Originally aired on KPFA Letters and Politics September 15, 2022. You can listen here, or read below.
HOST INTRO: Tomorrow morning a San Francisco federal judge will evaluate the temporary restraining order that stopped Caltrans from clearing Wood Street encampment in West Oakland. KPFA reporter Ellie Prickett-Morgan has more on that background to that story.
OPENING: SETTING THE SCENE
[AMBI]
Walk down Wood Street at the intersection of East 18th in Oakland, and you’ll notice a jarring difference between two sides of the road. On one side is a row of new condos.
On the other side sits a row of RV’s, cars, shopping carts and piles of trash. This is also where at least two hundred people live in the Wood Street encampment.
53-year old resident John Janosko, has lived here for almost a decade.
1 - JJ: There has been a, a sense of community from day one, even though it might not have been, uh, is, uh, apparent as people would like it to, to be.
John is energetic and funny. He’s an active cyclist and says he rides his bike almost every day. When I talked to John he was getting over a brush with illness, but he didn’t dwell on that. Instead he talked about planning a bike ride to Southern California.
At Wood Street, John is a well-known community member who supports other residents.
2- JJ: I want people out there to know, like, this is encampment is really trying to make strides and, and doing and efforts to, to, to change, uh, not just what's going on here, but to help change the whole perceptive perception of homelessness. And, and to let people know that they're not just lazy drug addicts out here. These are people that have so many different talents, artists and mechanics and plumbers and, and, and people who work heavy machinery.
THE LEDE
John is also a plaintiff in an ongoing legal case against the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, who wanted to clear the encampment at the beginning of August. But residents and advocates pushed back legally. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the removal because Caltrans and the City of Oakland don’t have places to shelter the hundreds of residents who would be displaced.
Brigette Nicolette, a legal advocate for the Wood Street residents says that the decision is a welcome reprieve for folks who would have to pack up their entire lives to move. However, she recognizes that they might be fighting an uphill battle.
BN: I think one of my big concerns is that there really just is a big power imbalance here. You know, we have folks who are homeless suing city and state agencies with billion dollar and million dollar budgets. And I just really hope that the defendants take really seriously their proposals and the the rights of the folks who are living at Wood Street.
Caltrans has cited safety concerns as grounds for eviction, notably a number of fires that have happened at the encampment. One fire in July damaged part of the 880 and forced Caltrans to close sections of the freeway. The encampment is also near a sewage treatment plant, which, if damaged, would pose risks to the wider Bay Area.
EXPLAINING THE LACK OF SERVICES
John acknowledges the concerns around fires, but says they are a direct result of residents not being able to have access to basic services.
JJ: If you go take 300 people that are housed right now and push them, or just take a neighborhood and turn off all their electricity, their water and, and their resources and stuff, what would you expect would happen to that neighborhood with nothing? I would assume there would be some fires because of candles being lit.
Wood Street residents themselves are terrified of fire, particularly because there is no running water accessible throughout the encampment. This has forced residents to conduct informal fire safety training on their own.
The trash build-up around the encampment is another example of how residents don’t have access to services that housed neighbors may take for granted. John says that the city designated two dumping areas outside the encampment where residents are allowed to leave garbage for collection. But the city hasn’t provided dumpsters, so trash from hundreds of residents spills out into the street.
JJ: How would the neighborhood, how would an area with 300 houses that neighborhood look without trash service without running water, without flushing, toilets and stuff? I would assume it wouldn't look good, too good. After a year or two would it the same here.
The inside of Wood street encampment is nothing like what’s visible from the street. People on the other side of the fence may just see the trash. But behind that, the encampment is huge, with almost 25 city blocks that wind in and out under the freeway forming different neighborhoods.
John and I meet at the Wood Street Commons. Couches and dining tables on rugs with plywood walls provide makeshift living rooms. There’s also a community closet offering residents free clothes and often food.
Further in is another area called the Cobb on Wood, where unhoused folks meet and gather in cob houses originally constructed by a nonprofit . Here’s Wood Street resident Demetrius, who gave me a tour of the buildings.
D: So this is the old kitchen right here. Anybody who's welcome here. Have you ever been? Never. So it's a big encampment that goes all the way down. Probably about a quarter mile. // This is another little living quarter. It's like a little room. I'll show you right here. // This is another little lemon quarters, um, places to cook at, out here, um, a fire pit and then a yard and music, um, little area over here and gardens over here.
Demetrius and other residents are worried that being displaced will mean destroying a rare safe space that they’ve put so much effort into cultivating.
EXPLAINING WHY THE ALT OPTIONS AREN’T GREAT
The City of Oakland received a $4.7million grant from the state that could be used to help clean Wood Street and house residents in city-run community cabins. However the money would only cover 50 cabins, which even with 2 people to a cabin, wouldn’t be enough to house all the residents here.
But - John says that many residents are wary of city-run housing sites, like the village of Tuff Shed cabins on East 12th Street near lake merritt. And they’re not eager to trade the stability and community at Wood Street for external rules.
For many residents, uprooting can be traumatic. John says that before he came to Wood Street he lived in at least 15 distinct encampments, many of which lasted only 6 months at a time. For John and others with similar experiences, evictions can trigger a lot of painful memories.
JJ: Honestly, whenever they would come after that for a couple of years, the beeping noise of their trucks backing up, basically startled us and, and made me start power, always start crying when I would jump up the beeping noise and it's like, cow transit is here and we already knew we had five minutes to get as much stuff we can together and move off of the piece of land that we're at.
John says that coming to Wood Street helped him escape the pain of constant moving and gave him and others the opportunity to form a tight knit community.
CLOSING: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Meanwhile, the legal fight continues. Jaz Colibri, another plaintiff in the case against Caltrans, is trying to amplify voices of the Wood Street residents.
Recently, she spent the afternoon walking around the encampment in her combat boots and slip dress. As we walked through the encampment together she stopped every couple hundred feet to hand out her survey and talk to residents.
[Jaz ambi - I have a lot of quick clips of her saying “can I give you this” or “let me give this to them” that I think would sound good together]
Jaz is handing out surveys to collect written testimony for the trial. Many residents who work during the day can’t make it to court, but she still wants their voices to be represented.
For Jaz, the fight is bigger than just stopping Caltrans from kicking them out. She says she wants the Wood Street community to flourish.
JC: I think we need to propose like the dream scenario cuz they're gonna whittle us down no matter what. So if we start, like what would be ideal and then hopefully with, through the negotiation process, we'll at least end up with something that meets people's basic needs.
Wood Street residents have several demands to make their encampment safer, especially if they have nowhere else to go. They are calling for regular trash collection from the city - which would mean cleaner streets for everyone - and access to basic services like water, sanitation and electricity, which could reduce overall fire risk.
Caltrans declined an interview citing the pending litigation, but sent a statement saying that, quote:
The court’s temporary order will delay efforts to address the increasingly serious safety risks to life, property and infrastructure at the encampment, including from the recent fire that prompted the closure of the MacArthur Maze. Caltrans will continue coordinating with the City of Oakland and Alameda County so the people living at the site will have access to shelter beds offered and provided by local partners.
John and Jaz are hopeful about what Wood Street could be, if given more resources. But both also say that encampment residents need to be recognized and seen as equals in coming up with collaborative solutions. Here’s John again.
J: But if you've never lived this life, and you've always been somebody that's, you know, been on the other side of the fence, how would you possibly know what people out here need or how they're feeling or what really they've gone through and stuff. We just want people to work with us to come down here and talk like it.
From Oakland, I’m Ellie Prickett-Morgan, for KPFA.
HOST OUTRO: Ahead of tomorrow’s hearing, the residents of Wood Street encampment have drafted an open letter listing additional demands for services and proposed long-term solutions.
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