As the Moms4Housing celebrate their victory Monday, residents
of another Oakland homeless project hope tiny houses built by volunteers over the
holiday weekend won’t be knocked down by city bulldozers.
Volunteers say they can’t think of a better way to address
the issue that tugs at their hearts every day, and residents worry they’ll get
kicked out like they have so many times in the past.
“If they don’t want us here, the next piece of property
that’s open, that’s where we’re going to have to go,” said Brent Ship, Oakland
Tiny Home Village resident.
Shipp hope the tiny house village volunteers are building at
16th Avenue by Highway 880 stays up.
“That’s like the most inspirational work I can think about
doing on an MLK weekend,” said volunteer Gabriel Kahn.
Needa Bee organized the effort through her nonprofit The
Village. She said council president Rebecca Kaplan and council member Nikki Fortunato
Bas have helped get this village off the ground by going door-to-door to drum
up support and swinging hammers to put up walls. She blames the mayor for
others being torn down.
“It’s the responsibility of the bureaucracy to provide
housing when it’s not available, and we don’t see Oakland doing that,” she
said. “I think The Mayor’s agenda around homelessness is to make homeless
people invisible.”
Mayor Libby Schaaf stands by prior enforcement decisions
saying Oakland has won all five times it’s been challenged in court.
“We will not treat this encampment any differently than we
treat any other encampment,” Schaff said. “We will assess it based on that
criteria and moved forward accordingly.”
Shipp said he would ask the mayor to put herself in their
shoes and that at any moment, anyone can be in that situation.
Shipp lived in one of the tiny homes that was torn down and
said it was devastating to see the home bulldozed. He has now rebuilt with
volunteers.
He said residents are trying to come up with a name for the
community and working together to police not only crime but garbage in the
area.
Source: NBC Bay Area