Homefulness NOT Genocide - Sanctuaries NOT Sweeps

Po/Houseless  mamas & papas who participated in the Po Mamas Build Homes with Poems  workshop from POOR magazine who will b presenting 5pm Saturday , May 10th  at monkey Brains in SF  as part of SFIAF

Houseless Mamas present their poems to build HOME-Fulness SF and housed and houseless comeunities Say NO to violent East 12th Street Sweeps on Monday

By tiny, formerly houseless, incarcerated povertyskola and co-founder of Homefulness 

“I’m so tired, and really am afraid, because I have nowhere to go,” said Tim, a disabled elder and longtime resident of East 12th Street ComeUnity which is facing a violent and immediate “sweep” on Monday. “The city told me there is a waitlist to get into the shelter, so where will I go?” tim concluded while hurriedly trying to stuff his belongings into a hefty bag while teetering on his walker. 

Tim wasn’t alone, the entire comeUnity of several hundred people who have resided on that tiny medium strip on East 12 street in Oakland were in panic mode. They had to somehow collect their medicine, precious mementoes, walkers, wheelchairs, clothes, bedding and even homes in a matter of days. And most of them had nowhere to go.

“We will be closing the whole street to set up a 'safe work zone.' said Harold Duffy, Oakland City Manager. Him and other City officials held what they called a community meeting about the East 12th Street Sweeps last Monday, May 7th, where they laid out their plan to violently sweep this longtime comeUnity. Repeatedly, East 12 Street residents and advocates who were present, stated clearly that they have nowhere to go and don’t feel safe, but the City had already set their agenda, proving once again they aren’t listening to the comeUnity at all.  

“We have 105 beds at Mandela House, and there are already 34 people in residence there,” stated one of the representatives of an Extended Stay Hotel that the city has contracted to be available for placements for a scant few of the residents of Mosswood Park, (another large comeunity of houseless relatives swept from their comeunity overnite) and East 12st Street

“There are already 79 people registered for the rooms from East 12th street,” Duffy added. At this point this povertyskola’s head exploded with the impossibility of this math. So basically that means there are no rooms for the hundreds of folks who have resided at these two comeUnities for years. Not to mention that the Mandela House Project (aka Extended Stay) is another example of what i call ‘About us Without us’ programming. They took the stoves, the refrignerators, the microwaves and the phones out of the rooms. And there are countless “rules” imposed on residents that make these so-called “solutions” into jail-like institutions. 

These aren’t solutions. We don’t just need a roof when we are outside struggling for years with street survival. We need comeUnity. We need healing, we need love and we need support. In addition so many of houseless residents are elders and/or gravely disabled with multiple physcal and mental health challenges. 

The Oakland Homeless Union is appalled at the gross negligence and blatant disregard for human life that the Assistant City Administrator, Harold Duffy, and other involved parties continue to display by carrying out these sweeps. When entire communities of elderly, BIPOC, disabled, and mentally ill individuals are repeatedly subjected to violence, to the tune of $90,000 a day”, said Freeway, co-founder of Oakland Homeless Union. 

The destruction of street comeunities like East 12th street,  Wood Street and MossWood Park are acts of war crimes against our poor, houseless, disabled Black and Brown bodies. When we are in Comeunity we take care of each other and watch each others back, When we lose our comeUnities we lose our safety which is why it is always so strange to me that “public safety” is the reason the City cites for these sweeps and why it so clearly articulates that houseless peoples are not considered part of the public. In fact, we are not considered human at all. 

"Sweeps are causing extreme harm to vulnerable members of our communities, and sweeps are wasting critical public funds in the midst of a budget crisis. We urge city leadership to stop the sweeps and redirect these resources to permanent housing. Listen to the ideas and leadership from curbside communities who have solutions." -Talya Husbands-Hankin, Love and Justice in the Streets

Not only does this violent act of sweeping humans like we are trash cause us to be destabilized, criminalized and permanently harmed it also leads to our death  Multiple deaths followed the sweeps of Wood Street Commons in West Oakland, the sweeps in LA at Aetna Street and the sweeps in Vallejo last month with the death of James Edward Oakley from a bulldozer in Vallejo, and Cornlius Taylor in Atlanta. In every single incident, all of the residents lose their communities, their safety, and their precious belongings. Oakland perpetrates this violence even though Wood Street Commons and POOR Magazine have viable, affordable solutions. We as houseless peoples have solutions that don’t include millions of dollars sweeping us like we are trash which has now been calculated to cost over 90,000 a day for each sweep in the state of California, since the Grants Pass versus Johnson Supreme Court ruling and the subsequent order by governor Newsom. 

“In a place that we have always called home since time immemorial, we were the first to be swept from our homes, into prisons we were forced to build,(Missions), into forced labor, and then off the land. What has this society learned over the last few hundred years? History is repeating itself in all the bad ways, continually creating harm and trauma on those who are the most marginalized. When will humans find their moral compass? When will they realize that each of us needs all of us?” - Corrina Gould, Tribal Elder and Co-founder of Sogorea Te Land Trust and member of the Homefulness Family Elder Council. 

Corrina is just one of the spiritual elders who is part of our family elders council and helps  us houseless and poor peoples  create a powerful solution to homelessness we call Homefulness that currently houses 23 houseless youth, adults and elders in deep east Huchiun (Oakland) in all of the Homefuless projects we incorporate multiple healing pactices for both mental ad physical wellness as well as art, education, media and cultural projects. None of this medicine happens without the permission and protocol of the indigenous nations upon whose lands we are building, creating and mamafesting as i call it. We are currently working to help houseless relatives in LA, San Francisco and Seattle create their own Homfulness projects based on the powerful template we are living in now and only because of the medicine of Homefulness is this houseless mama and daughter currently housed. 

“We don’t need a shelter or a transitional bed, we need a homefulness,” said Junebug Kealoha, one of the formerly houseless mama co-leaders of POOR Magazine, at a recent action for houseless mamas sponsored by Coaltion on Homelessness.  

“Let’s not continue doing what doesnt work and expect it to miraculously work.” said LaMonte Ford , formerly houseless co-founder of Wood Street Commons.  

“As people of faith and conscience, we uphold the sacredness of all people, including those who are unhoused. Everyone is deserving of safety and belonging.  Violent sweeps, criminalization, destroying people’s property, and continuously displacing people from one place to another fails to address the root causes. People need permanent homes and support for homeless people’s real solutions.” - Rev Deborah Lee, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity.  

"There’s a lot of talk in Oakland about public safety, but safety for whom? There’s also a lot of talk in Oakland about ending the violence. But violence against whom? Sweeps of encampments where people have made homes and communities in a city that refuses to house them is violence, and it’s violence that makes everybody less safe and flies in the face of the values the city purports to uphold. It is our hope that under this new mayoral administration, sweeps will end and housing will begin. Housing is in fact, a human right." -Cat Brooks, co-founder/executive director APTP.

Because of the violent sweep planned for Monday and the daily sweeps harassment all across Oakland and San Franciso, POOR Magazine, Wood Street Commons, and Oakland Homeless Union are asking our new incoming mayor Barbara Lee to intervene to stop the East 12st St Sweep and Mayor Lurie and  Mayor Lee to meet with us and immediately implement a sanctuary moratorium on all sweeps and support homeless peoples solutions to homelessness like Homefulness and the Academy created by Wood Street Commons and Mike Pyatok. 

Join us Saturday, May 10th at 5pm at Monkey Brains 933 Treat St in Yelamu (San Francisco)  as we Poor and houseless Mamas from occupied Yelamu will be sharing our Poems we build homes with as part of the San Francisco International Arts Festival - check out more info here  The event is a benefit for Homefulness Yelamu. 

Join Us In Huchiun (Oakland) on Monday, May 12th at 8am as we demand sanctuary Not more violent sweeps at East 12th street and 18th Ave

Click on this link for sanctuary solutions/demands created by houseless and formerly houseless residents and leaders of Homefulness/POOR Magazine and Wood Street Commons 

Po/Houseless  mamas & papas who participated in the Po Mamas Build Homes with Poems  workshop from POOR magazine who will b presenting 5pm Saturday , May 10th  at monkey Brains in SF  

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