PRESS RELEASE
Re: the City of Oakland's plan to evict residents from Mosswood Park, August 9-11, 2021
On Monday, August 9, 2021, the City of Oakland is planning to evict the 30 residents living in tents at Mosswood Park, near downtown Oakland. The pink notices went up, stapled to the park's trees, announcing that the Oakland police and the heavy machinery of the city's Parks and Recreation Dept. and/or the city's Department of Public Works (DPW) will enforce the displacement of people, some of whom have lived here and survived multiple past evictions for five years or more.
This eviction follows a wave of forcible displacements in other locations in Oakland, as well as in Berkeley, Emeryville, Sausolito and San Jose. As the economy re-opens, the city of Oakland is speeding up its schedule of evicting any and all of the 170 encampments in Oakland, including the largest one, the Wood Street Commons, stretching from 18th street to 34th street in West Oakland, and home to over 300 people. The city is doing this in what they see as compliance with their current encampment policy, but the effects of doing so is that these people are forced to live on the curb or sidewalk, causing more obstruction, visual blight and upset to the housed residents and businesses in the area.
It is not clear that the City's offers of compensation to people displaced from Mosswood Park would be in compliance with Martin v Boise, a ruling which requires municipalities in western states to provide a form of housing that is equal to what people lose through eviction. The number of shelter beds, motels, and hotels may not match the number of people displaced, and are temporary. Some residents say that these compensations do nothing to equal the cooperative community they have developed at Mosswood, and do not compensate for the loss of attachment they feel for this particular area of land.
Residents of the Wood Street Commons (woodstreetcommons.com), and some of their allies from the housed community, are banding together to create a mobile eviction defense team to support people facing displacement from their encampments. In the case of the impending Mosswood eviction, some volunteers are showing up on Sunday, the day before scheduled evictions are to begin, to help those residents with cleaning, the logistics of moving, and inform them of their rights and how they can become more self-organizing as a group. In addition, the eviction defense team provides food, a generator, musicians and musical performers, cleaning supplies and help with cleaning, as well as help with moving, including providing spaces at the Wood Street Commons to live. Their larger network is also alerted to the situation and encouraged to donate money, food and supplies, as well as to show up and give personal support and to document and bear witness to the conduct of the police and city employees.
It is not clear what the City's reasons are for this eviction. The residents only use a small percentage of the park, and otherwise the park is bustling with families roller skating, having picnics, tending a community garden, and otherwise not being impinged upon by the outdoor residents. The city has also made it more difficult for residents to keep their area clean because no dumpster, no electricity and no port-a-potties are provided by the city to the outdoor residents.
The City of Oaklands "encampment management policy" goes live on January 1, 2021
1/4/21 2:01pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Oakland, Ca. - Today the team started making bark in the trees and conning the composting toilet. Artist showed up to paint the pillars. Michael Elliott from EAT ran a ChiGong class.
Overview: With the onset of Covid in March came a massive reduction in private donations to the unhoused. Covid added to the already large unhoused Oakland population of over 10,000. Many of the woman and children living on the street, that lack adequate housing, face physical dangers from violence, cold and sickness due to poor health.
To address this, three organizations, running 100% on volunteers and private donations, EFAM, ABC and EAT have come together to build small COB villages consisting of a kitchen, health center, sanitation stations and 8-12 tiny cob homes that each sleep a family.
Amazingly they are building homes for under $3000 plus volunteer labor, which is significantly less than the city just paid: $10 million for 16 houses of renovate in a bad part of Oakland at $208,000 per bedroom.
They have completed 2 structures: a health center and kitchen, both built from COB and 100% fireproof. They are now moving on to constructing 8-10 homes made from COB which would each house one family.
The layout would encourage building community by bringing people together to garden, cook and perform holistic health and healing practices. The layout would be a huge ⅔ semi circle of tiny cob homes enclosing centralized shared health center, kitchen, gardens, pizza oven and benches..
Ben Bartlett, City Councilmember, and un-housed housing advocate says of the Wood Street Project, "This is the truest example of community. It's people having each other's back."
In a recent interview Xochitl Moreno, Co-founder of EFAM explains, "We are teaming up with ABC to build a community kitchen and health clinic. These are the start to many more tiny homes to come. We cofounded EFAM as a response to the fallout of the COVID 19 crisis left in the community. Many forms of aid that the unhoused community relied on vanished at the beginning of shelter in place."
ABC is a brand new collective of all volunteer artists, activists, change makers, and formerly unhoused folks whose primary goal is to house as many of our neighbors as we possibly can. One of the Co-Founders, Annmarie Bustamante recently explained, "We have built 6 tiny homes so far and we have set a goal to build one a month for the next 13 months.”
DAY TO DAY UPDATE:
1/2/21 2:01pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Oakland, Ca. - Miguel Elliott update: “We started the lime plaster on the kitchen today and started framing out the composting toilet.”
12/25/20 2:01pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - The volunteer team came out today, on Christmas, to work on completing the kitchen and healthcare clinic. They continued to place COB on the inside and outside of the building and added decorative touches to the outside of the buildings. Work will continue and volunteers are needed over the weekend. as volunteers work tirelessly to complete as many structures as possible
12/25/20 2:01pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - 12/25/20 3:05pm The volunteer team came out today, on Christmas, to work on completing the kitchen and healthcare clinic. They continued to place COB on the inside and outside of the building and added decorative touches to the outside of the buildings. Work will continue and volunteers are needed over the weekend.
12/23/20 2:01pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - The City of Oaklands recently passed "Encampment Management Policy" goes live on January 1, 2021, in several days. It will allow the city to push over 10,000 unhoused out of their current living situation, in the middle of winter. Many will come to Wood St. looking for hope and secure shelter. A much larger crisis could unfold if secure and sanitary housing is not provided now.
Below are daily and weekly updates by The Berkeley Post:
12/23 Update
12/23/20 7:21pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Most of the kitchen is finished and the roof on the clinic will be done tomorrow. Migz Elliott, from EAT says, “Thursday we’ll be cobbing and finishing the outside plaster next week. And great news - a lot of people have volunteered to work on Christmas!”
12/21 Update
12/21/20 8:24am (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Today the team finished up the kitchen build and have moved on to the health center. A large group of volunteers came out over the weekend and made tons of progress. The health center should be complete this week. The GOFUNDME campaign is going well with over $1000 raised in just 3 days
12/19 Update
12/19/20 6:42am (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Today the team is expecting a lot of volunteers to show up. "This is an act of God!", says Keenami, an unhoused resident that showed up to build early Saturday morning. "This is so neat. I want one of these! I will work all day. You guys are giving us hope. You're taking land that is so depressing and you're giving us a piece of land. I was in prison for a while. I got out - and I see this. This makes me feel less sad about being homeless - like a real person. I never thought in a million year this would be happening."
12/15/20 Update
12/15/20 6:40am (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Today a group of volunteers is getting together at Wood and Grand St. to finish up the kitchen, the first of two COB structures being builtThe exterior of the building was covered in COB. The frame of the door was installed with a rounded header. The door was installed. Broken chunks of stone were put around the base to act as a footer for the COB and to present a more finished look. The team built the home in a way that allows it to be moved with a forklift. says Keenami a resident that came out for the build on Saturday.
12/14 update Today is the 7th day of the build and the team worked mainly with COB finishing out interior spaces such as sculpting shelve edges and creaiting more rounded and three dimensional window sills. There was participation from camp residents. The team ran out of water at one point in the day but creatively refilled the container. COB material ran out but hopefully a new shipment is brought in early Thursday morning.
12/14 Update
(UPDATE) 12/14/20 9:30pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Today was very productive. The team finished up detail work on the windows and started laying down cob on the interior walls. The roof was completed. It was constructed from locally donated panels from a film shoot Todays work focused mainly on finishing up the details with the glass bricks along the roofline and positioning the glass bottles and stain glass windows. "We had a great day today," explains Miguel Elliott, Cob Build Project Manager. "We had some local unhoused residents join in and work. Its always great to have people that live here participate," explained Elliott. "Tomorrow will be all about getting the roof on the house," he said.
12/13 Update
(UPDATE) 12/13/20 8:32pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine -EFAM and ABC did more great work today on Day 4 of the community kitchen build. The 30 foot tall concrete legs of I-880 supporting the freeway over head provided the team a bit of a break in the rain as they finished up the detail work. Some of the detail work included inlaid stained glass and recycled wine bottle windows. Amazing food was provided by a volunteer. Dimitri provided his generator, tools and great tunes, as always.
Annmarie envisions eventually building 100s of homes that can house 100s of families for the price the city pays to construct an apartment in a high rise that takes years to build.
12/12 Update
12/12/20 9:34pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Today two social welfare organizations Essential Food and Medicine (EFAM) and Artist Building Communities (ABC) got together with cob builder, Miguel Elliott and a team of volunteers to build a a community kitchen and health clinic to serve 150 unhoused in the Wood Street Encampment community.
Ben Bartlett, City Councilmember, and un-housed housing advocate says of the Wood Street Project, "This is the truest example of community. It's people having each other's back."
12/12 Update
12/12/20 9:34pm (The Berkeley Post) - by Max Levine - Two social welfare organizations Essential Food and Medicine (EFAM) and Artist Building Communities (ABC) get together with cob builder, Miguel Elliott and a team of volunteers to build a a community kitchen and health clinic to serve 150 unhoused in the Wood Street Encampment community. 10am - 4pm: come build cob and help house the unhoused in West Oakland
12/11 update
12/11/20 10:30pm (The Berkeley Post) - EFAM and ABC are getting together at the Wood Street Encampment in West Oakland with volunteers to build a kitchen and a health center out of cob/straw bail. It’s very open with lots of sun - masks required. Bring gloves. Copy and paste in Google Maps: Wood St. & West Grand
Ben Bartlett, City Councilmember, and un-housed housing advocate says of the Wood Street Project, "This is the truest example of community. It's people having each other's back."
In a recent interview Xochitl Moreno, Co-founder of EFAM explains, "We are teaming up with ABC to build a community kitchen and health clinic. These are the start to many more tiny homes to come. We cofounded EFAM as a response to the fallout of the COVID 19 crisis left in the community. Many forms of aid that the unhoused community relied on vanished at the beginning of shelter in place."
ABC is a brand new collective of all volunteer artists, activists, change makers, and formerly unhoused folks who primary goal is to house as many of our neighbors as we possibly can. One of the co-founders, Annmarie Bustamante recently explained to The Berkeley Post, "We have built 6 tiny homes so far and we have set a goal to build one a month for the next 13 months.
Brennan, Darien and Sam 12/27 Build
12/27 Build group photo
12/27 Build - Volunteer COBing interior
12/27 Build
I80/880 intersection
Sunday 12/27 get together
Left to right: Rachael, Jennifer Laughlin, Annmarie Bustamante, Miguel Elliott, Dmitry Shusterman, Liam
12/27 Build
12/27 Build
Untrash the world cleans up Berkeley’s University Exit homeless camp.
Berkeley News: Berkeley homeless encampments being used to dump garbage from job-sites 11/24/2020 7:45am (The Berkeley Post) - It's been reported by residents of encampments that encampments are being used for illegal dumping of garbage by out of area contractors, clean-up, and dumping services. The encampments offer good cover to dump work site garbage without easily being seen. The blame is often unfairly passed on to the homeless residents.
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