Homefullness

Innovative, “Truly Green” Vision of Housing and Land Use in Oakland for Homeless Families and Youth created by Homeless Families and Youth

Low-income and homeless indigenous youth, families and elders in collaboration with pre-eminent natural building experts, architects and engineers present an innovative housing and land use project for themselves and other very low-income, displaced and homeless families

What: Press Conference
When: 12:30pm Monday, December 21, 2015
Where: Oscar Grant Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall 14th & Broadway Oakland, Ca

“Homefulness is a visionary model of how to create affordable, sustainable housing and community at a time when we, in Oakland, could not need it more. Not only that, this effort is being led by formerly homeless and under house people setting a powerful example for all of us”,” said Dunya Alwan, one of the innovative artists/ architectural designers working on the Homefulness project.

After a 18 year journey of struggle, poverty, homelessness and displacement, the poor, indigenous and disabled people who lead the non-profit, grassroots, arts organization POOR Magazine, launched Homefulness- a truly green, amazingly innovative project which would be the first of its kind in the nation.

Homefulness, which is based in Deep East Oakland includes four straw bale multi-famiy townhomes side by side, community gardens, a school and community center.

“The Homefulness project is working to make compact, ecological shelter available to the low income city dwellers who need it most,” said Bob Theis, a pre-eminent natural builder and one of the team of architects with Homefulness

This extremely exciting project is led by a powerful collaboration of pre-eminent “natural” builder/architects including Bob Theis who was involved in the design and building of one of the first post-colonial straw bale structures in Oakland as well as youth and families who themselves have experienced homelessness, poverty, displacement, racism, immigration and eviction,

The project has also been guided by 1st nations Ohlone people of this land who are working on a self-determined land trust for this Ohlone territory as well as by an innovative concept developed by POOR Magazine called Poverty scholarship, ie, the most impacted peoples should be leading and/or directly involved in their own, self-determined solutions.

“Homefulness was always the way of our African peoples, interdependence which we practice is a truly powerful way of taking care of Mama Earth and each other, said QueenandiXSheba of POOR Magazine

“Homefulness is a poor and indigenous people-led solution to Homelessness, it was conceived by my mother and i and several other homeless,disabled, and displaced community members, while we were living in our car in Oakland, aware that our survival was linked to the survival not just of each other but to other people in homelessness and to Mama Earth, ” said Tiny Lisa Gray-Garcia, co-founder of POOR Magazine and author of the book Criminal of Poverty , Growing Up Homeless in America. Gray-Garcia continued,”In light of the recent COP21 summit in Paris, it is more important than ever for cities like Oakland to take up visionary projects like Homefulness which work with Mother Earth’s resources, not against her.

So far the planning dept approved the Homefulness project but the building department who grants the permits to begin the community -centered building project has had some trouble understanding this innovative and ancient vision to steward and care for mama earth and its earth people through age-old green materials.

“We hope the building dept and the City of Oakland can see, with us, this powerful visionary way of taking care of mama earth through truly green, age-old natural building,” Miguel Soberanis, poverty and indigenous scholar with POOR Magazine