Note: The online Request to Speak window has expired.
The online Comment window has expired
Agenda Item
6 26-0691 Subject: Resolution Submitting To Voters Measures To (1) Amend The Real Property Transfer Tax Foreclosure Transactions Exception (2) Advise That Increased Revenue Be Spent On Interim Shelter, Among Other Related Homelessness Services
From: Councilmember Wang
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Submitting To The Voters At The November 3, 2026, General Municipal Election (1) A Measure To Amend Oakland Municipal Code Chapter 4.20 (Real Property Transfer Tax) To Amend The Exception For Foreclosure Transactions; And (2) An Advisory Measure On Whether The Increased Revenue From Amending The City's Real Property Transfer Tax To Include Certain Foreclosure Transactions Should Be Spent For The Purposes Of Providing Interim Shelter, Transitional Housing, Encampment Closure Operations, Addiction Treatment, Job Readiness, And Other Related Homelessness Services; And Directing The City Clerk To Take Any And All Actions Necessary Under Law To Submit These Measures To Voters At The General Municipal Election; And Making Appropriate California Environmental Quality Act Findings
It has been widely studied that forced eviction of unhoused people leads to worse outcomes for those who are unhoused and the long-term wellbeing of the city. Coupling sweeps with funding for shelter, rather than supportive voluntary matching to available housing is backwards. Stop trying solving poverty and homelessness by evicting the poor and killing the homeless.
I don't support this advisory measure because it ties funding for shelters to increased forced evictions. If you designate safe and supported places for people to go, you won't have to waste money on evictions. Mosswood was swept 26 times. It was only when you provided housing that you finally resolved that encampment. Repeated evictions don't solve homelessness or camping. They waste money and worsen people's health and housing outcomes. Creating voluntary safe living sites is more rational, cost effective and humane than forced evictions. If you're sweeping people into shelters, they effectively serve as incarceration by another means.
Who will manage these "clean tent sites?" Manage the conditions, not the people. Include them in the solutions and the governance of their community. They don't need to be managed, they need to be empowered. Management evokes paternalism and exploitation, due to past and current experiences with shelter managers. To follow the official recommendations of Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design and Homelessness Strategic Plan, you must increase resident autonomy and maintain low barriers.
Shelters are tools of criminalization. They allow the city to reframe violent displacement as service delivery. There is waste fraud and abuse going on with some of them. We need oversight and accountability, but above all the residents need autonomy. They don't need to be managed, they just need to be allowed to live with stability and dignity.
It has been widely studied that forced eviction of unhoused people leads to worse outcomes for those who are unhoused and the long-term wellbeing of the city. Coupling sweeps with funding for shelter, rather than supportive voluntary matching to available housing is backwards. Stop trying solving poverty and homelessness by evicting the poor and killing the homeless.
I don't support this advisory measure because it ties funding for shelters to increased forced evictions. If you designate safe and supported places for people to go, you won't have to waste money on evictions. Mosswood was swept 26 times. It was only when you provided housing that you finally resolved that encampment. Repeated evictions don't solve homelessness or camping. They waste money and worsen people's health and housing outcomes. Creating voluntary safe living sites is more rational, cost effective and humane than forced evictions. If you're sweeping people into shelters, they effectively serve as incarceration by another means.
Who will manage these "clean tent sites?" Manage the conditions, not the people. Include them in the solutions and the governance of their community. They don't need to be managed, they need to be empowered. Management evokes paternalism and exploitation, due to past and current experiences with shelter managers. To follow the official recommendations of Centering Racial Equity in Homeless System Design and Homelessness Strategic Plan, you must increase resident autonomy and maintain low barriers.
Shelters are tools of criminalization. They allow the city to reframe violent displacement as service delivery. There is waste fraud and abuse going on with some of them. We need oversight and accountability, but above all the residents need autonomy. They don't need to be managed, they just need to be allowed to live with stability and dignity.