Homelessness
Once a month volunteers meet at Pepples Donut Farm in Oakland to make vegan burritos for the homeless.
During the City Council meeting, the council members discussed Oakland’s shelter crisis, the federal legislation of California firearms laws and the state of the city address.
The city of Oakland will pass an ordinance declaring a two-year emergency shelter crisis as a response to the high number of Oakland residents that are unable to obtain shelter.
California assembly members finally struck a deal late Thursday night, passing a series of bills to fund affordable housing across the state, which Oakland city leaders and housing advocates hope will pay to build and protect affordable housing in the city.
A new city-county collaboration has been put forward by Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, along with Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley, in an effort to grapple with the East Bay’s increasing homelessness crisis.
The residential building at 2551 San Pablo Avenue caught fire in the early-morning hours of March 27, killing four people and displacing more than 100. That day Strauss started a crowdfunding page to collect donations for displaced residents. It wasn’t the first time he’d done this—as a founding member of the Oakland Warehouse Coalition, Jonah Strauss had collected donations for survivors of the Ghost Ship fire and their next of kin.
Every month, homeless and low-income women and girls in the East Bay have to contend with the high cost of feminine hygiene products. For some women, these products are a luxury they just cannot afford.
A Safe Spaces workshop, organized by the Intersection for the Arts and the San Francisco Bay Area Urban Planning and Research Association, was held in Oakland to discuss Ghost Ship’s aftermath.
Tension between residents and city council grew at Tuesday night’s meeting when councilmembers passed controversial resolutions including paying nearly $300,000 a year to city’s new police chief and establishing cell-site simulator which can be used by police officers. Protestors also gathered and spoke against city’s demolishing a self-organized homeless camp by force last Thursday.