Making a Home in an Oakland Encampment

It takes creativity to survive on the street and create a home near the freeway. Lance's belongings are neatly arranged and he clearly takes pride in his abode. A feeling of being at home is a vibe felt at this address, as well as in the neighboring tiny homes or campers.

Oakland's Evictions of Encampments Hurts Everyone

Even as Oakland was evicting many of its most vulnerable citizens from homeless encampments, the City declared a shelter crisis. Oakland officials had reports of the severe lack of available beds in homeless shelters, and they knew these displaced people had nowhere to go.

Agnos’s Proposed Shelter Ship Is Full of Leaks

Former Mayor Art Agnos’s idea of putting hundreds of people on a ship offshore is overdue. Just make sure the people on board are the failed leadership robbing poor people of tents and blankets while the city builds luxury hotels. I challenge Agnos to relocate offshore himself, an extremely challenging endeavor.

Miss Raynel’s Shanty

The structure, if you can call it that, is made from heavy plastic tied to a fence facing a field where trains speed by many times a day. Inside the tent, Miss Raynel’s young nieces are under a blanket. There’s nothing behind them but fencing and a wild dog running in the field.

Street Newspapers and the Legacy of Justice Journalism

Radical and dissenting journalists were part of nearly every social-change movement and populist rebellion in U.S. history. In their day, they were hated by the powerful, and condemned as muckrakers, agitators and disturbers of the piece. Many are now remembered as exemplary models of journalism with a social conscience.

Criminalizing Homelessness Cost $20 Million in S.F.

Last year, San Francisco spent more than $20 million policing so-called “quality of life” ordinances for more than 60,000 incidents, nearly all involving homeless people. The City’s Budget and Legislative Analyst concluded that the $20.6 million could be better used to provide housing for its homeless residents.

No Alternative But To Keep Working

Workers are aging in the fields. Women especially start to worry after they pass 50. They depend on the fields, but the work is hard and as they get older, it gets harder. Crew leaders won’t hire older people for many jobs. They have to work, because there’s no alternative.

No Country for Old People

Market ideology undermines human rights for elders. Old people, children and the disabled are vulnerable in a profit-based economy that ignores the rights to housing, education and health care. Popular struggle is necessary to demand these needs be met. When movements weaken, the safety net is slashed.