month working there unpaid. On May 30th, folks at the cabins got notices on their doors that said 24-hour notice, no trespassing. And that was kind of the big indicator. That was when Boss stepped out. The city says that they think BOSS put up the signs. BOSS says they think the city put up signs. I know a lot of folks who live at the cabins were pretty disturbed when they got those notices. It didn’t state a time of day when they would have to leave. And then, of course, the city came by and took down the notices, said, you don’t have to live now, but you do have to on June 30th.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:48] What has it meant that BOSS has been unpaid for the last couple of months? What has that meant for the services that this provider is supposed to offer and also the timeline of how this closure even happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:10:02] Since BOSS has pulled out, there are other people who’ve kind of moved into the cabin site and are maybe squatting there. Those folks probably won’t get a placement even though they’re still homeless. Over time, residents complained about the toilets and bathrooms not being cleaned up. The photos looked really disgusting. And so I think it’s just created a lot more chaos for folks who were really hoping to kind of get rid of some of that chaos in their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:10:25] Here, we were never like really informed of much, you know? They weren’t really telling us anything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:10:33] When folks got those notices. I think they were pretty stressed out for about 24 hours and then realized they’d been abandoned by the service provider. And that’s when Tamara tried to step up and help take care of her friends who were living there and kind of tried to organize people to keep things clean together while they were kind of waiting to see what their next steps would be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tamara Rosselli \u003c/strong>[00:10:57] I know a lot of people from when I lived in the encampment, I used to be really involved and maybe this is my time to get re-involved. And I said, I’ll make some phone calls tomorrow and see if I can get us some resources. And so that’s when I started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:09] I mean, that sounds so chaotic. How does Larry describe what it was like to get that notification and what has been explained to him about what is even happening?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] Yeah, I spoke with Larry the day that they that the notices had been put up and has anybody like come to talk to you in person about the notice?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:11:28] No, they just taped a piece of paper on the door and that was it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:11:35] He was pretty confused. We were heading into a weekend. It was a Friday. He wasn’t sure if he would, I mean, he assumed that he’d be able to stay the weekend at least, but you know, he thought maybe he’d be kicked out on Monday. But I think like so many unhoused people who face such instability, again, like he was just like, well, whatever it is, I’ll deal with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Larry Coke \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] I’ll take anything really, as long as I’m by myself, not sharing spaces with anybody. But, you know, I just need a place that’s decent and I can have my dog with me that allows animals and stuff like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:14] Caron reached out to BOSS, the service provider for the cabins, but didn’t get a reply to calls or emails. The City of Oakland provided a written statement and did not respond to follow-up questions. In their statement, the city says that as of May 30, there were roughly 37 residents in the Safe RV and cabin sites. The statement also said that the city is providing, “short-term emergency support” through June 30. But it’s still unclear just how many former Wood Street residents will be permanently housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:56] Going back to two years ago when the Wood Street encampment folks were told that this was the only pathway to housing, if you move into these tiny homes, I mean, how many people actually got that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:13:09] When I asked the city about how many folks had moved into permanent housing this year, reporting for this story, they said basically that since the spring, more than 50 people had either left the program or transitioned into alternative programs. So, you know, that’s not information on how many people had moved into permanent house, that’s just, you now, 50 people went somewhere. So, as you can see, it’s kind of tough to get this information from the city. I spoke with someone at Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless who told me that they’re working with the City of Oakland. To try to get folks into placements, but getting folks into permanent placements can take a long time. I don’t know how many people have moved into permanent housing from this program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:50] So, I mean, now that the cabin sites are closing, Caron, what are the plans for this specific location at Wood Street for this land?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:14:00] The neighborhood has been changing a lot since the Wood Street encampment’s been evicted. There’s the Prescott Market, there’s the Ballers Stadium, there’s some new housing developments, there’s plans to build a new beer garden up there. So I don’t know what’s happening at 2601 Wood Street where the cabins are. I would assume, based on everything else that’s happening in that neighborhood, that they’re probably going to build housing, but I couldn’t say exactly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:31] I mean, you’ve been covering Wood Street for a long time now. What do you make of this latest chapter, I guess, in the Wood Street saga?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:14:42] It really feels kind of like, you know, the perfect ending for the Wood Street saga. I mean, it was really disorganized when the city was talking to folks and trying to get them to come to the cabins. When they first started evicting people off of the lot on state land, the cab ins didn’t even exist. There was nowhere for them to go. And when they talked to people, there was so much miscommunication about what would be at the site. Would they have kitchens? Would they had bathrooms? Would they get keys? It’s clearly still very disorganized. So yeah, it makes sense to me that it would end this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:19] Well, Caron Creighton, thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Caron Creighton \u003c/strong>[00:15:30] Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:30] Caron checked back in with Larry Koch and Tamara Lynn Rosselli to ask what they plan to do when the cabins close on June 30th. Larry says the city placed him in a room in downtown Oakland. He says the room seems okay and that it is permanent housing, although he doesn’t like the rules. Like no visitors, no cooking, and no cats. Tamara has applied for a room at the Harrison Hotel, a single room occupancy. She also says there isn’t running water at the cabins right now and that the pipes were stolen. Some residents are talking about staying to fight the closures, but Tamara told Caron that she doesn’t want to go to jail.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 12:07 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A year without pay. Millions in debt. Months without a contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are some of the allegations from homelessness services providers in Oakland that have surfaced since one nonprofit nearly had to shut down two shelters this month. Its experience is shining a spotlight on a broken repayment system that’s thwarting the city’s ability to address one of its most pressing problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/city-of-oakland-opens-100-bed-cabin-shelter-program-at-wood-street\">Wood Street Community Cabins\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.self-sufficiency.org/rvpark#:~:text=The%20Wood%20Street%20RV%20Safe,support%20to%20find%20permanent%20housing.\">RV safe parking\u003c/a> sites in West Oakland, which consist of 100 cabin beds and 40 RV spots, are slated to close at the end of June but were nearly forced to shut down three months early, after the city missed some five months of payments to the nonprofit running the sites, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofits say BOSS’ experience is only the latest example of an ongoing struggle that has them operating under the weight of massive debt as they wait on the city to reimburse them for housing and feeding its most vulnerable residents. And it’s those residents who are hurt most as they contend with subpar living conditions at some sites that are exacerbated by the stymied cash flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one really knows exactly what’s going on,” John Janosko, a former resident of the Wood Street Cabins, said during a Monday press conference outside the shelters, where advocates rebuked the city and lobbied to take over the sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tiny homes trucked into the Wood Street Cabin Community, a planned 100-bed shelter program on the second portion of the Game Changer lot located at 2601 Wood St., in Oakland, on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said muddled information has left residents uncertain of when they’ll need to find alternative housing, with some expecting to leave in a matter of weeks and others circulating rumors the site may run through the end of the year. According to BOSS, there are currently 70 people living in either the cabins or at the RV site. Of those, 41 are still awaiting a housing placement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is we don’t know, so we’re basically here to help uplift and support our family,” Janosko said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BOSS CEO Donald Frazier said he issued layoff notices to staff last week in preparation to shut down at the end of March after repeated and increasingly urgent requests for payment went unaddressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was only after the layoff notices went out that city officials sat down with Frazier and provided assurances the city would make good on its debt. In all, Frazier said the city owes BOSS about $900,000 through April and that the organization will need another $480,000 to fund the programs through June.[aside postID=news_12030792 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/001_SanFrancisco_Housing_07292021_qed-1020x680.jpg']“We’ll see,” he said. “Until the money is in our hands, I won’t be content.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sean Maher, a spokesperson for the city of Oakland, said in a statement to KQED that staff is working on solutions to “bring the city’s outstanding payments to BOSS up to current, as well as identifying solutions to support the programs’ operations to the end of June.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a Friday meeting, officials with the City Administrator’s Office told Frazier they would provide the back pay owed for November through January within 10 days. As a result, Frazier said he would rescind the layoff notices and inform staff of the June closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This will allow critical time for identifying options for the residents currently being served by both programs,” Maher said, adding that those options would be finalized over the next several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Monday, some cabin residents said they had little sense of where they’d end up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll go stay in a tent if it comes to that,” said Jared Defigh, who’s been living at the site for about two years. “I might get housed before then, it’s hard to say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Wood Street resident tours the Tuff Sheds near the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Late payments from local governments and the state are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/10/nonprofit-reimbursements/\">a thorn in the side of services providers around California\u003c/a>, with some large organizations regularly waiting on tens of millions of dollars in reimbursement at any given time. However, local nonprofits say the lags in Oakland are extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED spoke with three other local nonprofit providers who said payment delays make it particularly challenging to operate in the city. While a typical wait time is two to three months, one leader estimates Oakland takes nearly twice as long to pay. Another said it’s not unusual for the city to run a year behind on payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roots Community Health CEO Noha Aboelata said that for the second year in a row, the city has racked up a million-dollar debt with the nonprofit. She and other CEOs, including some who declined to speak on record, said that while the situation long predates Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027537/oakland-budget-crisis-leads-nonprofit-cuts-leaving-social-services-limbo\">current budget crisis\u003c/a>, it’s only gotten worse. And, Aboelata said the delays now extend to the contracting process itself, meaning organizations are often working for months without contracts in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without a contract in place, you can’t invoice,” she said. “So the delays have gotten incredibly lengthy.”[aside postID=news_12031813 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/240409-SJEncampmentBan-045-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg']In a statement, Maher said the city values its service providers and welcomes feedback “on ways we can collaboratively improve our work together, including in our contracting, invoicing, and payments processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aboelata said she understands the city is in a fiscal crisis and is willing to work through it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we really do need clarity,” she said, echoing the frustration over poor communication with the city that the other CEOs expressed. “Every week we’re not knowing what’s going to happen next or what we’re going to be told, or what we are going to find, so it does create kind of an instability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That instability also breeds inefficiency, leaders said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For BOSS, that means taking out a line of credit to cover operating costs, resulting in added interest payments that will most likely get passed on to taxpayers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And residents say it also manifests as mismanagement and subpar conditions at the shelters themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t have toilet paper, they didn’t have drinking water,” said a former resident of the Wood Street Cabins and advocate who goes by Freeway. “The facilities were constantly non-functioning as they are right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t even have shower heads anymore,” Defigh said. “There might be sewage coming out of that bathroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frazier acknowledged those challenges, though he said the sewage issue had been addressed. With cashflow severely limited, he said BOSS struggled to maintain the shelters, leading to health and safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032924\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12032924 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A small home is transported to the Wood Street Cabin Community, a planned 100-bed shelter program on the second section of the Game Changer lot at 2601 Wood St. in Oakland, on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There were tremendous problems,” he said. “All that was a direct result of not having funds to do all the existing maintenance and some deferred maintenance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25867210-letter-to-city-administrator-1/\">In a February letter (PDF)\u003c/a> to City Administrator Jestin Johnson, Frazier alerted officials that delays had “significantly impacted clients, staff wages and limited our ability to accept new clients.” The letter lists an estimated $130,000–$150,000 worth of necessary maintenance, including mold testing, remediation and repairs to over two dozen units. One charred cabin needed removing, according to the letter; others needed new locks, doors, floors and windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email accompanying the letter, Frazier called the conditions at the cabins “unconscionable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Staff and participants’ health and safety are at risk,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pressure ultimately led the city to reimburse BOSS for payments owed from September and October of last year, he said, but the organization hasn’t been paid since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a mess,” Frazier said. “It strains the entire agency. It’s like stretching a rubber band — how far can you stretch it before it pops?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 12:07 p.m. Tuesday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A year without pay. Millions in debt. Months without a contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are some of the allegations from homelessness services providers in Oakland that have surfaced since one nonprofit nearly had to shut down two shelters this month. Its experience is shining a spotlight on a broken repayment system that’s thwarting the city’s ability to address one of its most pressing problems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/city-of-oakland-opens-100-bed-cabin-shelter-program-at-wood-street\">Wood Street Community Cabins\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.self-sufficiency.org/rvpark#:~:text=The%20Wood%20Street%20RV%20Safe,support%20to%20find%20permanent%20housing.\">RV safe parking\u003c/a> sites in West Oakland, which consist of 100 cabin beds and 40 RV spots, are slated to close at the end of June but were nearly forced to shut down three months early, after the city missed some five months of payments to the nonprofit running the sites, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nonprofits say BOSS’ experience is only the latest example of an ongoing struggle that has them operating under the weight of massive debt as they wait on the city to reimburse them for housing and feeding its most vulnerable residents. And it’s those residents who are hurt most as they contend with subpar living conditions at some sites that are exacerbated by the stymied cash flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one really knows exactly what’s going on,” John Janosko, a former resident of the Wood Street Cabins, said during a Monday press conference outside the shelters, where advocates rebuked the city and lobbied to take over the sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032760\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032760\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/016_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tiny homes trucked into the Wood Street Cabin Community, a planned 100-bed shelter program on the second portion of the Game Changer lot located at 2601 Wood St., in Oakland, on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said muddled information has left residents uncertain of when they’ll need to find alternative housing, with some expecting to leave in a matter of weeks and others circulating rumors the site may run through the end of the year. According to BOSS, there are currently 70 people living in either the cabins or at the RV site. Of those, 41 are still awaiting a housing placement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is we don’t know, so we’re basically here to help uplift and support our family,” Janosko said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BOSS CEO Donald Frazier said he issued layoff notices to staff last week in preparation to shut down at the end of March after repeated and increasingly urgent requests for payment went unaddressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was only after the layoff notices went out that city officials sat down with Frazier and provided assurances the city would make good on its debt. In all, Frazier said the city owes BOSS about $900,000 through April and that the organization will need another $480,000 to fund the programs through June.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We’ll see,” he said. “Until the money is in our hands, I won’t be content.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sean Maher, a spokesperson for the city of Oakland, said in a statement to KQED that staff is working on solutions to “bring the city’s outstanding payments to BOSS up to current, as well as identifying solutions to support the programs’ operations to the end of June.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a Friday meeting, officials with the City Administrator’s Office told Frazier they would provide the back pay owed for November through January within 10 days. As a result, Frazier said he would rescind the layoff notices and inform staff of the June closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This will allow critical time for identifying options for the residents currently being served by both programs,” Maher said, adding that those options would be finalized over the next several days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But on Monday, some cabin residents said they had little sense of where they’d end up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll go stay in a tent if it comes to that,” said Jared Defigh, who’s been living at the site for about two years. “I might get housed before then, it’s hard to say.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032761\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12032761\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Wood Street resident tours the Tuff Sheds near the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Late payments from local governments and the state are \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2024/10/nonprofit-reimbursements/\">a thorn in the side of services providers around California\u003c/a>, with some large organizations regularly waiting on tens of millions of dollars in reimbursement at any given time. However, local nonprofits say the lags in Oakland are extreme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED spoke with three other local nonprofit providers who said payment delays make it particularly challenging to operate in the city. While a typical wait time is two to three months, one leader estimates Oakland takes nearly twice as long to pay. Another said it’s not unusual for the city to run a year behind on payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roots Community Health CEO Noha Aboelata said that for the second year in a row, the city has racked up a million-dollar debt with the nonprofit. She and other CEOs, including some who declined to speak on record, said that while the situation long predates Oakland’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027537/oakland-budget-crisis-leads-nonprofit-cuts-leaving-social-services-limbo\">current budget crisis\u003c/a>, it’s only gotten worse. And, Aboelata said the delays now extend to the contracting process itself, meaning organizations are often working for months without contracts in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Without a contract in place, you can’t invoice,” she said. “So the delays have gotten incredibly lengthy.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In a statement, Maher said the city values its service providers and welcomes feedback “on ways we can collaboratively improve our work together, including in our contracting, invoicing, and payments processes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Aboelata said she understands the city is in a fiscal crisis and is willing to work through it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we really do need clarity,” she said, echoing the frustration over poor communication with the city that the other CEOs expressed. “Every week we’re not knowing what’s going to happen next or what we’re going to be told, or what we are going to find, so it does create kind of an instability.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That instability also breeds inefficiency, leaders said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For BOSS, that means taking out a line of credit to cover operating costs, resulting in added interest payments that will most likely get passed on to taxpayers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And residents say it also manifests as mismanagement and subpar conditions at the shelters themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t have toilet paper, they didn’t have drinking water,” said a former resident of the Wood Street Cabins and advocate who goes by Freeway. “The facilities were constantly non-functioning as they are right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t even have shower heads anymore,” Defigh said. “There might be sewage coming out of that bathroom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frazier acknowledged those challenges, though he said the sewage issue had been addressed. With cashflow severely limited, he said BOSS struggled to maintain the shelters, leading to health and safety concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12032924\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12032924 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/004_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A small home is transported to the Wood Street Cabin Community, a planned 100-bed shelter program on the second section of the Game Changer lot at 2601 Wood St. in Oakland, on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There were tremendous problems,” he said. “All that was a direct result of not having funds to do all the existing maintenance and some deferred maintenance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25867210-letter-to-city-administrator-1/\">In a February letter (PDF)\u003c/a> to City Administrator Jestin Johnson, Frazier alerted officials that delays had “significantly impacted clients, staff wages and limited our ability to accept new clients.” The letter lists an estimated $130,000–$150,000 worth of necessary maintenance, including mold testing, remediation and repairs to over two dozen units. One charred cabin needed removing, according to the letter; others needed new locks, doors, floors and windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email accompanying the letter, Frazier called the conditions at the cabins “unconscionable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Staff and participants’ health and safety are at risk,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That pressure ultimately led the city to reimburse BOSS for payments owed from September and October of last year, he said, but the organization hasn’t been paid since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a mess,” Frazier said. “It strains the entire agency. It’s like stretching a rubber band — how far can you stretch it before it pops?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "the-end-of-wood-street-inside-the-struggle-for-stability-housing-on-the-margins-of-the-bay-area",
"title": "The End of Wood Street: Inside the Struggle for Stability, Housing on the Margins of the Bay Area",
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"headTitle": "The End of Wood Street: Inside the Struggle for Stability, Housing on the Margins of the Bay Area | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The area had long been a forgotten place. That’s what Jessica Huffman found most appealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was around 2019, and she had just been evicted from an encampment near Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Huffman needed a place to go where she could be invisible. She found it, near \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945984/oakland-begins-evicting-unhoused-residents-at-wood-street-commons\">Wood and 34th streets\u003c/a>, under a tangle of freeway overpasses on the city’s western fringe. A locus of industry and transportation arteries, of waste-recycling centers and logistics, the area had also been, for decades, a release valve for the region’s marginally housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jessica Huffman, former Wood Street resident\"]‘It was a place where they could just kind of brush us under the rug.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, scattered stands of cattails and a small grove of eucalyptus trees punctuated the vast patch of dirt where Huffman parked her trailer. There were a few people there, tucked back from the street. More importantly, she said, it’s where police officers told her she could go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was nobody around,” Huffman said. “It was a place where they could just kind of brush us under the rug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next three years, some 300 people moved into a roughly mile-long swath of land under Huffman’s freeway overpass. And the settlement — known simply as Wood Street, for the road running parallel to it — exploded into Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people. Its growth became a symbol of a housing market gone awry, as a yawning affordability gap left many seeking refuge in neglected corners of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authorities knew about the Wood Street settlement for years, and arguably aided in fueling its expansion. But once it came time to close the site down, they were remarkably short on solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As homelessness in California reaches new peaks — \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_PopSub_State_CA_2022.pdf\">more than 171,000 people, according to the most recent count (PDF)\u003c/a> — what happened at Wood Street offers a compelling window into why the state’s approach to clearing homeless encampments so often fails to get people housed and what these communities can offer residents, however imperfectly.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Jessica\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Huffman’s spot was near the settlement’s northern edge, which ended in a triangle above 34th Street, where the land narrows between train tracks and warehouses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heading south, a dirt access road served as the community’s main artery. On either side, clusters of RVs, trailers and makeshift dwellings lined the road. Inoperable cars and fields of debris, often dumped there illegally, checkered the spaces in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949351 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits on the stoop of her trailer. A pile of her belongings are stacked to the left of her. A blue jacket hangs on a hook on the door. She is looking off to the left.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Huffman sits in her RV, which was damaged during a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Exhaust from the overpass mixed with dust to form a haze that turned the air harsh and acrid. On hot days, trash ripened in the sun, the odor wafting through the camp. There was no running water, and no electricity, except what residents could siphon from electrical panels under the freeway or generate through solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t come here because we wanted to be here,” Huffman said. “We came here because we were pushed here, and there’s nowhere else we can be. So, we made it the best we could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huffman’s blond hair, streaked with pink, was often swept into a loose ponytail, accentuating her angular face and wiry frame. She, like many in the settlement, formed her trailer into a compound with a half dozen other people for both camaraderie and protection. Wood Street, Huffman said, could be a fractious place — the big group was actually made of smaller groups. Theft was common. Some people made their money illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949350 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view of a homeless encampment with trailers, tents and people's belongings scattered about underneath a freeway overpass.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Huffman’s compound seen from above after damage from a nearby fire, at the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Huffman didn’t care how people survived. “Just don’t steal my [stuff] or you’ll cause a consequence,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her compound was ensconced in an 11-foot-high fence, held in place with metal wire. The half dozen trailers encircled an outdoor living room and kitchen, complete with an electric stove.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jessica Huffman, former Wood Street resident\"]‘If you don’t have an address, you don’t have a job. You don’t have a job, you don’t have an address. And then, you can’t save up money because you got to live every day spending it.’[/pullquote]One day, someone dumped a truckload of bricks in the middle of a street near the settlement. Huffman loaded them onto the back of her truck, brought them to her camp and cemented them into a chunky, V-shaped patio. “It’s got a custom pattern, way original work,” she said, with a wink. “We did a damn good job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Wood Street, Huffman was able to settle. It was a welcome respite after years of moving her trailer every three days from one residential street to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homelessness, she said, can be a vicious cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don’t have an address, you don’t have a job. You don’t have a job, you don’t have an address,” she said. “And then, you can’t save up money because you got to live every day spending it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949600\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949600 size-full\" style=\"font-weight: bold;background-color: transparent;color: #767676\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257.jpg\" alt=\"Four people sit at a picnic bench talking to one another. A small cooler sits on top of the table along with a gray basket. Tiny homes are pictured in the background that sit under a freeway overpass.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jared DeFigh (center right) takes a break from dismantling community structure Cob on Wood on Oct. 13, 2022. Nonprofits helped residents build Cob on Wood in early 2021. The buildings housed a free store, a medical supply shed, a bathroom and a shower. There was also a community garden and shared kitchen at the site. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knowing nobody was coming to kick her out meant Huffman could get other needs met — laundry, food, finding a place to shower — and even land a job. She worked graveyards packing produce boxes and meal kits at Good Eggs’ distribution warehouse near Wood Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949690\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949690\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful illustration of a map of the Wood Street encampment located in West Oakland.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1097\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-scaled.jpg 1867w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-800x1097.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1020x1399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-160x219.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1120x1536.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1493x2048.jpg 1493w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1920x2633.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sketch of the Wood Street settlement, as of July 2022. Places and borders are approximate. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That was such a big, important thing. And there is no way I could have pulled it off otherwise,” Huffman said. “You can’t be moving around every three days like they want you to do and be dependable anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stability also enabled residents to develop shared resources in the form of two community centers within the camp: Cob on Wood, and the Commons. The centers helped smooth divisions within the camp, allowing residents at Wood Street to cohere into something more like one community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of nonprofits and volunteers in early 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/04/30/homeless-oaklanders-bring-hot-showers-medical-care-and-a-pizza-oven-to-their-encampment/\">helped residents build Cob on Wood\u003c/a> near the middle of the settlement, turning it into a surprising and incongruous oasis. Structures made of mud and recycled materials — which residents jokingly referred to as “hobbit houses” — surrounded a community garden and an outdoor kitchen. Residents used the homespun buildings to house a free store, a medical supply shed, a bathroom and a shower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Xochitl Bernadette Moreno, co-founder of Essential Food and Medicine, helped mastermind the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Cob on Wood] was birthed from the visions of the residents here around how to meet some of the basic needs that people who are unhoused have in this community,” Moreno said. “Places like Wood Street, and these types of communities that are built from the rubble of society, are really important for unhoused people to create systems of safety, systems of community, because state solutions aren’t providing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949604\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949604 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1.jpg\" alt='A woman in a pink T-shirt with blonde hair pulls weeds from a planter box that holds a sprouting garden. Little orange flowers are blossoming. A nearby white board reads, \"Today Meeting.\" A trailer is seen to the left in the background.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sasha Huckaby, 28, pulls weeds from a garden at the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Huffman had been unhoused, on and off, for the better part of her 43 years. She said she left her small, Texas hometown as an adolescent, hitchhiking her way across the country. At 17, she stopped in San Francisco, captivated by the city’s Victorian houses and rolling hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not like that where I’m from, which is like flatland boring,” she said, recalling the awe of her first impressions. “It’s beautiful out here.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Xochitl Bernadette Moreno, co-founder, Essential Food and Medicine\"]‘Places like Wood Street, and these types of communities that are built from the rubble of society, are really important for unhoused people to create systems of safety, systems of community, because state solutions aren’t providing that.’[/pullquote]In San Francisco, Huffman hung out on Haight Street with other people her age and began experimenting with psychedelics and, later, crack cocaine and speed. Over the next two decades, she had periods of relative stability — a job, housing, sobriety — that would be shattered by a more damaging addiction: abusive partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I decided that the last time my ex was going to whoop my [butt] was the last time,” she said of her most recent bout with homelessness. “I would rather be safe than dealing with that [stuff].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After more than three years at Wood Street, she finally had enough money to move — if only a landlord would accept her spotty rental history and lack of a credit score.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just not very well qualified,” she lamented. “I don’t have bad credit. I just have no credit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huffman wasn’t looking for anything fancy: a house with a yard. Somewhere close to work. Working plumbing. Electricity. “Not much,” she said. “Probably normal to everybody else. For me, it’d be a dream come true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, on July 11, 2022, a fire changed everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was around 10 a.m. Huffman saw several police cars in the area and went to ask them why they were there (officials said later they were looking for stolen and abandoned cars). Before she could get an answer, smoke began rising near the train trestle, swirling into a thick, black column. It was coming from her compound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949349 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Charred cars, metal, belongings and debris are scattered throughout an open field.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charred remnants of residents’ belongings fill areas of the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She ran back. Officers swarmed around her, she said: “They were just ushering us out. Like, go, go, go, go, go!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Huffman saw that faces were missing from her crew. One — a woman named DeeDee — had a tent under the wooden train trestle, which was engulfed in flames. She pleaded with the officers to let her go there. They refused. Another friend began shouting in their faces, causing enough of a distraction for Huffman to slip past the officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She found DeeDee still asleep in her tent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire was touching her face,” Huffman shuddered. “She would have burned — not even smoke inhalation — she would have burned to death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949410\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949410 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with a gray and black sweater and a blonde ponytail points to damage done to her trailer. It's covered in soot and grime from a previous fire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica points to damage to her RV from a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her voice cracked remembering the moment. “That could have been any one of us,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huffman’s truck burned, and the side of her trailer melted from the heat. Her bed momentarily caught on fire, but firefighters doused the flames before the fire could spread further. Others weren’t as lucky. Her partner, Matthew Schatzinger, lost the mini school bus he lived in. Another one of their compound members, Shaun Ryan, watched his trailer and all his belongings turn to ash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials later said five RVs burned in the two-alarm blaze. The cause of the fire was undetermined, but a spokesperson for the fire department said it started in an RV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949412\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949412 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup shot of a man's hands covered in black soot from a previous fire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Schatzinger shows soot on his hands from sorting through his belongings that burned during a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Inside Huffman’s compound, soot blackened every surface. The only remnants of the outdoor living room and kitchen were charred wood and twisted metal.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jessica Huffman, former Wood Street resident\"]‘I can’t crawl out of poverty if they make me have to constantly put my job and my income and my everything on emergency hold. It’s like they just want us to die or something.’[/pullquote]Then, less than a week later, Caltrans posted five-day eviction notices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Huffman, it felt like a cruel joke. Bits of soot and ash were still raining over the camp, sticking to Huffman’s skin and collecting in the crevices of her face, neck and hands. The sickly smell of burned plastics hung heavy in the air. She hadn’t had time yet to take stock of her losses. Now, she’d lose everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions raced through her mind: Where would she move now? How would she get there? What could she take with her? And, perhaps most importantly, how could she do all that and still make it to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t crawl out of poverty if they make me have to constantly put my job and my income and my everything on emergency hold,” she said, bitterly. “It’s like they just want us to die or something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>John\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Caltrans issued the eviction notices, John Janosko sprang into action. Tall, with short dreadlocks and an effusive smile, Janosko could be mistaken for the mayor of Wood Street — or, at least, president of its improvement association, if such a thing existed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His trailer sat at the entrance to the Commons. He had built out the space into a maze of rooms made from plywood and other materials. Beyond it, he arranged couches and outdoor furniture into an open-air living room that doubled as a community meeting space with a communal kitchen tucked into one corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949603\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949603 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a white, hooded sweatshirt and long, brown braids sits on a sofa outdoors listening to someone speak off camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko speaks with other members of the Wood Street Commons before a meeting with the city of Oakland and its nonprofit contractor, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You know how you have that family member where you always go to Thanksgiving or you always spend Christmas?” Janosko said. “So, that would be me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the previous three years, the Commons had served as the main gateway into the larger Wood Street settlement, which was mostly tucked back from the street. Across from Raimondi Park, where kids played football and soccer, the Commons was the most visible part of the settlement, and the most accessible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Established nonprofits like LifeLong Medical Care and Operation Dignity routinely came by to provide health care and shower services for Wood Street residents, and volunteer advocates offered rides to medical appointments or help with paperwork to get into housing. Church groups and other organizations stopped by almost daily with boxes of food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949341\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949341 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut.jpg\" alt='A man and a woman hold a conversation at a holiday party. Behind them, a wall with many posters tacked to it. One poster reads, \"Encampment evictions = state violence.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko makes cocktails at the Wood Street Commons for attendees at a holiday celebration at the encampment in Oakland on Dec. 17, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Janosko had worked hard to make the Commons homey. Succulent-filled planters dotted the space. Pop-up canopies shaded a few of the outdoor seating areas. A changing rotation of art decorated the walkways.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"John Janosko, former Wood Street resident\"]‘All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time. It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself and also help take care of your community.’[/pullquote]“All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time,” Janosko said. “It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself and also help take care of your community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was frustrated that certain issues — like trash — persisted, despite offers to the city to pay for dumpsters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The designated dumping spot is on the street, where everybody can see it,” Janosko said. “So, that looks bad, when the city should have just put out dumpsters, and that would make it look a lot better, and there wouldn’t be all this trash flying around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In posting the eviction notices, Caltrans — which owns the bulk of the land the Wood Street settlement occupied — said Wood Street had become too dangerous, with more than 200 fires reported in the span of 2 1/2 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949348\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949348 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A white page with burned edges shows a charcoal drawing of Victorian facades, and sits among brown, shaded debris.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A burned drawing of Victorian houses lies amid the remnants of a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on Sept. 2, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Michael Hunt, spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department, said investigators typically did not look into the causes of these fires, which some residents suspected were arson, because highly flammable siding on RVs and trailers, combined with propane tanks, lighters and other combustible objects, often obscured where fires started or how they spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighboring residents cited ongoing complaints of crime and blight. Stephen Denlis, CEO of Mean Machine, a nearby fabrication business, said employees’ cars were routinely vandalized, making it hard for him to hire and retain staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is impossible to hire when you are in the middle of a homeless encampment,” he said, adding that over the past 15 years, his workforce had dwindled from 15 employees to four. “I pay $100 a month for rat abatement, close my doors due to tire fires, and added fencing and screening out front. … The way it is now is scary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denlis watched the community of unhoused people at Wood Street ebb and flow over the years. But around 2019, city workers painted a long white line on the street and set up concrete dividers, separating people’s four-wheeled homes from traffic — an action that, to Larry Coke and other unhoused people living there, seemed to sanction the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coke had been living at Raimondi Park, near 18th and Wood streets, in a tent, and later a trailer, since 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949491\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949491 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg\" alt='A small, tan shack under the freeway with a garden in front of it and a rainbow sign above a wooden archway is hand painted and reads, \"Cob on Wood.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cob on Wood in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The city moved us over here right in front of the soccer field,” he recalled. Across from the park was a vacant lot. “We came across the street. And that’s how it started. That’s how people started coming over here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp_yDu2nqSA\">In an interview at the time\u003c/a> with KPIX, then-Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf defended the city’s actions, saying, “We don’t have a permanent place for that encampment yet, so you will see us use interim measures because we don’t have enough [shelter] beds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Schaaf also made it clear the encampment wasn’t, officially speaking, “sanctioned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From my experience, we have tried it, and it has failed,” Schaaf said of other sanctioned encampments in the city. “All of them have ended in fires, in really dangerous and unhealthy conditions that I believe are not healthy for the unhoused residents, let alone the surrounding community.”[aside label='More Stories on Wood Street' tag='wood-street']Given all that, for Janosko and other residents, it was clear the city and Caltrans both had known about the settlement for years. What was the rush to evict everyone now? And besides, where was everyone supposed to go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked with another camp resident, Jaz Colibri, and a nonprofit law group to file for a temporary restraining order in federal court to stop the evictions. The suit argued the five-day notices would cause immediate and irreparable harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janosko hoped to buy his unhoused neighbors some time, and force the city to offer more in the way of solutions than to simply scatter. The strategy worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the first hearing, District Judge William Orrick asked the attorneys for the government agencies involved — Caltrans, the city of Oakland and Alameda County — what kind of shelter was being offered to residents. They all pointed fingers at each other, admitting there was no plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I understand that everybody wants to wash their hands of this particular problem, and that’s not going to happen,” Orrick said, ordering the agencies to come back in a month with answers to where people could go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949500\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949500 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Men in orange and yellow work clothes and white hardhats clear a homeless encampment using large machinery. A white pickup truck is seen being hoisted into the air and hauled off.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caltrans workers remove vehicles and clear people’s belongings from the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this reprieve was only temporary. Caltrans had been on a tear in the year leading up to the eviction notices at Wood Street, clearing 1,237 encampments in fiscal year 2022, according to William Arnold, spokesperson for the agency. In the months since, Caltrans has ramped up its efforts, clearing 1,534 encampments between July 1, 2022, and April 14, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ensuring displaced residents have viable housing options is not part of Caltrans’ mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under state law, providing shelter and housing assistance to homeless individuals — including those residing on a state right-of-way within a city’s or county’s boundaries — is the responsibility of local government,” Arnold said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caltrans will notify local social services providers and request outreach be done at least two weeks prior to an eviction, he said. And, it posts notices at the site “at least 48 hours in advance.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"William Arnold, spokesperson, Caltrans\"]‘Under state law, providing shelter and housing assistance to homeless individuals — including those residing on a state right-of-way within a city’s or county’s boundaries — is the responsibility of local government.’[/pullquote]But finding enough shelter for people displaced through these evictions can be challenging. In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_State_CA_2022.pdf\">California had around 68,600 emergency or transitional shelter beds across the state and nearly 115,500 people living in tents, RVs and cars (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Wood Street residents, this shortage meant that despite a federal court order mandating a plan for housing, the best that Oakland and Alameda County could offer was beds for about half of the soon-to-be-displaced residents. At the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923663/caltrans-ok-to-clear-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment-federal-judge-rules\">next hearing\u003c/a>, Orrick said that was adequate. The law was on Caltrans’ side. “There is no constitutional right to housing,” Orrick said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janosko was crushed. He knew outsiders saw only the maze of rundown trailers, the makeshift hovels scrapped together with plywood and tarp, the trash. He wished someone with power could also see what he saw: a community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People, they look at the wrong things,” he said, turning his face skyward. “Even though it’s a situation that’s maybe not ideal to most people, there’s a lot of things that bring up good emotions inside of you that make you feel good still. It’s not all about being sad and stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949605\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949605 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a black beanie and jacket hugs a man who is crying wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xochitl Bernadette Moreno hugs John Janosko at the Wood Street Commons on Friday, Feb. 2, 2023, after a federal district judge said he would allow the city of Oakland to begin evicting residents at the Commons. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Sept. 8, 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">the evictions began\u003c/a>. Caltrans crews showed up in force. Dozens of California Highway Patrol officers spread out in a line to separate residents from workers, clearing roughly three-quarters of the settlement. Arnold said the agency ultimately spent $2.1 million removing 800 vehicles and enough debris to fill 200 dumpsters. It spent another $5.5 million installing a concrete barrier and a fence to deter people from reentering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Janosko, all that money added up to just one thing: “A whole bunch of people just got all their worldly belongings thrown into a dumpster and grinded away. They got pushed out to another location. They’re scared and alone and by themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By mid-October, when Caltrans had finished its work at Wood Street, city officials said roughly half the settlement, or 95 people, had accepted offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the remaining 110 people, some moved to the Commons. That part of the settlement was spared because it sat on city-owned land — and the city had its own plans for that lot. Others simply spread into the surrounding neighborhood.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"John Janosko, former Wood Street resident\"]‘A whole bunch of people just got all their worldly belongings thrown into a dumpster and grinded away. They got pushed out to another location. They’re scared and alone and by themselves.’[/pullquote]“Everyone is just sort of scattered,” Janosko said. “If you go up and down some of these side streets, you’ll notice that there’s a few more RVs parked on just regular residential streets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her part, Huffman moved about a dozen blocks south, to another vacant lot in West Oakland. Many from her compound followed, along with other displaced Wood Street residents. But just as the owner of that lot was gearing up to kick them out, Huffman caught a break. A long-time friend with a house in East Oakland allowed her to move in. It wasn’t close to her job, but it had a yard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949607\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949607 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair is wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and is standing inside in front of a kitchen sink filled with dishes. She's smiling. A kitchen window is behind her letting in sunlight.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Huffman poses for a photo inside her home in East Oakland, where she recently began renting a room, on Nov. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I got lucky,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though she had left Wood Street, she still returned to the area to visit her friends who remained in trailers nearby. Without them, she said, she never would have made it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949346\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949346 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup shot of a dirt field with red bricks from a former patio pictured. Everything is burned.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The remains of Jessica Huffman’s brick patio at the site of the Wood Street encampment where Huffman and other residents once lived, in Oakland on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“‘Cause, if I didn’t have something to eat, my neighbor was going to share a sandwich with me. And that was the case every day,” Huffman said. “Nobody can survive without everybody else there. We can’t live without each other, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caltrans returned the land where the Wood Street settlement had stood back to bare earth, as empty and open as when Huffman had moved there. Only her brick patio remained.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Ramona\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After getting evicted from her spot under the freeway at Wood Street in September 2022, Ramona Choyce moved three times in three months, ultimately ending up about six blocks south, next door to the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guarded by nature, Choyce, 46, has an assertive demeanor that belies her 4-foot-11-inch frame. She works as a scrapper — making money by turning in used metal to be recycled — a trade her father and grandmother practiced before her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949388\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2003px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949388 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971.jpg\" alt=\"A woman holds a broom and looks at the camera as she tries to push away pools of water from her trailer. The sun is going down.\" width=\"2003\" height=\"1431\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971.jpg 2003w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-800x572.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-1020x729.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-1920x1372.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2003px) 100vw, 2003px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramona Choyce rakes debris from water that flooded the area around her trailer, on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s in the family,” she joked on a recycling run one day, driving her beat-up, sky-blue Isuzu pickup truck from the 1980s. “I guess I need to open up my own business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the move from Caltrans’ land had made it hard for Choyce to keep working. She had taken what she could fit in her trailer or carry in her pickup, but had to leave behind a lot of gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I done lost a lot. A lot,” she said. “I can’t even work on stuff that I need to work on because I really don’t have the tools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000269\">Studies\u003c/a> show that encampment sweeps, like the one Caltrans performed at Wood Street, \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11606-022-07471-y.pdf\">lead to worse mental and physical health for residents (PDF)\u003c/a>, undermine trust in service providers, and push residents into more dangerous environments, among \u003ca href=\"https://nhchc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NHCHC-encampment-sweeps-issue-brief-12-22.pdf\">other outcomes (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949338\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949338 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An outdoor shot of an unhoused person's encampment site. A white trailer is covered in brown tarps as pools of water start to form in front of the place. Piles of abandoned tires are in the background amid a gray sky.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An RV sits in water on Wood Street in Oakland on Jan. 5, 2023, after storms contributed to flooding in the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In her new spot, Choyce was right on the street, exposed to passersby in a way she hadn’t been when she had been tucked under the overpass, “Now, I’m in front, open,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On several occasions, people broke into Choyce’s trailer. Then, when the rains came in November, water pooled in a sometimes knee-deep moat that was often filled with trash and other debris, despite her constantly raking it clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the time that I moved over here, it’s been water,” Choyce said. “Caltrans done threw away all my weather gear. … So, I’m getting wet, and it feel like I’m getting sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949610\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949610 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1.jpg\" alt='A brown tarp hangs over a trailer with spraypainted letters in yellow reading, \"Leave us alone in the name of Jesus.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The outside of Ramona Choyce’s trailer on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her trailer now butted against the fence surrounding \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11910890/how-oaklands-16th-street-train-station-helped-build-west-oakland-and-the-modern-civil-rights-movement\">Southern Pacific’s abandoned 16th Street train station\u003c/a>, not far from where she had grown up as a kid. When she was younger, Choyce sometimes wandered down 16th Street to stare up at the tiled, beaux-arts-style building, with its vaulted ceiling and ornate interior, before the station stopped serving passengers in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We used to walk all the way up here,” she said. “But never got on the train.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the street, a gleaming white-and-gray apartment complex was under construction — the last of some 1,500 new homes, mostly market rate, built as part of \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=742328&GUID=6BB49C5D-30C9-4253-85B8-6E66E8499C3A&Options=&Search=\">a redevelopment plan Oakland officials approved in 2005\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Silicon Valley’s tech industry was rebounding from the dot-com bust and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Housing-market-still-hot-2004-Bay-Area-median-2737351.php\">rent prices in the region were rising\u003c/a>. West Oakland, which had long experienced disinvestment, suddenly seemed like a promising bet for real estate developers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slowly, the march of development moved its way northward, right to the Commons’ doorstep. And evidence of the \u003ca href=\"https://ccrl.stanford.edu/blog/oakland-series-4\">change in demographics\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/18/oakland-s-f-neighborhoods-fastest-gentrifying-in-u-s/\">income\u003c/a> was all around West Oakland in the form of new cafes, restaurants — even a doggie hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949497\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949497 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a gray, hooded sweater is using a yellow push-broom to sweep away water on the side of the road.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramona Choyce sweeps large puddles away from her trailer on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sorting aluminum from plastics into blue trash barrels, Choyce eyed a ginger-bearded man as he jogged past her trailer. She shook her head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These new people,” she said, emphasizing and repeating “\u003cem>these new people\u003c/em> that’s moving in, in our town, want to boot us out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She thought about how her mom worked under the table to feed her and her six siblings. Choyce now had six kids of her own, the two youngest of whom were living with their aunt. But despite all the “progress” in West Oakland, it had only become harder for Choyce to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just imagining it’s going to be even worse for my kids,” she said. “A lot of stuff’s changing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite her move from under the overpass to the street, she was buoyed by remaining close to the Commons, where she could still access food donations and Operation Dignity’s mobile shower van, and where she was surrounded by people she knew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When her pickup truck stalled at an intersection one day, her neighbor Smiley helped her fix it. Another day, Patrick Barnes, a volunteer advocate, pulled up with trash cans full of metal that Choyce had collected from her time under the overpass. He had stored it for her during the evictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel bad, because I’ve been sitting on it for so long,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is perfect,” she said, “because, right now, I could use it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949339\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949339 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with a black jacket and a N95 mask over her head is seen moving a pile of scrap metal.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramona Choyce, 44, sorts metal at the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this stability was only temporary. The Commons — this last vestige of the Wood Street settlement on city-owned land — was facing its own eviction. Officials had long planned to build affordable housing on the lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of the last remaining projects of the original 2005 redevelopment agreement, and officials said the developer couldn’t begin work on the planned 170 affordable condos and apartments until the property was cleared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do that, Oakland officials applied for and received a little more than $8 million in state grants to relocate residents from the Commons into a new temporary shelter site consisting of 77 “community cabins” — essentially, Tuff Sheds — capable of housing 100 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The money was part of a $700 million initiative that Newsom established in 2021, called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bcsh.ca.gov/calich/erf_program.html\">Encampment Resolution Funding Program\u003c/a>, which has a stated goal of placing people exiting encampments into housing or shelter.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ramona Choyce, former Wood Street resident\"]‘If they kick me out, I’ve got my trailer. I’m sheltered. I don’t know if they understand that clearly, but it’s important.’[/pullquote]But the program has so far seen mixed results. Only 30% of the roughly 1,500 people removed from encampments through this program transitioned to temporary or permanent housing, said Russ Heimerich, spokesperson for the state’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many people at the Commons, Choyce was skeptical of the city’s plan. To start, officials hadn’t asked residents before they applied for the grant whether anyone wanted to move into cabins. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most did not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to go there, either,” Choyce said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moving to the cabins meant giving up the one home she had been able to count on in her six years at Wood Street — her trailer — to go into a program where the outcome was uncertain. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandauditor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20220919_Performance-Audit_The-City-of-Oaklands-Homelessness-Services_Final.pdf\">A 2022 audit of the city’s homelessness services (PDF)\u003c/a> found that fewer than one-third of the people who went into the community cabins moved into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choyce had known people who cycled through the six-month program, only to end up back on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they kick me out, I’ve got my trailer. I’m sheltered,” Choyce said. “I don’t know if they understand that clearly, but it’s important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janosko wanted the city to think long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949825\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko speaks during a community meeting with city officials about the kinds of services that will be provided to residents of the Commons, if they choose to relocate to a community cabin site the city plans to build, on Nov. 21, 2022. \u003ccite>(Photo by Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Think permanent,” he pleaded with city officials at a community meeting last fall. “So people don’t have to worry [that] if they don’t get housing because they’ve been in mental illness, in drug usage or whatever for the last 10 years and you expect that everything’s gonna be OK? It’s not. There’s too much trauma out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, he wanted the city to offer something more than what residents were already getting at the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a clothing closet, we feed people, we house people, we counsel people, we do harm reduction. We already do all this stuff [at the Commons],” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials declined multiple requests for an interview and did not respond to questions about why they chose the community cabin model in applying for the state grants, or how they planned to improve outcomes for residents. In a statement, officials said the city “was able to accommodate many of [the residents’] needs and requests, including plumbed bathrooms, a community space, the ability to cook food, workforce opportunities, and a desire to remain together as a community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before the cabins had even been installed, city officials posted eviction notices at the Commons. Choyce and Janosko felt betrayed. Despite the $8 million plan and the community meetings, they were being told to leave before there was a place for them to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What about the people?” Choyce asked. “They don’t care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t get it,” Janosko said. “We put our hope in other people, the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A female-presenting white woman with long brown hair and a beanie holds her fist to her mouth with a concerned expression while listening\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica ‘Freeway’ Blalock (right), along with other residents and supporters, listens to a court hearing, via Zoom, at the Wood Street Commons on Friday, Feb. 2, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Again, he and other residents fought back, filing for a temporary restraining order in federal court. And again, the judge sided with residents, ordering the city to delay the evictions until the community cabin site was open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The delay would prove instrumental, but it would come with costs. It bought residents a few more months of stability, time Janosko used to try to lobby people at the Commons into accepting the city’s offer to move to the new shelter site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a hard sell. Gathered under the pop-up canopy in the outdoor living room Janosko had built, many at the Commons wanted nothing to do with the rules that come with accepting shelter from the city: Residents weren’t allowed keys to their own cabins, could have no visitors. Minor infractions could lead to expulsion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949423\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949423 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman walks with her hands behind her back toward a community cabins site for unhouse folks. She's accompanied by a man who walks on her left side.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident Ramona Choyce tours the Tuff Sheds near the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Janosko painted a different vision, of using the time at the cabins to realize a larger dream: buying a plot of land together, people building their own houses, a garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He could almost see it, he said: “That day we walk on our land, that day we break ground. People are coming off the street, and they have a community they can live in for the rest of their lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, uncertainty was taking its toll. The looming evictions heightened tensions inside the camp. Sober for nine months, Janosko began using crystal methamphetamine again. Arguments between residents became more common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just anger,” Janosko said. “Anger and frustration with everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 10, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945422/end-of-an-era-last-remaining-unhoused-residents-at-oaklands-wood-street-commons-getting-evicted\">the city began evicting residents at the Commons\u003c/a>. For nearly two weeks, residents resisted, fencing off the site and locking the gates, dragging bulky items into the street to block public works crews from entering, and sitting on or lying in front of equipment. But, on April 20, police officers showed up in force, arresting two people on conspiracy and theft charges and threatening to arrest anyone else who obstructed city workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946235\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A man looks through a chain link fence at police officers on the other side of it. The man has a crowd of people behind him as his fingers rest in between the fence coils.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident LaMonte Ford speaks to the police as the City of Oakland begins to evict the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Faced with bulldozers and handcuffs, most of the residents reluctantly agreed to move to the community cabins or go to a city-run RV parking lot in East Oakland. About a dozen chose to take their chances on the streets.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"John Janosko, former Wood Street resident\"]‘Once you get stability, then you get everything else that comes along with it.’[/pullquote]But Janosko didn’t see the evictions as a complete defeat. Dozens of volunteer advocates had come out to support residents. At the cabins, they’d be together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was already thinking of ways to make the new site less sterile, with planter boxes and a grill outside the fences for barbecues. “We’re going to turn it into something more than what it is,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past four years, the Commons had provided residents enough stability to build a community. If all went according to plan, Janosko hoped the cabins would enable them to keep it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you get stability,” he said, “then you get everything else that comes along with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Earlier this month, the city of Oakland completed clearing the remaining portion of the Wood Street settlement, which, at its height, was Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people. Its closure comes as the state seeks to crack down on homeless encampments across California.",
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"title": "The End of Wood Street: Inside the Struggle for Stability, Housing on the Margins of the Bay Area | KQED",
"description": "Earlier this month, the city of Oakland completed clearing the remaining portion of the Wood Street settlement, which, at its height, was Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people. Its closure comes as the state seeks to crack down on homeless encampments across California.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The area had long been a forgotten place. That’s what Jessica Huffman found most appealing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was around 2019, and she had just been evicted from an encampment near Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Huffman needed a place to go where she could be invisible. She found it, near \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945984/oakland-begins-evicting-unhoused-residents-at-wood-street-commons\">Wood and 34th streets\u003c/a>, under a tangle of freeway overpasses on the city’s western fringe. A locus of industry and transportation arteries, of waste-recycling centers and logistics, the area had also been, for decades, a release valve for the region’s marginally housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘It was a place where they could just kind of brush us under the rug.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, scattered stands of cattails and a small grove of eucalyptus trees punctuated the vast patch of dirt where Huffman parked her trailer. There were a few people there, tucked back from the street. More importantly, she said, it’s where police officers told her she could go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was nobody around,” Huffman said. “It was a place where they could just kind of brush us under the rug.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the next three years, some 300 people moved into a roughly mile-long swath of land under Huffman’s freeway overpass. And the settlement — known simply as Wood Street, for the road running parallel to it — exploded into Northern California’s largest community of unhoused people. Its growth became a symbol of a housing market gone awry, as a yawning affordability gap left many seeking refuge in neglected corners of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authorities knew about the Wood Street settlement for years, and arguably aided in fueling its expansion. But once it came time to close the site down, they were remarkably short on solutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As homelessness in California reaches new peaks — \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_PopSub_State_CA_2022.pdf\">more than 171,000 people, according to the most recent count (PDF)\u003c/a> — what happened at Wood Street offers a compelling window into why the state’s approach to clearing homeless encampments so often fails to get people housed and what these communities can offer residents, however imperfectly.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Jessica\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Huffman’s spot was near the settlement’s northern edge, which ended in a triangle above 34th Street, where the land narrows between train tracks and warehouses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heading south, a dirt access road served as the community’s main artery. On either side, clusters of RVs, trailers and makeshift dwellings lined the road. Inoperable cars and fields of debris, often dumped there illegally, checkered the spaces in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949351\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949351 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman sits on the stoop of her trailer. A pile of her belongings are stacked to the left of her. A blue jacket hangs on a hook on the door. She is looking off to the left.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57509_006_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Huffman sits in her RV, which was damaged during a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Exhaust from the overpass mixed with dust to form a haze that turned the air harsh and acrid. On hot days, trash ripened in the sun, the odor wafting through the camp. There was no running water, and no electricity, except what residents could siphon from electrical panels under the freeway or generate through solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t come here because we wanted to be here,” Huffman said. “We came here because we were pushed here, and there’s nowhere else we can be. So, we made it the best we could.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huffman’s blond hair, streaked with pink, was often swept into a loose ponytail, accentuating her angular face and wiry frame. She, like many in the settlement, formed her trailer into a compound with a half dozen other people for both camaraderie and protection. Wood Street, Huffman said, could be a fractious place — the big group was actually made of smaller groups. Theft was common. Some people made their money illegally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949350\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949350 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An aerial view of a homeless encampment with trailers, tents and people's belongings scattered about underneath a freeway overpass.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58500_037_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Huffman’s compound seen from above after damage from a nearby fire, at the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Huffman didn’t care how people survived. “Just don’t steal my [stuff] or you’ll cause a consequence,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her compound was ensconced in an 11-foot-high fence, held in place with metal wire. The half dozen trailers encircled an outdoor living room and kitchen, complete with an electric stove.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If you don’t have an address, you don’t have a job. You don’t have a job, you don’t have an address. And then, you can’t save up money because you got to live every day spending it.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One day, someone dumped a truckload of bricks in the middle of a street near the settlement. Huffman loaded them onto the back of her truck, brought them to her camp and cemented them into a chunky, V-shaped patio. “It’s got a custom pattern, way original work,” she said, with a wink. “We did a damn good job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Wood Street, Huffman was able to settle. It was a welcome respite after years of moving her trailer every three days from one residential street to another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homelessness, she said, can be a vicious cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you don’t have an address, you don’t have a job. You don’t have a job, you don’t have an address,” she said. “And then, you can’t save up money because you got to live every day spending it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949600\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949600 size-full\" style=\"font-weight: bold;background-color: transparent;color: #767676\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257.jpg\" alt=\"Four people sit at a picnic bench talking to one another. A small cooler sits on top of the table along with a gray basket. Tiny homes are pictured in the background that sit under a freeway overpass.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6257-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jared DeFigh (center right) takes a break from dismantling community structure Cob on Wood on Oct. 13, 2022. Nonprofits helped residents build Cob on Wood in early 2021. The buildings housed a free store, a medical supply shed, a bathroom and a shower. There was also a community garden and shared kitchen at the site. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Knowing nobody was coming to kick her out meant Huffman could get other needs met — laundry, food, finding a place to shower — and even land a job. She worked graveyards packing produce boxes and meal kits at Good Eggs’ distribution warehouse near Wood Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949690\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949690\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A colorful illustration of a map of the Wood Street encampment located in West Oakland.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1097\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-scaled.jpg 1867w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-800x1097.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1020x1399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-160x219.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1120x1536.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1493x2048.jpg 1493w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_0212-1920x2633.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sketch of the Wood Street settlement, as of July 2022. Places and borders are approximate. \u003ccite>(Illustration by Anna Vignet/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That was such a big, important thing. And there is no way I could have pulled it off otherwise,” Huffman said. “You can’t be moving around every three days like they want you to do and be dependable anywhere else.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stability also enabled residents to develop shared resources in the form of two community centers within the camp: Cob on Wood, and the Commons. The centers helped smooth divisions within the camp, allowing residents at Wood Street to cohere into something more like one community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of nonprofits and volunteers in early 2021 \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/04/30/homeless-oaklanders-bring-hot-showers-medical-care-and-a-pizza-oven-to-their-encampment/\">helped residents build Cob on Wood\u003c/a> near the middle of the settlement, turning it into a surprising and incongruous oasis. Structures made of mud and recycled materials — which residents jokingly referred to as “hobbit houses” — surrounded a community garden and an outdoor kitchen. Residents used the homespun buildings to house a free store, a medical supply shed, a bathroom and a shower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Xochitl Bernadette Moreno, co-founder of Essential Food and Medicine, helped mastermind the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Cob on Wood] was birthed from the visions of the residents here around how to meet some of the basic needs that people who are unhoused have in this community,” Moreno said. “Places like Wood Street, and these types of communities that are built from the rubble of society, are really important for unhoused people to create systems of safety, systems of community, because state solutions aren’t providing that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949604\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949604 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1.jpg\" alt='A woman in a pink T-shirt with blonde hair pulls weeds from a planter box that holds a sprouting garden. Little orange flowers are blossoming. A nearby white board reads, \"Today Meeting.\" A trailer is seen to the left in the background.' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/016_KQED_WoodStreetEncampmentOakland_07192022-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sasha Huckaby, 28, pulls weeds from a garden at the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Huffman had been unhoused, on and off, for the better part of her 43 years. She said she left her small, Texas hometown as an adolescent, hitchhiking her way across the country. At 17, she stopped in San Francisco, captivated by the city’s Victorian houses and rolling hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not like that where I’m from, which is like flatland boring,” she said, recalling the awe of her first impressions. “It’s beautiful out here.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In San Francisco, Huffman hung out on Haight Street with other people her age and began experimenting with psychedelics and, later, crack cocaine and speed. Over the next two decades, she had periods of relative stability — a job, housing, sobriety — that would be shattered by a more damaging addiction: abusive partners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I decided that the last time my ex was going to whoop my [butt] was the last time,” she said of her most recent bout with homelessness. “I would rather be safe than dealing with that [stuff].”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After more than three years at Wood Street, she finally had enough money to move — if only a landlord would accept her spotty rental history and lack of a credit score.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just not very well qualified,” she lamented. “I don’t have bad credit. I just have no credit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huffman wasn’t looking for anything fancy: a house with a yard. Somewhere close to work. Working plumbing. Electricity. “Not much,” she said. “Probably normal to everybody else. For me, it’d be a dream come true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, on July 11, 2022, a fire changed everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was around 10 a.m. Huffman saw several police cars in the area and went to ask them why they were there (officials said later they were looking for stolen and abandoned cars). Before she could get an answer, smoke began rising near the train trestle, swirling into a thick, black column. It was coming from her compound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949349\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949349 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Charred cars, metal, belongings and debris are scattered throughout an open field.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57510_004_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charred remnants of residents’ belongings fill areas of the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She ran back. Officers swarmed around her, she said: “They were just ushering us out. Like, go, go, go, go, go!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Huffman saw that faces were missing from her crew. One — a woman named DeeDee — had a tent under the wooden train trestle, which was engulfed in flames. She pleaded with the officers to let her go there. They refused. Another friend began shouting in their faces, causing enough of a distraction for Huffman to slip past the officers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She found DeeDee still asleep in her tent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Fire was touching her face,” Huffman shuddered. “She would have burned — not even smoke inhalation — she would have burned to death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949410\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949410 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with a gray and black sweater and a blonde ponytail points to damage done to her trailer. It's covered in soot and grime from a previous fire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57515_008_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica points to damage to her RV from a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her voice cracked remembering the moment. “That could have been any one of us,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Huffman’s truck burned, and the side of her trailer melted from the heat. Her bed momentarily caught on fire, but firefighters doused the flames before the fire could spread further. Others weren’t as lucky. Her partner, Matthew Schatzinger, lost the mini school bus he lived in. Another one of their compound members, Shaun Ryan, watched his trailer and all his belongings turn to ash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials later said five RVs burned in the two-alarm blaze. The cause of the fire was undetermined, but a spokesperson for the fire department said it started in an RV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949412\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949412 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup shot of a man's hands covered in black soot from a previous fire.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57514_010_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07282022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matthew Schatzinger shows soot on his hands from sorting through his belongings that burned during a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on July 28, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Inside Huffman’s compound, soot blackened every surface. The only remnants of the outdoor living room and kitchen were charred wood and twisted metal.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I can’t crawl out of poverty if they make me have to constantly put my job and my income and my everything on emergency hold. It’s like they just want us to die or something.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Then, less than a week later, Caltrans posted five-day eviction notices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Huffman, it felt like a cruel joke. Bits of soot and ash were still raining over the camp, sticking to Huffman’s skin and collecting in the crevices of her face, neck and hands. The sickly smell of burned plastics hung heavy in the air. She hadn’t had time yet to take stock of her losses. Now, she’d lose everything.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Questions raced through her mind: Where would she move now? How would she get there? What could she take with her? And, perhaps most importantly, how could she do all that and still make it to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t crawl out of poverty if they make me have to constantly put my job and my income and my everything on emergency hold,” she said, bitterly. “It’s like they just want us to die or something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>John\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Caltrans issued the eviction notices, John Janosko sprang into action. Tall, with short dreadlocks and an effusive smile, Janosko could be mistaken for the mayor of Wood Street — or, at least, president of its improvement association, if such a thing existed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His trailer sat at the entrance to the Commons. He had built out the space into a maze of rooms made from plywood and other materials. Beyond it, he arranged couches and outdoor furniture into an open-air living room that doubled as a community meeting space with a communal kitchen tucked into one corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949603\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949603 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a white, hooded sweatshirt and long, brown braids sits on a sofa outdoors listening to someone speak off camera.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/007_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_3463-1020x765-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko speaks with other members of the Wood Street Commons before a meeting with the city of Oakland and its nonprofit contractor, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), on Nov. 30, 2022. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You know how you have that family member where you always go to Thanksgiving or you always spend Christmas?” Janosko said. “So, that would be me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the previous three years, the Commons had served as the main gateway into the larger Wood Street settlement, which was mostly tucked back from the street. Across from Raimondi Park, where kids played football and soccer, the Commons was the most visible part of the settlement, and the most accessible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Established nonprofits like LifeLong Medical Care and Operation Dignity routinely came by to provide health care and shower services for Wood Street residents, and volunteer advocates offered rides to medical appointments or help with paperwork to get into housing. Church groups and other organizations stopped by almost daily with boxes of food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949341\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949341 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut.jpg\" alt='A man and a woman hold a conversation at a holiday party. Behind them, a wall with many posters tacked to it. One poster reads, \"Encampment evictions = state violence.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62090_006_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko makes cocktails at the Wood Street Commons for attendees at a holiday celebration at the encampment in Oakland on Dec. 17, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Janosko had worked hard to make the Commons homey. Succulent-filled planters dotted the space. Pop-up canopies shaded a few of the outdoor seating areas. A changing rotation of art decorated the walkways.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time. It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself and also help take care of your community.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“All this stuff, these resources, these connections, these people, this caring, this love — that took time,” Janosko said. “It takes time to be able to get to a point where you’re able to take care of yourself and also help take care of your community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was frustrated that certain issues — like trash — persisted, despite offers to the city to pay for dumpsters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The designated dumping spot is on the street, where everybody can see it,” Janosko said. “So, that looks bad, when the city should have just put out dumpsters, and that would make it look a lot better, and there wouldn’t be all this trash flying around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In posting the eviction notices, Caltrans — which owns the bulk of the land the Wood Street settlement occupied — said Wood Street had become too dangerous, with more than 200 fires reported in the span of 2 1/2 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949348\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949348 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A white page with burned edges shows a charcoal drawing of Victorian facades, and sits among brown, shaded debris.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58415_018_KQED_WoodStreet_09022022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A burned drawing of Victorian houses lies amid the remnants of a fire at the Wood Street encampment, in Oakland on Sept. 2, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Michael Hunt, spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department, said investigators typically did not look into the causes of these fires, which some residents suspected were arson, because highly flammable siding on RVs and trailers, combined with propane tanks, lighters and other combustible objects, often obscured where fires started or how they spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighboring residents cited ongoing complaints of crime and blight. Stephen Denlis, CEO of Mean Machine, a nearby fabrication business, said employees’ cars were routinely vandalized, making it hard for him to hire and retain staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is impossible to hire when you are in the middle of a homeless encampment,” he said, adding that over the past 15 years, his workforce had dwindled from 15 employees to four. “I pay $100 a month for rat abatement, close my doors due to tire fires, and added fencing and screening out front. … The way it is now is scary.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Denlis watched the community of unhoused people at Wood Street ebb and flow over the years. But around 2019, city workers painted a long white line on the street and set up concrete dividers, separating people’s four-wheeled homes from traffic — an action that, to Larry Coke and other unhoused people living there, seemed to sanction the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Coke had been living at Raimondi Park, near 18th and Wood streets, in a tent, and later a trailer, since 2010.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949491\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949491 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg\" alt='A small, tan shack under the freeway with a garden in front of it and a rainbow sign above a wooden archway is hand painted and reads, \"Cob on Wood.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/088_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cob on Wood in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The city moved us over here right in front of the soccer field,” he recalled. Across from the park was a vacant lot. “We came across the street. And that’s how it started. That’s how people started coming over here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp_yDu2nqSA\">In an interview at the time\u003c/a> with KPIX, then-Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf defended the city’s actions, saying, “We don’t have a permanent place for that encampment yet, so you will see us use interim measures because we don’t have enough [shelter] beds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Schaaf also made it clear the encampment wasn’t, officially speaking, “sanctioned.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From my experience, we have tried it, and it has failed,” Schaaf said of other sanctioned encampments in the city. “All of them have ended in fires, in really dangerous and unhealthy conditions that I believe are not healthy for the unhoused residents, let alone the surrounding community.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Given all that, for Janosko and other residents, it was clear the city and Caltrans both had known about the settlement for years. What was the rush to evict everyone now? And besides, where was everyone supposed to go?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He worked with another camp resident, Jaz Colibri, and a nonprofit law group to file for a temporary restraining order in federal court to stop the evictions. The suit argued the five-day notices would cause immediate and irreparable harm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janosko hoped to buy his unhoused neighbors some time, and force the city to offer more in the way of solutions than to simply scatter. The strategy worked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the first hearing, District Judge William Orrick asked the attorneys for the government agencies involved — Caltrans, the city of Oakland and Alameda County — what kind of shelter was being offered to residents. They all pointed fingers at each other, admitting there was no plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I understand that everybody wants to wash their hands of this particular problem, and that’s not going to happen,” Orrick said, ordering the agencies to come back in a month with answers to where people could go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949500\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949500 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Men in orange and yellow work clothes and white hardhats clear a homeless encampment using large machinery. A white pickup truck is seen being hoisted into the air and hauled off.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS58520_063_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caltrans workers remove vehicles and clear people’s belongings from the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this reprieve was only temporary. Caltrans had been on a tear in the year leading up to the eviction notices at Wood Street, clearing 1,237 encampments in fiscal year 2022, according to William Arnold, spokesperson for the agency. In the months since, Caltrans has ramped up its efforts, clearing 1,534 encampments between July 1, 2022, and April 14, 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ensuring displaced residents have viable housing options is not part of Caltrans’ mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Under state law, providing shelter and housing assistance to homeless individuals — including those residing on a state right-of-way within a city’s or county’s boundaries — is the responsibility of local government,” Arnold said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caltrans will notify local social services providers and request outreach be done at least two weeks prior to an eviction, he said. And, it posts notices at the site “at least 48 hours in advance.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Under state law, providing shelter and housing assistance to homeless individuals — including those residing on a state right-of-way within a city’s or county’s boundaries — is the responsibility of local government.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But finding enough shelter for people displaced through these evictions can be challenging. In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://files.hudexchange.info/reports/published/CoC_HIC_State_CA_2022.pdf\">California had around 68,600 emergency or transitional shelter beds across the state and nearly 115,500 people living in tents, RVs and cars (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Wood Street residents, this shortage meant that despite a federal court order mandating a plan for housing, the best that Oakland and Alameda County could offer was beds for about half of the soon-to-be-displaced residents. At the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923663/caltrans-ok-to-clear-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment-federal-judge-rules\">next hearing\u003c/a>, Orrick said that was adequate. The law was on Caltrans’ side. “There is no constitutional right to housing,” Orrick said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janosko was crushed. He knew outsiders saw only the maze of rundown trailers, the makeshift hovels scrapped together with plywood and tarp, the trash. He wished someone with power could also see what he saw: a community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People, they look at the wrong things,” he said, turning his face skyward. “Even though it’s a situation that’s maybe not ideal to most people, there’s a lot of things that bring up good emotions inside of you that make you feel good still. It’s not all about being sad and stuff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949605\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949605 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a black beanie and jacket hugs a man who is crying wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/006_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_RS62562_IMG_4157-qut-1020x765-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xochitl Bernadette Moreno hugs John Janosko at the Wood Street Commons on Friday, Feb. 2, 2023, after a federal district judge said he would allow the city of Oakland to begin evicting residents at the Commons. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Sept. 8, 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">the evictions began\u003c/a>. Caltrans crews showed up in force. Dozens of California Highway Patrol officers spread out in a line to separate residents from workers, clearing roughly three-quarters of the settlement. Arnold said the agency ultimately spent $2.1 million removing 800 vehicles and enough debris to fill 200 dumpsters. It spent another $5.5 million installing a concrete barrier and a fence to deter people from reentering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To Janosko, all that money added up to just one thing: “A whole bunch of people just got all their worldly belongings thrown into a dumpster and grinded away. They got pushed out to another location. They’re scared and alone and by themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By mid-October, when Caltrans had finished its work at Wood Street, city officials said roughly half the settlement, or 95 people, had accepted offers of shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the remaining 110 people, some moved to the Commons. That part of the settlement was spared because it sat on city-owned land — and the city had its own plans for that lot. Others simply spread into the surrounding neighborhood.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘A whole bunch of people just got all their worldly belongings thrown into a dumpster and grinded away. They got pushed out to another location. They’re scared and alone and by themselves.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Everyone is just sort of scattered,” Janosko said. “If you go up and down some of these side streets, you’ll notice that there’s a few more RVs parked on just regular residential streets.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For her part, Huffman moved about a dozen blocks south, to another vacant lot in West Oakland. Many from her compound followed, along with other displaced Wood Street residents. But just as the owner of that lot was gearing up to kick them out, Huffman caught a break. A long-time friend with a house in East Oakland allowed her to move in. It wasn’t close to her job, but it had a yard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949607\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949607 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with shoulder-length blonde hair is wearing a gray, hooded sweatshirt and is standing inside in front of a kitchen sink filled with dishes. She's smiling. A kitchen window is behind her letting in sunlight.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/003_KQED_ErinBaldassari_JessicaHuffman_112022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Huffman poses for a photo inside her home in East Oakland, where she recently began renting a room, on Nov. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I got lucky,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though she had left Wood Street, she still returned to the area to visit her friends who remained in trailers nearby. Without them, she said, she never would have made it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949346\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949346 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A closeup shot of a dirt field with red bricks from a former patio pictured. Everything is burned.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62128_019_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The remains of Jessica Huffman’s brick patio at the site of the Wood Street encampment where Huffman and other residents once lived, in Oakland on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“‘Cause, if I didn’t have something to eat, my neighbor was going to share a sandwich with me. And that was the case every day,” Huffman said. “Nobody can survive without everybody else there. We can’t live without each other, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caltrans returned the land where the Wood Street settlement had stood back to bare earth, as empty and open as when Huffman had moved there. Only her brick patio remained.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Ramona\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>After getting evicted from her spot under the freeway at Wood Street in September 2022, Ramona Choyce moved three times in three months, ultimately ending up about six blocks south, next door to the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Guarded by nature, Choyce, 46, has an assertive demeanor that belies her 4-foot-11-inch frame. She works as a scrapper — making money by turning in used metal to be recycled — a trade her father and grandmother practiced before her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949388\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2003px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949388 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971.jpg\" alt=\"A woman holds a broom and looks at the camera as she tries to push away pools of water from her trailer. The sun is going down.\" width=\"2003\" height=\"1431\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971.jpg 2003w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-800x572.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-1020x729.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-1536x1097.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreetErinBaldassari_IMG_3971-1920x1372.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2003px) 100vw, 2003px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramona Choyce rakes debris from water that flooded the area around her trailer, on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s in the family,” she joked on a recycling run one day, driving her beat-up, sky-blue Isuzu pickup truck from the 1980s. “I guess I need to open up my own business.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the move from Caltrans’ land had made it hard for Choyce to keep working. She had taken what she could fit in her trailer or carry in her pickup, but had to leave behind a lot of gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I done lost a lot. A lot,” she said. “I can’t even work on stuff that I need to work on because I really don’t have the tools.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321522000269\">Studies\u003c/a> show that encampment sweeps, like the one Caltrans performed at Wood Street, \u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11606-022-07471-y.pdf\">lead to worse mental and physical health for residents (PDF)\u003c/a>, undermine trust in service providers, and push residents into more dangerous environments, among \u003ca href=\"https://nhchc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/NHCHC-encampment-sweeps-issue-brief-12-22.pdf\">other outcomes (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949338\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949338 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An outdoor shot of an unhoused person's encampment site. A white trailer is covered in brown tarps as pools of water start to form in front of the place. Piles of abandoned tires are in the background amid a gray sky.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS61892_008_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An RV sits in water on Wood Street in Oakland on Jan. 5, 2023, after storms contributed to flooding in the area. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In her new spot, Choyce was right on the street, exposed to passersby in a way she hadn’t been when she had been tucked under the overpass, “Now, I’m in front, open,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On several occasions, people broke into Choyce’s trailer. Then, when the rains came in November, water pooled in a sometimes knee-deep moat that was often filled with trash and other debris, despite her constantly raking it clean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From the time that I moved over here, it’s been water,” Choyce said. “Caltrans done threw away all my weather gear. … So, I’m getting wet, and it feel like I’m getting sick.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949610\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949610 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1.jpg\" alt='A brown tarp hangs over a trailer with spraypainted letters in yellow reading, \"Leave us alone in the name of Jesus.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/002_KQED_WoodStreet_ErinBaldassari_IMG_4345-1020x765-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The outside of Ramona Choyce’s trailer on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Her trailer now butted against the fence surrounding \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11910890/how-oaklands-16th-street-train-station-helped-build-west-oakland-and-the-modern-civil-rights-movement\">Southern Pacific’s abandoned 16th Street train station\u003c/a>, not far from where she had grown up as a kid. When she was younger, Choyce sometimes wandered down 16th Street to stare up at the tiled, beaux-arts-style building, with its vaulted ceiling and ornate interior, before the station stopped serving passengers in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We used to walk all the way up here,” she said. “But never got on the train.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across the street, a gleaming white-and-gray apartment complex was under construction — the last of some 1,500 new homes, mostly market rate, built as part of \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=742328&GUID=6BB49C5D-30C9-4253-85B8-6E66E8499C3A&Options=&Search=\">a redevelopment plan Oakland officials approved in 2005\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, Silicon Valley’s tech industry was rebounding from the dot-com bust and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Housing-market-still-hot-2004-Bay-Area-median-2737351.php\">rent prices in the region were rising\u003c/a>. West Oakland, which had long experienced disinvestment, suddenly seemed like a promising bet for real estate developers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Slowly, the march of development moved its way northward, right to the Commons’ doorstep. And evidence of the \u003ca href=\"https://ccrl.stanford.edu/blog/oakland-series-4\">change in demographics\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/18/oakland-s-f-neighborhoods-fastest-gentrifying-in-u-s/\">income\u003c/a> was all around West Oakland in the form of new cafes, restaurants — even a doggie hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949497\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949497 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960.jpg\" alt=\"A woman in a gray, hooded sweater is using a yellow push-broom to sweep away water on the side of the road.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_3960-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramona Choyce sweeps large puddles away from her trailer on Jan. 9, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sorting aluminum from plastics into blue trash barrels, Choyce eyed a ginger-bearded man as he jogged past her trailer. She shook her head.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These new people,” she said, emphasizing and repeating “\u003cem>these new people\u003c/em> that’s moving in, in our town, want to boot us out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She thought about how her mom worked under the table to feed her and her six siblings. Choyce now had six kids of her own, the two youngest of whom were living with their aunt. But despite all the “progress” in West Oakland, it had only become harder for Choyce to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just imagining it’s going to be even worse for my kids,” she said. “A lot of stuff’s changing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite her move from under the overpass to the street, she was buoyed by remaining close to the Commons, where she could still access food donations and Operation Dignity’s mobile shower van, and where she was surrounded by people she knew.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When her pickup truck stalled at an intersection one day, her neighbor Smiley helped her fix it. Another day, Patrick Barnes, a volunteer advocate, pulled up with trash cans full of metal that Choyce had collected from her time under the overpass. He had stored it for her during the evictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel bad, because I’ve been sitting on it for so long,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is perfect,” she said, “because, right now, I could use it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949339\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949339 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with a black jacket and a N95 mask over her head is seen moving a pile of scrap metal.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS57336_022_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ramona Choyce, 44, sorts metal at the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this stability was only temporary. The Commons — this last vestige of the Wood Street settlement on city-owned land — was facing its own eviction. Officials had long planned to build affordable housing on the lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was one of the last remaining projects of the original 2005 redevelopment agreement, and officials said the developer couldn’t begin work on the planned 170 affordable condos and apartments until the property was cleared.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do that, Oakland officials applied for and received a little more than $8 million in state grants to relocate residents from the Commons into a new temporary shelter site consisting of 77 “community cabins” — essentially, Tuff Sheds — capable of housing 100 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The money was part of a $700 million initiative that Newsom established in 2021, called the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bcsh.ca.gov/calich/erf_program.html\">Encampment Resolution Funding Program\u003c/a>, which has a stated goal of placing people exiting encampments into housing or shelter.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘If they kick me out, I’ve got my trailer. I’m sheltered. I don’t know if they understand that clearly, but it’s important.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But the program has so far seen mixed results. Only 30% of the roughly 1,500 people removed from encampments through this program transitioned to temporary or permanent housing, said Russ Heimerich, spokesperson for the state’s Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many people at the Commons, Choyce was skeptical of the city’s plan. To start, officials hadn’t asked residents before they applied for the grant whether anyone wanted to move into cabins. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most did not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to go there, either,” Choyce said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moving to the cabins meant giving up the one home she had been able to count on in her six years at Wood Street — her trailer — to go into a program where the outcome was uncertain. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandauditor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/20220919_Performance-Audit_The-City-of-Oaklands-Homelessness-Services_Final.pdf\">A 2022 audit of the city’s homelessness services (PDF)\u003c/a> found that fewer than one-third of the people who went into the community cabins moved into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Choyce had known people who cycled through the six-month program, only to end up back on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they kick me out, I’ve got my trailer. I’m sheltered,” Choyce said. “I don’t know if they understand that clearly, but it’s important.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Janosko wanted the city to think long-term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949825\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11949825\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/IMG_6893A-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko speaks during a community meeting with city officials about the kinds of services that will be provided to residents of the Commons, if they choose to relocate to a community cabin site the city plans to build, on Nov. 21, 2022. \u003ccite>(Photo by Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Think permanent,” he pleaded with city officials at a community meeting last fall. “So people don’t have to worry [that] if they don’t get housing because they’ve been in mental illness, in drug usage or whatever for the last 10 years and you expect that everything’s gonna be OK? It’s not. There’s too much trauma out here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, he wanted the city to offer something more than what residents were already getting at the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a clothing closet, we feed people, we house people, we counsel people, we do harm reduction. We already do all this stuff [at the Commons],” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials declined multiple requests for an interview and did not respond to questions about why they chose the community cabin model in applying for the state grants, or how they planned to improve outcomes for residents. In a statement, officials said the city “was able to accommodate many of [the residents’] needs and requests, including plumbed bathrooms, a community space, the ability to cook food, workforce opportunities, and a desire to remain together as a community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before the cabins had even been installed, city officials posted eviction notices at the Commons. Choyce and Janosko felt betrayed. Despite the $8 million plan and the community meetings, they were being told to leave before there was a place for them to go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What about the people?” Choyce asked. “They don’t care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just don’t get it,” Janosko said. “We put our hope in other people, the city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A female-presenting white woman with long brown hair and a beanie holds her fist to her mouth with a concerned expression while listening\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica ‘Freeway’ Blalock (right), along with other residents and supporters, listens to a court hearing, via Zoom, at the Wood Street Commons on Friday, Feb. 2, 2023. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Again, he and other residents fought back, filing for a temporary restraining order in federal court. And again, the judge sided with residents, ordering the city to delay the evictions until the community cabin site was open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The delay would prove instrumental, but it would come with costs. It bought residents a few more months of stability, time Janosko used to try to lobby people at the Commons into accepting the city’s offer to move to the new shelter site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a hard sell. Gathered under the pop-up canopy in the outdoor living room Janosko had built, many at the Commons wanted nothing to do with the rules that come with accepting shelter from the city: Residents weren’t allowed keys to their own cabins, could have no visitors. Minor infractions could lead to expulsion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949423\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11949423 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman walks with her hands behind her back toward a community cabins site for unhouse folks. She's accompanied by a man who walks on her left side.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS64447_012_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident Ramona Choyce tours the Tuff Sheds near the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Janosko painted a different vision, of using the time at the cabins to realize a larger dream: buying a plot of land together, people building their own houses, a garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He could almost see it, he said: “That day we walk on our land, that day we break ground. People are coming off the street, and they have a community they can live in for the rest of their lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, uncertainty was taking its toll. The looming evictions heightened tensions inside the camp. Sober for nine months, Janosko began using crystal methamphetamine again. Arguments between residents became more common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s just anger,” Janosko said. “Anger and frustration with everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On April 10, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945422/end-of-an-era-last-remaining-unhoused-residents-at-oaklands-wood-street-commons-getting-evicted\">the city began evicting residents at the Commons\u003c/a>. For nearly two weeks, residents resisted, fencing off the site and locking the gates, dragging bulky items into the street to block public works crews from entering, and sitting on or lying in front of equipment. But, on April 20, police officers showed up in force, arresting two people on conspiracy and theft charges and threatening to arrest anyone else who obstructed city workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946235\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11946235\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A man looks through a chain link fence at police officers on the other side of it. The man has a crowd of people behind him as his fingers rest in between the fence coils.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/026_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident LaMonte Ford speaks to the police as the City of Oakland begins to evict the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Faced with bulldozers and handcuffs, most of the residents reluctantly agreed to move to the community cabins or go to a city-run RV parking lot in East Oakland. About a dozen chose to take their chances on the streets.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘Once you get stability, then you get everything else that comes along with it.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Janosko didn’t see the evictions as a complete defeat. Dozens of volunteer advocates had come out to support residents. At the cabins, they’d be together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was already thinking of ways to make the new site less sterile, with planter boxes and a grill outside the fences for barbecues. “We’re going to turn it into something more than what it is,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past four years, the Commons had provided residents enough stability to build a community. If all went according to plan, Janosko hoped the cabins would enable them to keep it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you get stability,” he said, “then you get everything else that comes along with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Oakland Begins Evicting Unhoused Residents at Wood Street Commons",
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"content": "\u003cp>With police officers standing by, city workers began on Monday what will be a two-week process of clearing residents and their belongings from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.woodstreetcommons.com/\">Wood Street Commons\u003c/a>, a longstanding community of unhoused people that, until September, was the city’s largest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a press conference held on-site the same morning, Wood Street residents and activists took turns speaking about the evictions taking place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"LaMonte Ford, Wood Street Commons resident\"]‘We’re just like you. We’re normal people. I have two jobs. I cannot afford the rent. I’ve been here 10 years. You think I can pack it up in two bags?’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying. We’re doing the best we can. If we had resources, we’d be a whole lot better,” said LaMonte Ford, 48, a longtime resident and lead organizer at Wood Street. “We’re just like you. We’re normal people. I have two jobs. I cannot afford the rent. I’ve been here 10 years. You think I can pack it up in two bags?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 60 people live in RVs and trailers at the site, located at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945682/the-last-residents-of-oaklands-wood-street-encampment\">1707 Wood Street in West Oakland\u003c/a>. Residents have built the space into a resource hub, complete with a communal kitchen, outdoor meeting areas, a free store, space for food and clothing donations, storage facilities and other amenities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946234\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946234 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man looks through a chain link fence at police officers on the other side of it. The man has a crowd of people behind him as his fingers rest in between the fence coils.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident LaMonte Ford speaks to the police as the city of Oakland begins to evict the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jean Walsh, spokesperson for the city, said the city is offering residents beds at a new “cabin community” site a few blocks away, as well as parking spaces at a recently opened RV lot in East Oakland and at shelters throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Monday, Walsh said four residents had agreed to relocate to the new cabin site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re being cattle-rustled from one camp to another camp, and around and around we go,” Wood Street resident Mavin Carter-Griffin said at the press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like, ‘Move over, homeless. We’re going to stomp right through this and we’re going to stick you in some sheds,’” Carter-Griffin continued. “Sheds are so six years ago. There are many different types of unhoused people. We’re not the shed type. That wasn’t good for us. … That’s a prison cell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946232\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946232 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A Black police officer is shown standing behind a chain link fence as city workers behind him haul wood and other materials into large garbage trucks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Oakland works to clear items from the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Stories on Wood Street Commons' tag='wood-street-commons']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has long planned to redevelop the formerly vacant lot into affordable housing. It \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=745898&GUID=9A69A99B-2EA1-4B3E-BA84-C0DE1D47F9E0&Options=&Search=\">purchased the property, which is across from Raimondi Park, in 2007 for $8 million\u003c/a> as part of a larger redevelopment of the area that authorized around \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=742328&GUID=6BB49C5D-30C9-4253-85B8-6E66E8499C3A&Options=&Search=\">1,500 new homes and apartments\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3759867&GUID=ECC644E3-BC09-4E5E-A98E-A04FCE3B7F11&Options=&Search=\">progress at the lot was delayed for more than a decade\u003c/a>, due in part to the 2008 foreclosure crisis and subsequent Great Recession, according to a city report. In 2018, the city selected a developer to build 170 affordable, for-sale and rental apartments at the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One housed neighbor, Mo, who declined to give his last name, said he’s lived in the area for 16 years and watched the community at the Commons grow from a few trailers into dozens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything has become more and more expensive out here. And, that’s why homeless people cannot afford to live in Oakland and that’s why they are here on the street,” Mo said. “They’ve been here for over ten years, and now they’ve been kicked out so people can build more high rises.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials initially scheduled evictions for Jan. 9, so the developer could start assessing the kind of environmental remediation it needs to build housing there. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940107/judge-to-allow-evictions-at-long-running-oakland-homeless-encampment-residents-vow-to-fight\">residents successfully filed for a temporary restraining order\u003c/a> — citing the onslaught of historic storms and lack of adequate alternative housing as grounds to delay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city received two state grants last year, totaling \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5962116&GUID=B467C58E-50EB-4A4C-BE99-496372BE92B6&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=%22Wood+Street%22\">$8.3 million, to relocate residents to a new cabin community site\u003c/a> at 2601 Wood Street in Oakland, consisting of 70 “tuff shed” structures with space for 100 beds. But the site hadn’t yet opened when the city issued its eviction orders, and Federal District Judge William Orrick ordered the city to delay evictions until it had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946238 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman with a black headdress and T-shirt looks heartbroken as she stares downward. Two men, one Black and one white-presenting, are pictured behind her.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street residents John Janosko and Mona Choyce listen to an outreach worker talk about the tuff sheds in Oakland on April 10, 2023, while the city of Oakland begins to evict the encampment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Give us some real options. Instead of putting us in the cycle of being housed — get us housed,” said Jessica “Freeway” Blalock, a Wood Street resident, who had a bad experience at a different “community cabin” site in Oakland. “With all of the vacant lots and all the vacant houses that are here, there’s no reason all of us couldn’t be housed — and then some.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/14G98PfutiSU4vCEEummva59RGH6XWeNK/view?usp=sharing\">Feb. 24 court filing\u003c/a>, Supervising Deputy City Attorney Jamilah Jefferson wrote that the city had opened the community cabin site and had RV parking spaces available. Orrick lifted the restraining order three days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, volunteers and advocates were on site to assist residents with moving. Kelly Thompson, 75, who is himself homeless in Oakland, sat in his truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m waiting on somebody to say, ‘I need a tow,'” he said. “But where are they supposed to go? Where do they want to go? There’s no place to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons is the last remaining portion of the much larger Wood Street settlement, which, until last year, was home to around 300 people. It stretched for more than a mile under Interstate 880 on land owned by Caltrans, BNSF railway, private individuals and the city of Oakland. In September, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">Caltrans evicted residents\u003c/a> from the land it owns, citing safety concerns, after a fire on July 11 sent plumes of black smoke onto the freeway above, stopping traffic.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Freeway, resident, Wood Street\"]‘The people that are here. The community that’s here. The family that’s here. … That’s not going anywhere.’[/pullquote]Considered one of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/homeless-wood-street-oakland-17717303.php\">largest encampments in Northern California\u003c/a>, Wood Street grew over the course of a decade. Many residents said that, by at least 2019, city workers and police officers were directing them to Wood Street after they had been evicted from other encampments in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we asked the cops who were telling us to move where we should go, they said, ‘On the other side of that fence,’ and pointed to the fence that separated where we were from the BNSF lands,” said Matthew Schatzinger, 45, who moved to the settlement in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview that year with KPIX News, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp_yDu2nqSA\">former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf defended the city’s actions\u003c/a>, saying, “We don’t have a permanent place for that encampment yet, so you will see us use interim measures because we don’t have enough beds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Wood Street residents such as Blalock were not removed from the site on Monday, the process will be ongoing during the next two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Destroying this community, taking down the buildings in this community, is only going to change the scenery,” she said. “The people that are here. The community that’s here. The family that’s here. … That’s not going anywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Workers for the city of Oakland were expected on Monday to begin evicting residents at the Wood Street Commons — the last remaining portion of what was recently the city’s largest settlement of unhoused people.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>With police officers standing by, city workers began on Monday what will be a two-week process of clearing residents and their belongings from the \u003ca href=\"http://www.woodstreetcommons.com/\">Wood Street Commons\u003c/a>, a longstanding community of unhoused people that, until September, was the city’s largest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a press conference held on-site the same morning, Wood Street residents and activists took turns speaking about the evictions taking place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘We’re just like you. We’re normal people. I have two jobs. I cannot afford the rent. I’ve been here 10 years. You think I can pack it up in two bags?’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re trying. We’re doing the best we can. If we had resources, we’d be a whole lot better,” said LaMonte Ford, 48, a longtime resident and lead organizer at Wood Street. “We’re just like you. We’re normal people. I have two jobs. I cannot afford the rent. I’ve been here 10 years. You think I can pack it up in two bags?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around 60 people live in RVs and trailers at the site, located at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11945682/the-last-residents-of-oaklands-wood-street-encampment\">1707 Wood Street in West Oakland\u003c/a>. Residents have built the space into a resource hub, complete with a communal kitchen, outdoor meeting areas, a free store, space for food and clothing donations, storage facilities and other amenities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946234\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946234 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A Black man looks through a chain link fence at police officers on the other side of it. The man has a crowd of people behind him as his fingers rest in between the fence coils.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/023_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident LaMonte Ford speaks to the police as the city of Oakland begins to evict the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jean Walsh, spokesperson for the city, said the city is offering residents beds at a new “cabin community” site a few blocks away, as well as parking spaces at a recently opened RV lot in East Oakland and at shelters throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of Monday, Walsh said four residents had agreed to relocate to the new cabin site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re being cattle-rustled from one camp to another camp, and around and around we go,” Wood Street resident Mavin Carter-Griffin said at the press conference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like, ‘Move over, homeless. We’re going to stomp right through this and we’re going to stick you in some sheds,’” Carter-Griffin continued. “Sheds are so six years ago. There are many different types of unhoused people. We’re not the shed type. That wasn’t good for us. … That’s a prison cell.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946232\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946232 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A Black police officer is shown standing behind a chain link fence as city workers behind him haul wood and other materials into large garbage trucks.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/031_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Oakland works to clear items from the Wood Street encampment in Oakland on April 10, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has long planned to redevelop the formerly vacant lot into affordable housing. It \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=745898&GUID=9A69A99B-2EA1-4B3E-BA84-C0DE1D47F9E0&Options=&Search=\">purchased the property, which is across from Raimondi Park, in 2007 for $8 million\u003c/a> as part of a larger redevelopment of the area that authorized around \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=742328&GUID=6BB49C5D-30C9-4253-85B8-6E66E8499C3A&Options=&Search=\">1,500 new homes and apartments\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3759867&GUID=ECC644E3-BC09-4E5E-A98E-A04FCE3B7F11&Options=&Search=\">progress at the lot was delayed for more than a decade\u003c/a>, due in part to the 2008 foreclosure crisis and subsequent Great Recession, according to a city report. In 2018, the city selected a developer to build 170 affordable, for-sale and rental apartments at the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One housed neighbor, Mo, who declined to give his last name, said he’s lived in the area for 16 years and watched the community at the Commons grow from a few trailers into dozens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything has become more and more expensive out here. And, that’s why homeless people cannot afford to live in Oakland and that’s why they are here on the street,” Mo said. “They’ve been here for over ten years, and now they’ve been kicked out so people can build more high rises.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials initially scheduled evictions for Jan. 9, so the developer could start assessing the kind of environmental remediation it needs to build housing there. But \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11940107/judge-to-allow-evictions-at-long-running-oakland-homeless-encampment-residents-vow-to-fight\">residents successfully filed for a temporary restraining order\u003c/a> — citing the onslaught of historic storms and lack of adequate alternative housing as grounds to delay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city received two state grants last year, totaling \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5962116&GUID=B467C58E-50EB-4A4C-BE99-496372BE92B6&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=%22Wood+Street%22\">$8.3 million, to relocate residents to a new cabin community site\u003c/a> at 2601 Wood Street in Oakland, consisting of 70 “tuff shed” structures with space for 100 beds. But the site hadn’t yet opened when the city issued its eviction orders, and Federal District Judge William Orrick ordered the city to delay evictions until it had.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11946238\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11946238 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg\" alt=\"A Black woman with a black headdress and T-shirt looks heartbroken as she stares downward. Two men, one Black and one white-presenting, are pictured behind her.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/002_KQED_WoodStreetCommonsEviction_04102023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street residents John Janosko and Mona Choyce listen to an outreach worker talk about the tuff sheds in Oakland on April 10, 2023, while the city of Oakland begins to evict the encampment. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Give us some real options. Instead of putting us in the cycle of being housed — get us housed,” said Jessica “Freeway” Blalock, a Wood Street resident, who had a bad experience at a different “community cabin” site in Oakland. “With all of the vacant lots and all the vacant houses that are here, there’s no reason all of us couldn’t be housed — and then some.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/14G98PfutiSU4vCEEummva59RGH6XWeNK/view?usp=sharing\">Feb. 24 court filing\u003c/a>, Supervising Deputy City Attorney Jamilah Jefferson wrote that the city had opened the community cabin site and had RV parking spaces available. Orrick lifted the restraining order three days later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, volunteers and advocates were on site to assist residents with moving. Kelly Thompson, 75, who is himself homeless in Oakland, sat in his truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m waiting on somebody to say, ‘I need a tow,'” he said. “But where are they supposed to go? Where do they want to go? There’s no place to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons is the last remaining portion of the much larger Wood Street settlement, which, until last year, was home to around 300 people. It stretched for more than a mile under Interstate 880 on land owned by Caltrans, BNSF railway, private individuals and the city of Oakland. In September, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">Caltrans evicted residents\u003c/a> from the land it owns, citing safety concerns, after a fire on July 11 sent plumes of black smoke onto the freeway above, stopping traffic.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Considered one of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/homeless-wood-street-oakland-17717303.php\">largest encampments in Northern California\u003c/a>, Wood Street grew over the course of a decade. Many residents said that, by at least 2019, city workers and police officers were directing them to Wood Street after they had been evicted from other encampments in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we asked the cops who were telling us to move where we should go, they said, ‘On the other side of that fence,’ and pointed to the fence that separated where we were from the BNSF lands,” said Matthew Schatzinger, 45, who moved to the settlement in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview that year with KPIX News, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp_yDu2nqSA\">former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf defended the city’s actions\u003c/a>, saying, “We don’t have a permanent place for that encampment yet, so you will see us use interim measures because we don’t have enough beds.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Wood Street residents such as Blalock were not removed from the site on Monday, the process will be ongoing during the next two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Destroying this community, taking down the buildings in this community, is only going to change the scenery,” she said. “The people that are here. The community that’s here. The family that’s here. … That’s not going anywhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The city of Oakland plans to evict the 60 remaining residents of the Wood Street encampment on Monday, April 10. This comes after months of ramping up sweeps in order to move forward with plans to build 171 affordable housing units.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At its height, Wood Street was a self-sustaining community of about 300 people and spanned several city blocks. The remaining residents, some of whom have lived there for more than a decade, are feeling an immense sense of loss and uncertainty about whether they can rebuild their community. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_r9kwWYTqno5QEdCBVlnWDgSE_r-6wVW/view?usp=share_link\">\u003cem>Episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erin Baldassari,\u003c/span> h\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ousing affordability correspondent for KQED\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6876269233&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The city of Oakland plans to evict the 60 remaining residents of the Wood Street encampment on Monday, April 10. This comes after months of ramping up sweeps in order to move forward with plans to build 171 affordable housing units.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At its height, Wood Street was a self-sustaining community of about 300 people and spanned several city blocks. The remaining residents, some of whom have lived there for more than a decade, are feeling an immense sense of loss and uncertainty about whether they can rebuild their community. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_r9kwWYTqno5QEdCBVlnWDgSE_r-6wVW/view?usp=share_link\">\u003cem>Episode transcript\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erin Baldassari,\u003c/span> h\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ousing affordability correspondent for KQED\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6876269233&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge said Friday he would allow the city of Oakland to begin evicting residents of the Wood Street Commons, one of Oakland’s longest-running settlements of unhoused people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents vowed to continue fighting. They were meeting Friday afternoon to determine next steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not getting off this [expletive] property,” LaMonte Ford, an eight-year resident of the Commons said after the hearing. “We are not going nowhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons, home to upward of 60 people, is the last remaining segment of a larger settlement — known simply as Wood Street — that ran parallel to the eponymous street in West Oakland, mostly under the Interstate 880 freeway. The site was once home to an estimated 300 people and stretched for more than 25 city blocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caltrans \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">evicted the bulk of the residents from land it owns in September\u003c/a>. But the Commons, which sits on city-owned land directly across from Raimondi Park, was not part of that effort. In a statement earlier this month, Oakland officials said they want to clear the lot to begin developing 170 units of affordable housing at the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city had planned to begin evicting residents on Jan. 9. But, residents successfully filed for a temporary restraining order, citing the historic storms ravaging the state and the lack of alternative shelter options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Friday’s hearing, held via Zoom, residents appealed to District Judge William Orrick to allow them more time to remain, while the city completes constructing a tiny-cabin community a few blocks away. The city received $4.7 million from the state to relocate residents of the Commons to the new tiny-cabin site, which will ultimately have 100 beds. But Oakland attorney Jamilah Jefferson said only 30 spaces will be available by the time evictions are likely to begin and that there would be around 50 by the end of the month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the cabins aren’t up there yet,” said Commons resident and organizer John Janosko. “Why can’t we wait until it’s fully operational? … It doesn’t make any sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940098\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Three people with concerned expressions sit together listening: a Black man with dreads wearing a gray hoodie sits next to a Black man wearing a black hoodie, and a white man wearing a multicolored beanie\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko (left), LaMonte Ford (center) and Jaz Colbrini listen to a court hearing, via Zoom, at the Wood Street Commons on Friday. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residents also expressed concerns about the design of the tiny-cabin site. Residents — most of whom live in trailers, RVs or other types of vehicles — won’t be able to bring their trailers with them to the new location. Typical stays are 90 days, with options to extend, but there’s no guarantee of permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brigitte Nicoletti, attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center, which is representing residents in the case, told Orrick that presents a difficult choice for residents deciding whether to move in. If they give up their trailers, and ultimately don’t get housing, they could be back on the street without shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These (tiny-cabin) programs allow for individuals to be removed at the discretion of the service provider,” Nicoletti said. “It’s very hard to imagine the amount of risk they’d be placed in to make that decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A female-presenting white woman with long brown hair and a beanie holds her fist to her mouth with a concerned expression while listening\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica ‘Freeway’ Blalock (right), along with other residents and supporters, listens to a court hearing, via Zoom, at the Wood Street Commons on Friday. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nicoletti said residents have also experienced difficult living conditions at other tiny-cabin sites the city operates, including “extended periods of lack of access to basic necessities, like food and electricity and clean drinking water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford testified at the hearing that he, along with other residents with severe anxiety, PTSD and other mental health conditions, would find it difficult to be placed in such a facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t be around too many people, especially strangers,” Ford said. “And it doesn’t matter whether you know them or not, they put you together with whoever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Coverage' tag='wood-street,wood-street-commons']Orrick asked the Oakland attorney to describe the accommodations made for people with mental health disabilities. But, she wasn’t able to provide a detailed response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To the extent the mental disabilities impact them physically, all of the sites have accessible cabins and accessible bathrooms and showers,” Jefferson told the judge. “I do not know the extent of what the clinical staff provides, but I do know that there is a clinical staff component.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, though, Orrick said the city had met its obligations and that he would allow evictions to commence. His order Friday lifts the restraining order beginning Feb. 10. At that point, the city can begin posting notices of the pending eviction at the site, but must give them at least seven days before evictions can begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city’s obligation is to provide, in this context, the alternative shelter. That’s the thing that I have required of them,” Orrick told the residents. “They have done that. It’s not preferable for you. But that is what they have now been able to put together.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 6 p.m. Friday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federal judge said Friday he would allow the city of Oakland to begin evicting residents of the Wood Street Commons, one of Oakland’s longest-running settlements of unhoused people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents vowed to continue fighting. They were meeting Friday afternoon to determine next steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not getting off this [expletive] property,” LaMonte Ford, an eight-year resident of the Commons said after the hearing. “We are not going nowhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Commons, home to upward of 60 people, is the last remaining segment of a larger settlement — known simply as Wood Street — that ran parallel to the eponymous street in West Oakland, mostly under the Interstate 880 freeway. The site was once home to an estimated 300 people and stretched for more than 25 city blocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Caltrans \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">evicted the bulk of the residents from land it owns in September\u003c/a>. But the Commons, which sits on city-owned land directly across from Raimondi Park, was not part of that effort. In a statement earlier this month, Oakland officials said they want to clear the lot to begin developing 170 units of affordable housing at the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city had planned to begin evicting residents on Jan. 9. But, residents successfully filed for a temporary restraining order, citing the historic storms ravaging the state and the lack of alternative shelter options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Friday’s hearing, held via Zoom, residents appealed to District Judge William Orrick to allow them more time to remain, while the city completes constructing a tiny-cabin community a few blocks away. The city received $4.7 million from the state to relocate residents of the Commons to the new tiny-cabin site, which will ultimately have 100 beds. But Oakland attorney Jamilah Jefferson said only 30 spaces will be available by the time evictions are likely to begin and that there would be around 50 by the end of the month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the cabins aren’t up there yet,” said Commons resident and organizer John Janosko. “Why can’t we wait until it’s fully operational? … It doesn’t make any sense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940098\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940098\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Three people with concerned expressions sit together listening: a Black man with dreads wearing a gray hoodie sits next to a Black man wearing a black hoodie, and a white man wearing a multicolored beanie\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62561_IMG_7009A-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko (left), LaMonte Ford (center) and Jaz Colbrini listen to a court hearing, via Zoom, at the Wood Street Commons on Friday. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Residents also expressed concerns about the design of the tiny-cabin site. Residents — most of whom live in trailers, RVs or other types of vehicles — won’t be able to bring their trailers with them to the new location. Typical stays are 90 days, with options to extend, but there’s no guarantee of permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brigitte Nicoletti, attorney with the East Bay Community Law Center, which is representing residents in the case, told Orrick that presents a difficult choice for residents deciding whether to move in. If they give up their trailers, and ultimately don’t get housing, they could be back on the street without shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These (tiny-cabin) programs allow for individuals to be removed at the discretion of the service provider,” Nicoletti said. “It’s very hard to imagine the amount of risk they’d be placed in to make that decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A female-presenting white woman with long brown hair and a beanie holds her fist to her mouth with a concerned expression while listening\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS62559_IMG_7029A-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica ‘Freeway’ Blalock (right), along with other residents and supporters, listens to a court hearing, via Zoom, at the Wood Street Commons on Friday. \u003ccite>(Erin Baldassari/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nicoletti said residents have also experienced difficult living conditions at other tiny-cabin sites the city operates, including “extended periods of lack of access to basic necessities, like food and electricity and clean drinking water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ford testified at the hearing that he, along with other residents with severe anxiety, PTSD and other mental health conditions, would find it difficult to be placed in such a facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can’t be around too many people, especially strangers,” Ford said. “And it doesn’t matter whether you know them or not, they put you together with whoever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Orrick asked the Oakland attorney to describe the accommodations made for people with mental health disabilities. But, she wasn’t able to provide a detailed response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To the extent the mental disabilities impact them physically, all of the sites have accessible cabins and accessible bathrooms and showers,” Jefferson told the judge. “I do not know the extent of what the clinical staff provides, but I do know that there is a clinical staff component.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, though, Orrick said the city had met its obligations and that he would allow evictions to commence. His order Friday lifts the restraining order beginning Feb. 10. At that point, the city can begin posting notices of the pending eviction at the site, but must give them at least seven days before evictions can begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city’s obligation is to provide, in this context, the alternative shelter. That’s the thing that I have required of them,” Orrick told the residents. “They have done that. It’s not preferable for you. But that is what they have now been able to put together.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Last Remaining Portion of Oakland's Largest Homeless Encampment Faces Eviction",
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"content": "\u003cp>On Friday, a federal district judge will decide whether evictions at one of Oakland’s longest-running settlements of unhoused people can proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Jared DeFigh, resident, Wood Street Commons\"]‘This community loves me for me, not because I’m just some person that’s downtrodden and needs help. I am a human being with thoughts and feelings and a whole future before me.’[/pullquote]The Wood Street Commons, home to upwards of 60 people, is the last remaining segment of a larger settlement that ran parallel to Wood Street in West Oakland, mostly under the Interstate 880 freeway. The expansive site at one time stretched for more than 25 city blocks with an estimated 300 people living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">Caltrans evicted the bulk of the residents\u003c/a> from land it owns this past September. But the Wood Street Commons, which sits on a city-owned plot of land directly across from Raimondi Park, was not part of that earlier effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Oakland officials are ordering everyone to leave. In a statement earlier this month, officials said they want to begin developing 170 units of affordable housing at the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg\" alt='A man in an orange t-shirt that says \"House keys not sweeps\" holds onto the handlebars of a bike while a woman wearing headphones and a person wearing a beanie hat stand in front of him outside.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko listens to city employees speak about future plans for Wood Street at the encampment in Oakland on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m scared now,” said Wood Street resident and organizer John Janosko. “Where do we go from here? What do we do?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11928406,news_11937671,news_11925169\" label=\"Related Posts\"]City officials said they need to clear the site to begin soil testing and assess which kinds of environmental remediation are needed before housing can be built there. If all goes smoothly, the site will be ready for occupancy in 2027 or 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city of Oakland is committed to addressing both the needs of the unhoused on the lot and other residents needing shelter and housing,” Assistant City Administrator LaTonda Simmons said in a statement. “The longer we delay, the more this critical project to house vulnerable Oaklanders is put at risk. Ultimately, we know the solution to homelessness is housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, residents of the Commons counter that they have already found a solution to homelessness. And, that solution is the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939903\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11939903 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a button down shirt with the collar up, places an ornament on a Christmas tree outdoors.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaMonte Ford hangs ornaments on a tree at the Wood Street Commons during a holiday celebration at the settlement in Oakland on Dec. 17, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The site has a communal kitchen, a free store where residents can access donated clothes and other household items, and a receiving area for newcomers in the form of an outdoor living room that also doubles as an event and meeting space. And it has something that’s harder to recreate elsewhere: a strong sense of solidarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anybody can come here at any time of the day or night if they need a place to sleep,” said Lydia Blumberg, who has lived at the Commons for around five years. “They can come here, and they can be safe, and they can have people around them that are going to protect them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939880\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939880\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a hat and rain jacket holds his hands together next to a whiteboard calendar with Christmas tree in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident LaMonte Ford speaks about the flooding at the encampment and the upcoming eviction in Oakland on Jan. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, residents held a press conference to appeal to city officials to stay the evictions. LaMonte Ford, a resident and organizer, said that rather than bulldozing the site, the city should funnel more resources to help improve and strengthen it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d like to see dumpsters, electricity and showers, not to mention housing counselors to place people into permanent homes, mental health services, job postings and other services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It costs more money to open additional sites,” Ford said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city received $4.7 million from the state to move people from the Commons to a temporary tiny-cabin community a few blocks away. It had planned to begin evicting residents from the Commons on Jan. 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939884\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939884\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A view of several people walking away from an encampment.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caltrans workers clear a barricade made by Wood Street residents meant to keep Caltrans out of the encampment, in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But, residents filed for a temporary restraining order, citing the historic storms ravaging the state. And, the tiny-cabin community the city had planned to open wasn’t ready for residents to move in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal District Judge William Orrick — the same judge who presided over a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919941/closure-of-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment-put-on-hold-for-now\">similar restraining order\u003c/a> in Caltrans’ evictions — agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This group has been at the encampment for a considerable period of time,” Orrick told an attorney representing Oakland at the Jan. 6 hearing. “You can wait 10 days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, by the date of the next hearing on Jan. 18, city officials said they actually weren’t ready. In court documents, Oakland attorney Jamilah Jefferson said the cabin community would have more than 30 of the 100 planned spaces available — but not before Feb. 1. Officials had also offered residents safe RV parking spots at a lot in East Oakland, but those, too, weren’t ready in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Wood Street parcel remains slated for a much needed 100% affordable housing development project,” Jefferson wrote in the court filing. “However, the city is also cognizant of the need to have adequate shelter available to comply with federal law as well as its own policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A pale green tiny home is seen attached to a truck outside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tiny home is trucked into the Wood Street Cabin Community, a planned 100-bed shelter program on the second portion of the Game Changer lot located at 2601 Wood Street in Oakland, on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many residents, however, are wary of the new tiny-cabin site. Some have even returned to the Commons after having negative experiences at other tiny-cabin locations throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared DeFigh moved to one of Oakland’s tiny-cabin sites after Caltrans evicted him from its land behind Wood Street this past September. He said the thin walls, which have no insulation, left him freezing at night. He couldn’t bring many possessions, which left him without warm blankets. He has since moved back to the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see your breath each morning. All you get is a prison blanket and four socks,” he said. “I had to flee that to sleep by that tree [at the Commons], and then set up a tent somebody gave me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But beyond the physical discomfort, DeFigh said there was a lack of care and attention to his needs at the cabin community that he does receive at the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This community loves me for me, not because I’m just some person that’s downtrodden and needs help,” he said. “I am a human being with thoughts and feelings and a whole future before me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Orrick lifts the restraining order Friday, a spokesperson for the city said workers will post notices at the Commons, giving residents a minimum of seven days’ advance notice before the evictions begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A federal district judge will decide Friday whether evictions at the Wood Street Commons, a settlement of roughly 50–60 unhoused people in West Oakland, can proceed.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Friday, a federal district judge will decide whether evictions at one of Oakland’s longest-running settlements of unhoused people can proceed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This community loves me for me, not because I’m just some person that’s downtrodden and needs help. I am a human being with thoughts and feelings and a whole future before me.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The Wood Street Commons, home to upwards of 60 people, is the last remaining segment of a larger settlement that ran parallel to Wood Street in West Oakland, mostly under the Interstate 880 freeway. The expansive site at one time stretched for more than 25 city blocks with an estimated 300 people living there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925169/residents-activists-decry-evictions-at-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment\">Caltrans evicted the bulk of the residents\u003c/a> from land it owns this past September. But the Wood Street Commons, which sits on a city-owned plot of land directly across from Raimondi Park, was not part of that earlier effort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Oakland officials are ordering everyone to leave. In a statement earlier this month, officials said they want to begin developing 170 units of affordable housing at the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg\" alt='A man in an orange t-shirt that says \"House keys not sweeps\" holds onto the handlebars of a bike while a woman wearing headphones and a person wearing a beanie hat stand in front of him outside.' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/031_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Janosko listens to city employees speak about future plans for Wood Street at the encampment in Oakland on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I’m scared now,” said Wood Street resident and organizer John Janosko. “Where do we go from here? What do we do?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>City officials said they need to clear the site to begin soil testing and assess which kinds of environmental remediation are needed before housing can be built there. If all goes smoothly, the site will be ready for occupancy in 2027 or 2028.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city of Oakland is committed to addressing both the needs of the unhoused on the lot and other residents needing shelter and housing,” Assistant City Administrator LaTonda Simmons said in a statement. “The longer we delay, the more this critical project to house vulnerable Oaklanders is put at risk. Ultimately, we know the solution to homelessness is housing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, residents of the Commons counter that they have already found a solution to homelessness. And, that solution is the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939903\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11939903 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a button down shirt with the collar up, places an ornament on a Christmas tree outdoors.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62097_015_KQED_WoodStreetHolidayParty_12172022-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaMonte Ford hangs ornaments on a tree at the Wood Street Commons during a holiday celebration at the settlement in Oakland on Dec. 17, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The site has a communal kitchen, a free store where residents can access donated clothes and other household items, and a receiving area for newcomers in the form of an outdoor living room that also doubles as an event and meeting space. And it has something that’s harder to recreate elsewhere: a strong sense of solidarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anybody can come here at any time of the day or night if they need a place to sleep,” said Lydia Blumberg, who has lived at the Commons for around five years. “They can come here, and they can be safe, and they can have people around them that are going to protect them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939880\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939880\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing a hat and rain jacket holds his hands together next to a whiteboard calendar with Christmas tree in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/002_KQED_WoodStreetFlooding_01052023.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wood Street resident LaMonte Ford speaks about the flooding at the encampment and the upcoming eviction in Oakland on Jan. 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, residents held a press conference to appeal to city officials to stay the evictions. LaMonte Ford, a resident and organizer, said that rather than bulldozing the site, the city should funnel more resources to help improve and strengthen it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’d like to see dumpsters, electricity and showers, not to mention housing counselors to place people into permanent homes, mental health services, job postings and other services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It costs more money to open additional sites,” Ford said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city received $4.7 million from the state to move people from the Commons to a temporary tiny-cabin community a few blocks away. It had planned to begin evicting residents from the Commons on Jan. 9.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939884\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939884\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A view of several people walking away from an encampment.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/032_KQED_WoodStreetOaklandCalTrans_09082022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Caltrans workers clear a barricade made by Wood Street residents meant to keep Caltrans out of the encampment, in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But, residents filed for a temporary restraining order, citing the historic storms ravaging the state. And, the tiny-cabin community the city had planned to open wasn’t ready for residents to move in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal District Judge William Orrick — the same judge who presided over a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11919941/closure-of-oaklands-largest-homeless-encampment-put-on-hold-for-now\">similar restraining order\u003c/a> in Caltrans’ evictions — agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This group has been at the encampment for a considerable period of time,” Orrick told an attorney representing Oakland at the Jan. 6 hearing. “You can wait 10 days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, by the date of the next hearing on Jan. 18, city officials said they actually weren’t ready. In court documents, Oakland attorney Jamilah Jefferson said the cabin community would have more than 30 of the 100 planned spaces available — but not before Feb. 1. Officials had also offered residents safe RV parking spots at a lot in East Oakland, but those, too, weren’t ready in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Wood Street parcel remains slated for a much needed 100% affordable housing development project,” Jefferson wrote in the court filing. “However, the city is also cognizant of the need to have adequate shelter available to comply with federal law as well as its own policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939881\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11939881\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A pale green tiny home is seen attached to a truck outside.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/005_KQED_WoodStreet_12162022.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A tiny home is trucked into the Wood Street Cabin Community, a planned 100-bed shelter program on the second portion of the Game Changer lot located at 2601 Wood Street in Oakland, on Dec. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many residents, however, are wary of the new tiny-cabin site. Some have even returned to the Commons after having negative experiences at other tiny-cabin locations throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared DeFigh moved to one of Oakland’s tiny-cabin sites after Caltrans evicted him from its land behind Wood Street this past September. He said the thin walls, which have no insulation, left him freezing at night. He couldn’t bring many possessions, which left him without warm blankets. He has since moved back to the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can see your breath each morning. All you get is a prison blanket and four socks,” he said. “I had to flee that to sleep by that tree [at the Commons], and then set up a tent somebody gave me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But beyond the physical discomfort, DeFigh said there was a lack of care and attention to his needs at the cabin community that he does receive at the Commons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This community loves me for me, not because I’m just some person that’s downtrodden and needs help,” he said. “I am a human being with thoughts and feelings and a whole future before me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If Orrick lifts the restraining order Friday, a spokesperson for the city said workers will post notices at the Commons, giving residents a minimum of seven days’ advance notice before the evictions begin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">California’s temperate weather is one reason why homelessness is so visible. But with climate change, warmer and wetter weather are making the emergency on the streets even more dire. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At what remains of the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland, people without shelter are experiencing flooding and a fight to stay warm amid a series of atmospheric rivers hitting the Bay Area in recent weeks. Residents of Wood Street say the services the city is offering doesn’t meet their needs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s not just the threat of another rainstorm looming over the encampment; the city has plans to evict those remaining at Wood Street once and for all. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Guest: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/e_baldi\">Erin Baldassari\u003c/a>, Housing Affordability Reporter for KQED\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6122797992\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"tagline": "The flip side of gentrification, told through one town",
"info": "Gentrification is changing cities across America, forcing people from neighborhoods they have long called home. Call them the displaced. Now those priced out of the Bay Area are looking for a better life in an unlikely place. American Suburb follows this migration to one California town along the Delta, 45 miles from San Francisco. But is this once sleepy suburb ready for them?",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
},
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},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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}
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"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
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"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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