Oakland Speaks on the EAP

Excerpts from public comment during Oakland City Council, April 14, 2026

Sathya, Oakland resident & advocate

“I’m a District 7 resident. I’ve realized over the last six months that what the city council is doing with the EAP right now is nothing more than political theater. We all know that Oakland’s current approach to homelessness does not work. So, if the EAP was a serious policy, it would do something significantly different. But it doesn’t. It is essentially the same as the existing EMP, only with provisions to reduce services, reduce sanitation, and reduce the city’s overall participation in addressing homelessness solutions. So, unfortunately, it appears that this council is either unable or unwilling to be serious about the crisis of homelessness and poverty in our city. Where does that put us, as of today? 

I am no longer interested in addressing this council of high chairs, but instead this audience who is with me today, and anyone else who might be listening. [Turns to face audience] It’s up to us now. We don’t have a governing body that’s going to take care of us. I’m tired of the trauma in my community. I’m tired of the fact that there is trash everywhere, I’m tired of the fact that there are women right now being trafficked by shelter staff that Oakland pays for, I’m tired of the fact that every other damn week I talk to someone’s granny or great-granny who is living in a tent on the street. I’m tired of people dying of overdoses, I’m tired of getting up here every couple of months and stating the obvious to a bunch of mostly buffoons who take money from billionaires and white supremacists like Peter Thiel and Philip Dreyfuss, and then turn around and act like they’re still a part of our community. Ha! 

And you know what? I’m not interested in beefing with any of my neighbors. I don’t want to argue with my neighbor who owns their home and pays property taxes and is just tired of dealing with rats and stepping in human feces. Because you’re right! You should not be dealing with rats and you should not have to step in human feces. You’re right! It’s insane that I even have to say this! And it all clicked for me when I realized that this council is not incentivized to solve the problem. Because if they solved homelessness, they wouldn’t have a hot-button platform to run on the next time they want to get reelected. They wouldn’t have a convenient undesirable population that they can promise to clean up once and for all. And yes, take a second to consider what that reminds you of. 

My friends and neighbors, I’m going to leave you with this. It doesn’t matter what the outcome of today’s vote is. It doesn’t! This is not a serious government. This is a high school theater class. We have got to get serious about our own communities. We have got to take care of our own people, and that means we work hard. We clean our own sidewalks, we fill our own damn potholes, we feed each other’s children, we stand with our sisters against domestic abuse, we make sure our cousins on the streets have someplace to shower. That is how my parents raised me to show up in my community. But it’s different now. We can’t just act this way out of the goodness of our hearts. We need to do it on a large scale and fast, because now we know that we have been politically abandoned. So if you’re doing this work right now, tap in with me after this meeting. We’re gonna get together and do something real after listening to all of this bullshit. Thank you.”

Birdie Atwater, Oakland resident & street medic

“The premise of this proposal is tough love, which is the logic of abuse.”

Alley Cat, unhoused Oakland resident

“Where you think they going? Y’all gonna move us around? We’re gonna come right back…We don’t have nowhere else to go. We’d rather struggle in our hometown than somebody else’s hometown, okay? So no matter how much y’all push, we still gonna come back.”

Laura Billings, srmERNST

“I’m a Principal at srmERNST Development Partners, we own and operate the Prescott Market Food Hall and R&D Campus in West Oakland. srmERNST is in support of the updated encampment management plan. However, we are here today to ask the plan be updated to include the areas surrounding the Prescott Market, R&D Campus, Oakland Ballers Stadium, American Steel Studios, and the O2 Artisans Aggregate—changing it from a low-sensitivity to a high-sensitivity area…We’ve worked hard these past five years to improve the streetscape surrounding our Prescott campus by planting trees, building and cleaning sidewalks, and we’ve begun to turn the tide on public percepections of safety.”

Jaz, Oakland resident & advocate

“our hands build homes
our fires share food
our backs share clothes
our skills fix RVs, trailers, and cars
our ribs help reentry
for our loved ones locked behind bars
our commitment move homes on wheels
before OPD can swipe them
our arms replace tents
that got thrown in a dumpster
our cars move people into shelter programs
and medical respites
move people into housing
and get each other
to our neverending
medical / legal / case worker / job
and therapy appointments
our persistence reunifies families
our hearts band to escape DV situations
our lungs exhale harm reduction
and rehabilitation
our hips throw rent relief fundraisers
and carve space for celebration
our fingers stack motel funds
our palms hold together
community clean ups
our stomachs drum roll
community cook outs
our community has always
and will always
do this and more
for each other
…
We do this
because inhumane policies
like the EMP and the EAP force us to
in order to keep each other alive
and to build a world
all our children can thrive in
where we aren’t afraid
that our back / or our loved one’s back
will be the next one
laid out on the concrete crack
…
Three shelters close down
in a matter of weeks
and the city’s response is
more police and more sweeps?
…
the EAP wants to squash
every solution / that is sprouting out
of a poor people-led revolution
politricksters will vote what they vote,
they’ll lie and they’ll cheat
but real solutions come from all of us
in and beyond these seats
so if u don’t want to see
anymore people have to sleep in the streets
come get down with the people
who’ve been thru the shit
cuz we don’t bite / we don’t quit
and as for the city / putting their bid in,
they’ll either have to / get with it
or miss it”

Michael Pyatok, Oakland-based architect

“You’ve got more than 5,000 people on the streets…You need a hundred sites with 50 beds in each…you’re asking staff [for] three months to find these sites. Well, that’s a glacial pace. You could do that in 30 days if you worked hand in glove with the volunteer architects who were willing to work with city staff to get that to move…Do the right thing. Create a collaborative effort between the public and private sector to make this thing move fast.”

Petra Hilton, Oakland resident & law student

“I’ve been in District 4 for almost 15 years. I’m currently a law student at UC Berkeley, and I’ve been researching local homeless and encampment policies through the Policy Advocacy Clinic. In my review of the field’s existing research, it’s become clear that local enforcement of encampment sweep does not meaningfully reduce homelessness.

Instead, it harms people while draining local resources that could be spent elsewhere. If the goal is to reduce homelessness, an amendment like this that increases sweeps and further criminalizes unhoused residents is likely a step in the wrong direction.”