The unhoused of Oakland are counted every two years to help determine federal funding. As of 2024, 5,490 people were living without permanent housing in Oakland. What does this tell us? While Oakland’s homeless population has been increasing consistently for a decade, the rate at which it’s growing has been slowing for five years. These numbers reflect a positive trend, but it’s still not good enough. Not a single person should be living without shelter, proper sustenance, and the means to live.
In July of 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court granted cities more power to arrest, cite, and fine people who sleep outside in public places. The ruling made it illegal for homeless residents to camp on all public property, stating that this was not unconstitutional. Shortly thereafter, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies to remove homeless camps throughout California. On the first day of initiating his ruling, Gavin Newsom himself was seen clearing camps alongside workers. Despicable. Our government is glorifying the removal of the unhoused.
In recent months, our community has been reeling from the impacts of this policy here in Oakland. A camp for the unhoused has occupied a privately owned vacant lot on Alameda Avenue, next to the East Oakland Home Depot, for many years now. At the end of February, the city of Oakland began sweeping the large encampment. The owner and city have tried to clear the area many times over the last decade but residents have always found ways to re-enter. This time the city and owner of the vacant lot (that cannot be built upon due to contamination issues) partnered with a shipping container business. Shipping containers have been stacked on top of each other to create a double story barrier that blocks in the property, displacing the unhoused. It is worth noting that this is the same shipping container company that UC Berkeley used at People’s Park to block protesters from entering. Our government is both removing the unhoused and suppressing our right to free speech.
The unhoused people say there’s nowhere to go. Shelters are unsuitable – space is limited, or regulations are too severe. In addition, two West Oakland shelters for the unhoused were threatening to close this month because the city had not paid the contracts to keep the programs running! So now Oakland is sweeping camps where unhoused people have made homes, and are shutting down the shelters where the unhoused are supposedly meant to live. The city has scrambled to find the funds for the two West Oakland shelters, and the contracts were recently extended to June 2025. But if the funds cannot be scrounged for the next round of payments, where will all of these people go?
The story of the unhoused in Oakland is the story happening across the state of California and the nation. Cost of living is astronomically high, inflation is keeping wages stagnant, people are unable to make ends meet, and many are forced to live on the streets. Residences are empty across the nation yet our government does not make it possible for the unhoused to take shelter. A single person living on the streets should make us all rise up in an uproar. Housing is a human right – no one should be displaced.
