Agenda Item
5.5 24-0322 Subject: Declaration Of A Local Emergency On Homelessness
From: Councilmember Kaplan
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Renewing And Continuing The City Council's Declaration Of A Local Emergency Due To The Existence Of The City's Homelessness Crisis
I support continuing this resolution and call for further action from the administration to stop the sweeps which violently displace people leading to unsafe conditions for all neighbors, and open up the Northgate parcel to be developed as a permanent supportive housing site with wrap around services as proposed by the Wood Street Commons. The established encampment management plan is dangerous and ineffective in supporting people's placement in support programs, and the non profits and contractors that operate current intervention sites have not made good on their role to progress people safely towards housing and the proper integrative and care based services that would help them retain that progress. Wood St Commons has all the lived experience needed and the solutions to this crisis. The solution is to let people build community and safety without forcing them through carceral systems, and provide them access to resources. I am a D3 resident and laborer. Thank you.
I would like to speak in favor of the Oakland City Council Resolution declaring a local emergency due to the existence of the city's homelessness crisis.
The homelessness and housing affordability crisis is not a natural disaster - it’s a policy choice.
Care 4 Community Action goes door to door surveying Oakland residents every week to find out what their top issues are, and what solutions they want to see. Homelessness is by far the #1 issue. In every neighborhood, about 50% of residents surveyed say that homelessness is their top concern. More than that, pretty much all of those people think that the solution to this problem is more affordable housing, with transitional housing and services in the meantime. Oaklanders are on the same page about this.
Housing is the foundation of every other building block that’s necessary for human development, but housing is becoming an out-of-reach luxury for working people in Oakland. That needs to change. You can’t have a decent educational outcome if your living situation is unstable. You can’t have good health if you don’t have a place to rest. You can’t have public safety with thousands of people living on the streets. Homelessness is extremely unsafe. Housing is a human right.