Resist Eviction of Homeless Women by Libby Schaaf at Housing and Dignity Village

While Libby Schaaf was giving her first press conference post re-election at the St. Vincent De Paul homeless shelter, her administration was delivering an eviction notice to two Deep East Oakland encampments, including The Housing and Dignity Village.

Located at S Elmhurst Ave and Edes Ave in Deep East Oakland, The Housing and Dignity Village (HDV) is an intentional community for unsheltered women, their families, and support networks, and doubles as a community resource center serving the area’s unhoused and housed Black and Brown residents.

At least seven residents of HDV will resist this eviction, risking arrest, and are calling for advocates and press to join them on Saturday, November 10, beginning at 7:30 AM, for copwatch, support, and to witness unsheltered peoples asserting their right to safe shelter on public land.

County Supervisor Nate Miley and his staff visited HDV the day before the eviction notices were posted and expressed support, appreciation, and the desire to upgrade – not evict – the encampment.

HDV is a clean and sober curbside community led by women of color, both housed and unhoused. Its creation was in protest of the sexual violence unsheltered women endure, and the City of Oakland’s ongoing gross neglect of Black & Brown communities. It provides meals, medical services, free winter clothing, and a community garden for everyone in the neighborhood. The HDV is supported by Brookfield residents, The East Oakland Collective, The Village, The Ron Dellums Institute for Social Justice, Omni Commons, and other organizations and advocates for the human rights of curbside communities.

Schaaf’s threat of eviction comes less than a month after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Leilani Farhai, released a report on global unsanctioned settlements like the Housing and Dignity Village. Policies “denying access to water, sanitation and other basic necessities, constitute cruel and inhuman treatment and violate the rights to housing, health, water and sanitation and the right to life,” Farhai wrote. HDV echoes Farhai’s report in stating that housing is a human right, and housing should be available to all.

The United Nations report also cited the “unique vulnerability to violence and sexual assault” of women and girls in curbside communities. HDV highlights that homelessness is a women’s issue. They denounce the Mayor’s hypocrisy for publicly supporting the #MeToo movement while creating conditions that make unhoused women and LGBTQIA people extremely vulnerable to sexual abuse. HDV also calls on the recent 9th Circuit Court decision in Martin vs. Boise, which declares “as long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.”

The Village began as a grassroots movement in December of 2016, creating autonomous encampments on public and private land in Oakland. Providing those who have been displaced by gentrification with basic needs and rights: housing, food, provisions, healing, and dignity. Using a diversity of tactics to reach our goals is necessary in the current political, economic and historic moment we are in: direct action and policy reform. Adverse possession and purchasing lands; reparations and self-determination; serve the unsheltered and self-governance of the unsheltered. Learn more at https://thevillageinoakland.org.

The East Oakland Collective (EOC) is a member-based community organizing group invested in serving the communities of deep East Oakland by working towards racial and economic equity. With programming in economic development, civic engagement and leadership, and homeless services and solutions, we help amplify underserved communities from the ground up. We are committed to driving impact in the landscape, politics and economic climate of deep East Oakland. ​Learn more at http://www.eastoaklandcollective.com.

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