CalTrans WeSearch

On December 6 2022, Youths, Adults and elders from Poor Magazine, Wood Street Commons, Street Spirit, Street Sheet, and WRAP delivered Freedom of Information Act Request to CalTrans. They tried in EVERY way they could to try to avoid us, make thing difficult and confusing... but...... They responded. Stay tuned for our Release of Information at Oakland City Hall in June

Press Contacts: Miguel Muteado Silencio & Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia (510) 435-7500

For Immediate Release: The Cost of Sweeping Us vs Housing Us - Houseless, formerly houseless Bay Area residents launch an investigation at CalTrans Unhoused and formerly unhoused residents of Oakland and San Francisco laucnh an investigation into the cost of sweeps and the cost of housing What: WeSearch investigation of Caltrans and other city and state agencies launched by houselessformerly houseless Bay Area youth, adults and elders When: TODAY 10:30am Tuesday, December 6, 2022 Where:CalTrans office 111 Grand Av, Oakland, CA "We lose so much in sweeps, not just our belongings, but our trust, confidence and hope in the people who are supposed to be there to provide us with services," said John Bowman Janosko, resident leader Wood Street Commons, which sufferred with ongoing sweeps and harassment from Caltrans and the City of Oakland. "I had everything taken from me, things i will never be able to replace and CalTrans no matter how many hoops i went through i could never get then back from CalTrans, said Brokin Cloud, Houseless in Oakland for over 15 years who just moved into Homefulness - a rent free housing project created by houseless people at POOR Magazine. "Thousands of dollars are spent on sweeps, from police to DPW, the City and State could save so much if they just provided us with housing, " said La Monte, resident leader of Wood Street Collective I was "swept" multiple times and twice even power-washed with dangerous chemicals, for years when me and my mama were on the street houseless, it never made us stop being houseless, it just made us sick and at risk of death said Tiny (Lisa) Gray-Garcia, formerly homeless, incarcerated, single mother, poet, visionary of Homefulness and co-author of many publications including Criminal of Poverty - Growing Up Homeless in America and more. POOR Magazine, Wood Street Collective and Cob on Wood communities are collaborating with Stolen Belonging, Coalition on Homelessness, WRAP and other poor people-led movements and organizations across the Bay Area in this WeSearch investigation to find out the physical, spiritual and fiscal cost of these violent sweeps on houseless peoples bodies versus the costs of poor, houseless and indigenous people-led solutions like Homefulness and Wood Street Collective. On this day they will be submitting FOIAS to CalTrans created by houseless, formerly houseless youth and elders from POOR Magazine as well as hearing from many more houseless voices on their struggles and resistance to Sweeps WeSearch is a concept and word created by tiny gray-garcia to describe the process of poor and houseless people creating their own forms of research and investigaiton that is not extractive or separate from their experience and the for the sole purpose of making sure our voices are also included in not onky the investigation but the solutions that are derived from the findings. More information on WeSearch can be found in the textbook Poverty Scholarship - Poor People-led Theory , Art , Words and Tears Across Mama Earth -

OTHER LINKS- - The Violence of Evicting already evicted residents at Wood Street - - From Wood Street to Where Do We Go? - Homefulness - a homeless peoples solution to homelessness - Story in MOTHER JONES about Homefulness