Their original faces: a soul, not a homeless person
By Jesse Mentken on "I do not think of people as homeless; I think of people as having been betrayed," Mentken writes.
homeless rights
I’m not ready to give up: a victory for homeless rights
By Mike Zint on This article originally appeared in the People’s Tribune in July of 2015. What we have here is an occupation, a
Complaints against the homeless could backfire
By Kheven LaGrone on in April of 2018, the City of Oakland launched “OAK 311”—an app and web service that was built to make
The county wants to put me in jail so they don’t have to see me
By Markaya Spikes on I must start off by saying I laughed when I heard that Alameda County agreed to lease the City of Oakland use of the Old North County Jail for $1.00 a year. Would the officials who had this idea stay in North County? Exactly how it is that this is an option just because someone else feels like, “well it’s better than where you are now so this is what I have to offer you, take it or leave it”?
‘I have never called my cell a home’
By Juan Haines on All throughout my incarceration, I have never called my cell a home. Moreover, I consider the bars that cage me disrespectful, even to animals. So, I think Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf let down some very vulnerable people when she told the San Francisco Chronicle that a vacant jail is an “obvious” option for a homeless shelter.
Introducing ‘Right to Exist Curbside Communities’
By Anita de Asis Miralle aka Needa Bee on Meet the group of informal settlements upgrading their encampments and suing the city of Oakland Right to Exist Curbside Communities
Oakland opens safe parking RV site as vehicle evictions roll on
By Ariel Boone on Jorge Peña walked his tiny dog, Chiquita, around the inside perimeter of 711 71st Avenue in Oakland, behind the RVs parked neatly facing each other, stopping to say hello to his neighbor sitting in the shade. He is one of the first residents of Oakland’s new, invite-only “safe RV lot” next to Coliseum BART, and he calls it a “godsend.”
Berkeley prioritizes partnership with tech company over homeless rights
By Carol Denney on It’s simple. Public sidewalks are too crowded for homeless people, but wide enough for waddling robots and monolithic, data-sucking electronic sidewalk billboards with 65-inch screens. Public sidewalks are dangerously over-filled with backpacks and bedrolls but have a sad aura of being deserted without unpermitted signboards, tables, chairs, and rolling racks of commercial merchandise.
Rhode Island’s Homeless Bill of Rights Offers New Hope
Rhode Island has become the first state in the country to pass a Homeless Bill of Rights. The law passed with the overwhelming support of both houses of the Rhode Island state legislature. It may offer new hope to homeless people who suffer unequal treatment from police and government officials.
Everyone Matters — A Lasting Lesson from a Lost Brother
As one of Kurt Vonnegut’s characters in Slaughterhouse-Five says, “It’s a crime to be poor in America.” This is a truth my brother Larry experienced for decades. Larry taught me that everyone matters, and this lesson fueled a longing for a world whose policies and conditions reflected this basic fact.