Well, welcome back.

This is an incredibly important topic.

And yeah, I think we all can recognize I I want to thank everyone who's come to uh come for public comment.

This is obviously a special session uh centered around um the encampment management policy and uh a look at a draft policy that we have uh called the uh encampment abatement policy.

So we can all can recognize that what we have in the streets is not humane, and um we may have disagreements in terms of how we go about doing it, but this is an incredibly important topic for us to talk about.

Uh council member Houston.

Uh I am uh going to shortly call on you to uh provide your presentation.

Uh before we get to that, also just given the volume of individuals that we have here for public comment.

I'm going to request that I'm going to assign uh one minute for public comment.

That way we can get through everybody's uh comments and um so thank you everyone.

Okay, all right.

Well, let's get let's get started.

Councilmember Houston.

Oh, right.

Uh councilmember Houston, can you uh sit in your seat?

Excuse me for just a second.

Yeah, just uh yeah, for roll call.

Yeah.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the special public safety committee on today's day, Tuesday, September the 10th.

The time is now 1101, and this meeting has come to order.

Before taking roll, I provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda.

If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card, please fill one out and turn it into a clerk representative before the item is read into record.

Online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting.

This meeting came to order at 1101 a.m.

speaker cards were no longer be accepted 10 minutes after this meeting has begun, making that time 11 a.m.

Please note that all Zoom speakers will be taken after in-person speakers.

Please note that all Zoom speakers will be taken after in-person speakers.

Thank you.

With that, we would now proceed to take roll.

Councilmember Brown.

If I can get a clerk representative to allow a council member Brown to speak, please.

Present.

Councilmember Fife is absent.

Councilmember Houston.

Present.

And Chair Wong.

Present.

We have three members present and one absent.

Before we begin, Chair Wong, do you have any additional announcements?

Um I would just uh want to clarify for my colleague uh Councilmember Fife that the reason that she's not in attendance is because she had a preexisting conflict, another um committee meeting or board meeting that she's going to, so uh she's an excused absence.

Okay.

Um I think with that uh just also just to reiterate given the number of people that we have present here to give public comment in order to get through this in an expeditiously uh expeditious as well as fair manner.

We're going to limit it to one minute for public comment.

And that's it for announcements.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving to item one.

Please note that there are no minutes to be approved.

Moving to item two, determination to schedule outstanding committee items.

And you do have six speakers for this item.

Okay, we'll proceed with public comment.

Want to call your name.

Please approach the podium, state your name for the record, and you do once again have one minute to speak.

If you're participating via Zoom, again in person speakers will be taken before Zoom speakers.

Raise your hands you're easily identified.

Sabrina Bur, Jay Kleiman, Simon Lee, Armando Sir Salorzano, and Ms.

Lassada Olabala.

There's an item relating to the NSA.

23 years of the NSA, we haven't resolved in.

Now we have a lawsuit claiming that deliberately indifference to the targeting of African Americans by the Oakland Police Department related to racial profiling and excessive force.

And who's in a lawsuit?

The city of Oakland.

The federal component of compliance director, the federal uh decrease judge.

Twenty-three years.

Sanctuary city, and you can't protect African Americans from the police last week.

You have over at what was the bunch school signs that says asbestos signs that says PCB is being spread, and across the street is your city, recreational facility, outdoor, tennis court, outdoor skating, and they have been exposed to that.

And it looks like Glady property next bunch school do something about the spread of asbestos and PCB over there at what at Bunch School.

Thank you.

Moving to our Zoom speakers.

Sabrina.

Please state your name for the record.

My name is Samia Lee.

I would like to submit to the council a letter that was signed by the 17 small and independent business owners.

We're calling on you to oppose couple that are making these businesses.

Proposed the Canada abatement policy.

As members of a small business community, you know first and how difficult that shelter is it is.

However, we're deeply concerned that it calls people not solve these issues without an increase in adequate shoulder, people increase your policemen, increased mental health crises, and drug overdose.

Relying on incarceration to fill the shelter gap is both inhumane and financially useful.

This is a fiscally irresponsible policy and a human rights violation that will cost millions and taxpayer money.

We all want cleaner, safer public basis, but line will be below the poverty line is not a solution.

And it's a punishment for poverty, and that is in every way unacceptable.

We want real solutions that work with unhealth residents to transition into permanent housing and end the crisis.

This is my high resumption businesses.

And when I call your name, you may come up to speak.

Moving to our Zoom speakers.

Thank you.

The proposal says that unmanaged encampments are presumed to have higher levels of health risk, but says nothing of the health risk of displacement and homelessness, which we know lives are impacted by that lived reality every single day.

This proposal has no strategies led by unhoused or poor folks.

There are so many powerful organizations and leaders in the community with strategies and solutions that center those most effective.

And this is not one of those.

This is a violent tool for further criminalizing homelessness.

It is not a solution.

Thank you.

So for any of the remaining public commenters for this item, this is a scheduling request.

If you have comments on the proposed encampment abatement policy, please submit a speaker card for that portion of the agenda.

Thank you.

Moving to our next zoom speaker, that is Jay Kleinman.

Stanford Ford.

Did you submit a speaker card for for this item?

For item two.

Yes, this is for this is about the abatement policy, right?

And this is for that's for item three.

I do not have a speaker card for you for item two.

Thank you, and we will get back to you after this one.

Okay.

And that concludes your public speakers for this item.

Okay, thank you.

Um let's proceed to item three.

Then, and and with oh, yes.

I'll take a motion to proceed with item three.

Right.

Sorry, bear with us as we have a brand new microphone system that we are the first committee meeting to deal with this.

Motion motion, I'll make a motion.

Okay, thank you.

I seconded okay.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Houston to accept the determination schedule and outstanding committee items as is on roll.

Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Councilmember Fife is excused, Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

And Chair Wong.

Aye.

This motion passes with three ayes and one excuse.

Five.

Moving to item three.

I will now read the item into record.

Adopt a resolution amending resolution number eight eight three four one to repeal the twenty twenty encampment management policy and replace with the 2025 encampment abatement policy that a defines encampment to excludes vehicles and authorizes citation and towing of inhabited vehicles by the city departments pursuant to the California Vehicle Code and Oakland Vehicle Code B.

Continues to require seven-day notice prior to the non-urgent encampment closures and C clarifies the emergency and urgent health and safety conditions that authorize immediate 24-hour or 72-hour notice for encampment closures, include encampments blocking sidewalks.

And you do have more than 85 speakers for this item.

Okay, thank you.

Um I do believe we have a prepared presentation uh by council member Houston as well as uh Patricia Brooks.

Um, what is the length of the presentation?

Is it over seven minutes?

Yes.

Okay, I will allow for that because this is an important topic.

So uh you have more than seven minutes.

Uh please uh proceed and with your presentation.

Would you like to have the public speakers first or you want me to speak?

No, I'd like to.

I think it's important for everyone in this room to understand this policy as part of the public comment.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Hello, good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

This is a very difficult subject.

Very difficult, but it has to be um brought up, had to be brought up to the public.

And I always say this with my colleagues, and I say this in a public, I say it all the time.

I lead by personal experience, personal experience.

I had K-top to put something up, don't play it yet.

K-top.

Um I first want to thank the governor for supporting me with this.

I want to thank OPD for sitting down with all the multiple meetings.

I like to thank DOT.

I'd like to thank um the police department.

If I didn't mention it, I'd like to thank Patricia Brooks for supporting me with her intelligence.

I like to thank my staff that helped me up through this difficult time.

Lit it, um, Nelly, Trinity, Victoria.

And I'm gonna leave some people out, so I'm gonna need you to say that.

Excuse me, I need to interrupt for just a second, Councilmember Houston.

For those of you uh standing at the back, please proceed to hearing room one.

Hearing room one, thank you so much.

That's um, yeah, and we'll call your name uh for for the public comment.

Thank you so much.

So K Top called me up and said, Ken, did you have audio on this film on this video?

This 59 seconds.

It is downstairs to the left.

Thank you so much.

K Top called me up and said, Hey, do you have audio on this video?

I said no, because sometimes audio distracts from what um you see.

My personal experience, and I'm gonna just let you guys really detail and look at this.

Just really look at this.

This is where I grew up.

This is where my mother raised me, and this is where I walked to school every day.

Every day, and it did not look like this, and we did not have to deal with this.

So, K Top, can you please play that?

That's next to my mother's house, eighty-eight years old as of yesterday.

On a one-way street, they have to walk their back to traffic.

That's where I walked to Stonehurst Elementary since I was six years old.

I'm a true son of Oakland.

No child.

Should have to.

Let me say something.

I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna interrupt you, don't interrupt me.

Shane.

Please order order in the chamber, please.

Please allow the speaker to proceed.

Thank you.

Put it on the picture, please.

In 2016, I decided to go out and live with the homeless unhoused.

I met this gentleman right here.

His name is Hans Nuzulu Chino.

Can you come up here, Chino, please?

He worked, he worked with me for the last six, seven years.

I don't want to be, I'm not gonna rub them.

I don't want to be interrupted.

So this gentleman right here worked with me.

I'm so proud of him.

He works with me now.

We're tied to the hip.

He runs the private part of the 501 CPU beautification council.

This man sent his son to school.

He was homeless for at least six years.

Now he's thriving.

Okay, Chino, can you go sit down real please?

Can you can you play the next picture, please?

In 2010, I had a situation.

And I was homeless for two to three years, and I stayed in that RV.

That RV right there, bounced around, bounced around.

The police came here, told me I couldn't part there.

Bounced around.

Then I ended up renting out a boat, RV, car storage, hid in and out of there for two years.

I understand what it is to be living in that situation.

Next.

And my personal life is your life now.

I want to share something with you.

My brother, my big brother, that flew down to come and see me and support me.

Ronald, stand up here, bro.

I saw my mother cry.

Every night.

I saw her pray for this man.

I know what it feels like.

This is a difficult situation for me to be in.

Ronald, thanks for coming.

You're gonna be with we're gonna spend time with my 88-year-old mom on Friday, and I thank you for flying down to support me, brother.

This is a difficult situation that I'm in.

Someone has to take a bold stand.

We cannot continue to live in this condition, and we cannot continue to let individuals live in this condition.

What I'm gonna do.

Can you pull up the PowerPoint?

Because I want Patricia Brooks to come up and speak to our encampment abatement policy, and then you can have questions, and you'll get your answers.

So Patricia Brooks, the mastermind.

I appreciate everything you're dealing with me.

Can you present that?

K Top, can you pull that up, please?

Thank you.

Well, thanks everyone for coming here.

Thank you all for the over 318 emails that we have received, at least to our office.

Some for some against.

Some the same letter just written over again.

But this is democracy.

This is democracy.

And so what we're going to do is provide the overview of council member Houston's draft.

And these are just the highlights, because everyone, everyone has a right to go to legistar and take a look at it.

So we also would like to thank the city attorney's office led by City Attorney Ryan Richardson.

But the star of this has been City Attorney Miss Jordan Flanders.

We want to thank her.

She's back here.

You'll see her with the red hair.

We also want to thank other cities and jurisdictions for assisting us.

And so with that, we'll go ahead and get started.

Again, this is the draft.

These are the highlights.

Thank you.

All righty.

First life.

The goal is to protect all Oaklanders, sheltered and unsheltered.

We want to give that authority back to Oakland.

And OPD to enforce established ordinances.

Nothing new there, folks.

Nothing new at all.

We want them to work with the codes regarding and regardless of housing status of individuals.

We want to remove criminal activities in encampments.

RVs, campers, through standard investigations.

We want to enforce the California vehicle to remove impound vehicles when health and safety or traffic impeding conditions are present.

And we also want to reduce health and safety, environmental negative outcomes from encampments.

Now, how do we want to do this?

Well, we want to do this by balancing compassion with public safety, health, and equity.

That's exactly what the governor said to do as well.

The city will continue, and I want to repeat this.

We will continue to model housing first priorities.

It does the city no good to have people on the street.

When housing's available, the city will make every effort and also every reasonable effort to house individuals.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm going to continue, you'll have your chance if you put your speaker card in to speak.

We want to reclaim and preserve public spaces.

That would be parks, tot lots, play structures, sideways, sidewalks for all Oaklanders, regardless of housing status.

We want to define high and low sensitivity areas, high sensitivity areas, which were formerly designated by the city council.

Please, please order in the chamber.

Okay, thank you.

We also want to focus on low sensitivity areas.

Let me make sure I'm on the yep.

We want to ensure that we define these locations.

Where encampments create serious health andor safety risks, such as damage to important infrastructures, blocking public spaces or services, blocking homes or businesses, and blocking emergency access or streets.

Parks with playgrounds or tot lots, protected waterways, schools, and child care centers, residences and businesses, and high fire severity zones and critical infrastructure.

We also have low sensitivity areas where that's not going to be the focus of abatement, all other areas not designated as high sensitivity areas, encampments in low sensitivity areas, they still have to meet standards, meaning no obstructing emergency ingress and egress, no obstructing on bike and ADA routes, so we won't have seniors who are not able to move on the streets, no gray or black water dumping because it affects our waterways, encampment boundaries must not exceed 12 by 12.

Structures and tents shall maintain a minimum of six feet distance, and the areas directly adjacent to an inhabited vehicle must always remain clear.

Now many of you, and this is a very important slide, many of you have asked city leaders, myself, emails, how the heck did we get here?

It's Libby's fault, it's Shane's fault, right?

I see some of you nodding your heads, but the reality is there's enough blame to go around, but let's take it what really happened.

In 2018, we had a ruling by the ninth Circuit that basically said, and you can read it for yourself, but in essence, it said we can't move people off the street unless we had housing for them, right?

So many of you know that, obviously, because you're clapping for it, right?

And in answer to that, in 2020, the city leaders in the city of Oakland did the best they could and develop the encampment management policy.

And many of you have said you want them to call ordering.

In the chamber, we as counselors also need to be able to hear the presentation to really understand the policy at hand.

So I'm asking for order in the chamber.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, council member.

In 2020, the city of Oakland developed their encampment management policy.

And in 2019, we had a path framework that basically said, and this has not changed.

Our strategy to address homelessness through prevention, emergency response, housing development, and set that foundation for future encampment policy.

That's what was said.

But things changed.

So for all of those who were clapping, things changed in 2024.

We had grants pass v.

Johnson, which overturned Martin v.

Boise.

Now, what that meant is cities may enforce, doesn't mean that they have to, it doesn't mean that they have to do exactly what the Supreme Court said, but they have the authority to enforce, and they also held that the enforcement of such bans without option of housing or shelter does not violate cruel and unusual punishment clause in the Eighth Amendment.

So it restored local authority to set clear rules with enforcement and sh and shelter options, and it really removed that legal uncertainty that we had that we had to house before we abated.

However, the city of Oakland has always put housing first.

In 2025, order in the chamber.

Thank you.

In 2025, Councilmember Houston developed the encampment abatement policy as a draft.

It builds on the ruling from the Supreme Court, and it relies heavily on measure W funding to support housing for unsheltered individuals.

It aims to restore public health and safety in Oakland, and it does indeed mark a shift from managing encampments to actively reclaiming and restoring public spaces, and it balances enforcement with shelter and treatment pathways.

Now we've also heard about well, we need to consider equity, and indeed we have.

So you also will see and notice that over 53% of those people that are unsheltered happen to be African American.

And I don't mean BIPOC, I mean black people that are out on the streets.

Okay.

You can go.

Thank you.

Perfect.

So 58% of the chamber, please.

Thank you.

58% of Alameda County's unsheltered population is in Oakland.

The goal is to protect health and safety of every encamped resident.

We want to prevent disproportionate impacts on BIPOC neighborhoods.

And we also want to provide the semi-annual review by the Department of Race and Equity.

That wasn't done in the encampment management plan, but we do expect that to be done in this plan.

I want to get to because I want to be sensitive of time.

For purposes of the EAT, and we've also had some recommendations to change that, and council member Houston is willing to, but that's any tents, makeshift structures on public property, or in the right of way where two or more households live for more than 48 hours and makes loose vehicles, even if occupied by persons.

What we are trying to do, I'm gonna skip this because this is not as important.

All parked vehicles in violation of California Vehicle Code or Oakland Municipal Code are subject to enforcement by DOT and OPD.

And please watch the word it share.

The EAT may request DOT and OPD to tag and tow vehicles in connection with the encampment cleaning and closure operations.

DOT and OPD are encouraged but not required to coordinate with the EAT to address inhabited vehicles, tents or makeshift structures surround such vehicles.

We will provide noticing, the intervention start date, the date of posting of the notice, the duration, the four-hour window, and noticing for non-emergencies to be reposted if intervention does not occur on the same day.

The city will respect and protect an individual's rights to their property.

The city of Oakland has always done this.

And we have a process, order in the chamber, order in the chamber.

Anyone who continues to be disruptive, we will remove people.

So please order in the chamber.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Everyone will have the right to vocalize their disagreement, which was with what was just stated during the public comment.

Okay, thank you.

And the city will make reasonable efforts to store up to one cubic yard of personal property.

So, I've shortened this so because I know that everyone has a lot of questions and a lot of comments.

And so let me close with this.

There is nothing in this policy that criminalizes homelessness.

There is nothing in this policy that is cruel and unusual punishment.

Thank you.

We will be here until such time.

So listen, Oakland.

Or, yes.

She's called order.

Please let's let Patricia finalize her statements, and then we will move to public comment where people can vocalize their disagreements with what has just been stated by the presenter.

All righty, folks.

Oakland is a city with a deep spirit of resilience, compassion, and unity.

We know our neighbors by name.

We care about our communities, and we want to see every person thrive.

Yet, today we face a painful reality.

Too many of our brothers and sisters are living on our streets in tents, in cars, or in RVs, or makeshift shelters.

This is not the Oakland any of us want to accept as normal.

And it is not the Oakland, the future we want to leave to our children.

We also know that this conversation is not easy.

For some policies like the encampment abatement policy may feel harsh, even heartless, but we must ask ourselves what is truly heartless.

Is it turning away and letting people live without safety, without sanitation, without hope, thank you, or is it stepping forward, even in controversy, to create healthier, safer conditions for everyone.

This policy was born from the recognition that compassion cannot exist without responsibility.

We must protect our neighborhoods, our schools, our parks, and yes, our most vulnerable residents too.

This work, order in the chamber, please, we will remove anyone who continues to be disruptive, okay.

You will have your chance to again as this works in the democracy to vocalize your disagreements at your at your time and public comment.

This work is about healing our city together, it's about believing that every Oaklander deserves more than survival.

Patricia, Patricia, uh, if I may, I just want to chime in.

Um, because I think um, you know, hello, good morning, everyone.

I'm Councilmember Rowena Brown.

Um, I want I want to just flag something for the public and also for you as well, Patricia, um, because some of the detailed questions that I will have for the administration and partners that are named in this policy, they must be addressed for the record.

And so, in the presentation, I would say starting from page 14 and actually going through the details of what is being changed and proposed so that the public has this transparency as to the changes that are being made, and so that I can ask the key questions so that there's context, and so if it's all right with everyone that's here, we have to let uh Miss Patricia get through the slide deck so that she can outline what are the proposed changes, and then um we will go to public comment where you all can express based on what you've heard, um, your feedback.

And so that is um the process that I would like to move us forward in, and then after public comment, then myself and the colleagues, my colleagues, and maybe even some of my other council members that I believe are viewing online or will come into the chamber, then we're gonna have more of a robust dialogue.

So I just wanted to outline that um so that you all have more transparency into the process of when you join these uh committee meetings, and what was noted at the onset is that given that there is so much public comment here today, we are limiting the comment to 60 seconds.

But of course, if there's a group of you that all have a shared opinion, then come up as a group to offer that opinion.

So I just kind of wanted to outline kind of like the process that we we are trying to undertake so that we understand all of the all of the changes that are being proposed, and then based on then you have a full understanding of all of the information, and then on that note, you can hold us all accountable.

Does that sound okay?

No, I'm I'm sorry.

We cannot we only entertain public comment through the speaker in order to have some some structure and order to these meetings.

Um, as council member brown noted.

If we cannot get through this, this impedes our ability as council members to deliberate on the policy that is being presented before us.

Um Patricia, if you have any last remaining things, let's and um to council member Brown.

When we get to those specific changes, it would only be prudent if Attorney Flanders would address those as well as just so you know, as um, this has been reviewed by the OCA.

Okay, okay, so this work is about healing our city together, it's about believing that every Oaklander deserves more than survival on the sidewalk, and that families deserve safe public spaces to gather and grow.

It's about facing hard truths and still choosing love in the form of action.

The 2025 EAP is not the end of the story.

It is a step towards reclaiming dignity, restoring balance, and build it in Oakland where every one of us has a place to call home.

Thank you, Council.

Do you have any burning questions, Councilmember Brown, before we move to public comment?

Okay, so it is my request that based on the details of the policy in that we kind of got in this packet that I want for the record to go through pages 14 through 21 to talk through the changes that are being proposed in the policy.

Okay, by Patricia.

Um whoever is supposed to present.

Yeah.

It should be the authors of the legislation.

Can we honor the request by councilmember Brown?

I think that's either Patricia or Councilmember Houston.

If uh the slides that were noted, Councilmember Brown, can you note the slides again?

14 through 21, so that the public knows exactly what are the proposed changes.

Okay.

Alrighty.

Councilmember Brown, did you have questions about this one?

The request is just to walk through the slides.

So if you could do the presentation for these slides.

There's the closure intervention, which is the partial closure, which means the relocation of in situations of relocation for construction and hazards.

And we talk about the examples.

The intervention may include partially moving or no closing encampment due to construction, andor the presence of one or more public safety health findings.

The city will make reasonable efforts to mitigate property loss, some property subject to removal to protect the pro to protect the public.

When shelters available, the city with other public agencies, service providers, will make offers of shelter, and or alternative housing to all affected encamped individuals.

That is the goal, Councilmember Brown.

That has been the goal that will continue to be the goal, especially under Measure W.

I'll go to the next next one.

That's partial closure.

Okay, closure intervention for a full closure.

That's the full removal from high sensitivity areas, not low sensitivity, high sensitivity areas.

The intervention for foreclosure of encampments due to location within a high sensitivity zone, construction space, or work zone.

Again, the city will make reasonable efforts to mitigate property loss.

Some property may be subject to removal to protect the property, and of course, I'll allow DOT and OPD to talk about that.

And of course, when shelters available, the city will make every offer with the agency service providers.

Again, same language to provide shelters.

Again, we're housing first.

That's always the goal.

Next one.

Oh my goodness.

Sorry about that.

Closure intervention, re-encampment closure, expedited closure, intervention.

When encampment arises on the same site within the same block on either side of the street within 60 days of prior notice of partial or full closure.

Re-encampment subject to closure within 72 hours.

That's for re-encampment.

Individuals returned to the same or similar encampment location with no encampment or no parking signs, may be subject, may be subject to citation and/or arrest.

The next slide, all parked vehicles in violation of CVC, which is California Vehicle Code or Oakland Municipal, are subject to enforcement by the Department of Transportation and the Open Police Department.

The EAT may request DOT and OPD to tag and tow vehicles in connection with the encampment cleaning and closure operations.

DOT and OPD encourage but not required to coordinate with EAT to address inhabited vehicles when tents or makeshift structures surround such vehicles.

Next slide.

There's a same-day closure, active fires with 24 hours, criminal investigations, encampments attached to business, residential structures, imminent active destruction to critical infrastructure, and that means light poles.

That means dumping of hazardous waste into drainage systems, dumping over by Lake Merritt into the waterways.

Whew, it's going up and down.

I'm trying to stay with it.

Obstructions of traffic lanes, including bike lanes, on and off ramps.

What's a non-emergency intervention?

Well, that's when we do the deep cleaning and the re-encampment closures.

We're going to give minimum 72 hours because we don't believe in allowing for non-sanitary environments.

Unless emergency and urgent public health or public safety concerns present.

We have a partial closure and closures with minimum seven-day notice.

And noticing will be in writing in multiple language and verbally communicated to encampment residents when feasible.

The noticing will include the intervention start date, the date of the posting of the notice, the duration of inventions of interventions, the four-hour window for intervention start time, and the contact information for the services, the homeless services outreach, depending on what the circumstance is.

Noticing for non-emergency to be reposted if intervention does not occur on the day or time as posted.

And 21, which we went over, but I think it's more important to say.

Yes, Councilmember Brown.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you so much.

I just thought it was just really important that we know exactly where we are trying to head right with this new policy.

And I think also what I was maybe hoping for was more of a compare and contrast to the 2020 policy and 2025, right?

So that the public can also kind of know those changes.

But I think I'm happy to hear from the public now.

But I would note that most of my questions are gonna be in that in that space.

Okay, and you and we have um city staff standing by for that as well.

Thank you.

Yes, I like to have uh since it was a concern about the the storing of the items, Amari Collins to come up and speak to that um number.

Oh, I didn't okay, Josh Rowan to come up and speak to number 14 about the the storage of the items because that was a state concern to Morales.

Is it a is uh director Rowan here or someone on staff who can speak to the storage of property?

I think I see Amari Amari Collins, can you come up speak to this please?

So Amari, can you also for the public make known what your role is with the city?

Cool.

Uh good morning, uh general public, council members, uh Amari with the city administrators office, um, leading the income and management team.

Um the team does do bag and tag through the public works, uh, bag and tag uh policy policy.

Um there's two locations at uh, okay, order in the chamber, Amari.

Please proceed and explain.

Uh, through the chair, yes.

Um, there's two locations.

One 27th and Northgate where we um hold and store the items, and then the second location is uh 750 of 50th Street, um, which is the uh public works yard in East Oakland.

And they could call 311 or the alternative 311 number to um schedule a time to pick up their items, okay.

Thank you.

With that, I know we have a lot of public comments, so I do want to move to that.

So uh let's go ahead and proceed with the public comment city clerk.

Thank you.

If you signed up to speak, I'm gonna call your name, please approach the podium.

We are going to do this in the increments of 25 and one set of 10.

Once again, public speakers in person will go before the zoom speakers.

Note you do have one minute to speak.

Call it an Iris Starja Nor, and excuse me if I mispronounced your name.

You can correct me when you get to the podium.

Chantage Norbit.

Thank you.

Tom J.

Jensen, James E.

Bull, Ethan Pentorred or Pentlin, Jane Esposito, Jean McDaniel, Meg McAdam, Mo Wright, John Jones the Third, James B.

Van, Kevin, Patrick Hester, Becky Home, and that's H O M.

Why don't we do a couple other times?

Zaudi Sun X I A O D I Son, Lily Robles, Talia Husbands.

Hankin, Saya Bascaran, and that's S A T H Y A.

Bridget Nicolati, Chantel.

Dorores.

Excuse me if I'm mispronounced your last name, Heather Franken, Nita B.

Nicole Dean.

And that's the first 25 speakers.

If you are in hearing room one, please come up if you heard your name.

Lord Jesus.

It's on two.

Hi, Councilmember Houston.

Um, in order to have quorum, can you uh return back to the dias, thank you.

Once again, please state your name for the record.

You do have one minute.

Uh, y'all just gave me 29 minutes of talking, and I got one minute to respond to it.

I'm gonna try my best to stay within that.

But you did give her a couple extra time, so I would hope you'd be considered me too.

So, no, she said no, but we're gonna work that out.

Let me my name is Shantoya Norbert.

Now, I've been I'm 45 years old.

I've been in the city of Oakland, majority of my entire life.

I've experienced homelessness when there it's okay, baby.

I know they can hear me.

I've experienced homelessness when there was options and there was help.

There were shelters and there were agencies that that spent time with the families and knew exactly what homelessness meant and how to help people.

There were things that were put in place to make people do better, but what you're doing now is removing everything that we have and everything that we own, the only thing that we have in this world.

We don't have homes because we can't afford it.

It's ridiculously expensive out here.

Okay, so now you're gonna take the only vehicles that probably were given to us or we found abandoned on the city streets to live in, to have somewhere to sleep that's warm and not sidewalk.

Last year, if I'm not mistaken, there was a law passed about uh-huh.

See, that minute went awfully fast.

Uh, thank you for your comment.

I'm not done.

I haven't, we uh oh, did you talk about that?

We do have we do have other speakers that signed up.

Unless someone cedes their time to the speaker, we have to move on so everybody can say their piece.

The microphone off all day.

I know they hear me.

Order in the chamber.

We need we have a lot of people.

We need to get through all the comments so we can hear from everybody.

And what is your name?

Okay, somebody ceded their time.

Thank you.

Ma'am, what is what is her name that is ceding your time to you?

Let me read it for you, baby.

Janet Esposito.

Janet Esposito, thank you.

Janet, can I have my mic back on?

Y'all didn't turn hers off at all.

She was what?

That's crazy.

Okay.

I guess I don't need a microphone.

Here, let me just finish this.

So now there was the things that you guys want to take from us, are the only things we own in this world, okay?

We're not perfect, yeah.

We need help, but to throw us to on the street with absolutely nothing is gonna fill up your jail for one, okay?

You're trying to criminalize being homeless when we can't afford to live here.

Okay.

Now, be it maybe our choices have gotten us here, but what you're failing to realize is a lot of this is mental health.

People are broken.

Our city is broken, and instead of you love, Jesus.

Instead of you loving and taking the time to show a little bit of compassion, like you do for your mother, no offense.

I get it, that's your mom, right?

But how many times have you walked out there and said, Are you hungry?

Let me get you a blanket, or or let me offer you a job.

You clean this street up for me, and I'll I'll pay you money, or I'll get you somewhere.

Help us, don't judge us.

Don't cast us aside because we matter.

Every single it don't matter if we black, I don't give a shit.

I don't give no cares about them being Hispanic, black, or white.

We are people.

That should not be the focus.

It should not be the focus.

What the focus needs to be is some options.

Give us somewhere to go.

Give us something to look forward to.

Every program that was put in place after the pandemic, the tiny homes and this shit.

Nothing has progressed.

Nobody's gone anywhere.

People are going into these programs and that exceeds your time, ma'am.

That your time is up.

Um, oh, you need something for the maximum.

She she received the max okay.

Okay, she received it, okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Please.

Now, I might have had a lot to say when I was sitting down.

It's really hard to sit there and watch people make decisions in a life they've never experienced.

You've never walked a day in our shoes.

But I'll tell you this coming coming from growing up in the worst parts of Oakland.

And going into these encampments, I'm I live there now.

I live there now.

I found more family and more friends than I have ever experienced in my life.

It may not be perfect, but you guys have also removed every porta potty from every encampment.

You don't pick up trash for any encampments.

There's not even an option for us to pay for it ourselves.

We might be able to do it, but you don't want to offer that.

I don't think you want to fix it.

I think you want the money to fix it and to continue buying new microphones.

So unfortunately, what you're doing is you can you can make this being homeless illegal.

You can make it, we can go to jail.

We can tow every vehicle.

What are you gonna do with them?

Okay, thank you.

With that, we do have to.

I don't know if I heard three other people tell me I had their time.

We do keep trying to slice.

Baby, I'm here, Bubba.

We need their names, and also we can seat up to five minutes.

Okay, so you have one more minute.

I'll take it.

Okay, one more minute.

Now, I feel like the lack of experience in our in our walk of life is a big problem.

And until you experience any part of it, you will never know how to fix it because you don't know what it's like.

A lot of people spend a lot of time learning how to live this way.

We don't choose to, it's not what we want.

You don't think we want to be inside?

But it's what we have to work with, so we make it work.

I moved out there, I got kicked out of my apartment with no warning.

I didn't know anybody, and it was a stranger, someone homeless who lived in a tent who offered me shelter and love and help.

When every sh every shelter that you guys fund, the only shelters you fund turned me away, had no options to help me.

There was nothing available for me.

But someone who had less than me was able to give me just a little bit of time.

This is it's it's the saddest part is you there's that button again.

Okay, I'm sorry.

With that, we really do need uh that is okay.

One more minute.

Oh, no, no, no.

I get as many minutes as they proceed as I give, right?

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

So she has exceeded her five, you have exceeded your five minutes now.

Do the chair.

I only had one minute, but I'm using everything.

One minute every exceeded time, and you use your one minute, makes it five minutes.

Thank you.

We're now moving to the other public speakers.

I'm speaking for other people.

They just said, Yeah, sorry.

That was the the most that anyone can see.

We've we've reached the utmost maximum.

You never said that.

You never said that, okay.

Okay.

You never said that.

Not one time in this minute.

Okay.

I don't think you like what I'm saying.

I think that's what we're doing.

We we hear what you're saying, but we do need to hear from the other speakers.

Yeah.

Okay.

Order in the order, order in the chamber.

Order in the chamber.

This woman is giving a class, a lessons that we all in Oakland need to hear.

Let her speak.

Okay.

The hard part is is that you guys are so set on shutting us up instead of listening.

Learn from us, spend a little time with us.

Take a couple of people to lunch.

We can help you.

This doesn't have to be us a case.

No, I'm sorry.

It really is.

We've already made the exceptions.

We've allowed for four other people to cede their time.

We really do need now.

We're gonna play by the rules.

These are the rules that we have in place to ensure fairness.

Okay.

The rules were we all got three minutes.

Can the next speaker please come up?

I am the next speaker.

You want me to turn around and walk off and come back?

I sure will.

Hold on, baby.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, it's it's these are the rules and procedures.

Okay.

We I I we don't write.

I just left and came back.

My name is uh no, that's that is that is not allowed.

We do have to move.

We do have to move on to the next speaker.

I'm sorry, we have to move on to the next speaker.

No, please.

I we will have we can call in security.

I do need to ask the next person to please come in.

Okay, the next public commenter.

Okay.

I'm happy to talk to you afterwards offline to hear your perspective, but this is these are the rules that are in place.

I don't mind being care.

I don't mind doing carefully.

Well, let me explain something to you.

You can you can quiet me, you can shut off my mic.

We need to move on to the next speaker.

And I we're happy to to talk to you after this meeting to hear what you have to say.

I'm going to call on for the next person to proceed to the podium.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

It doesn't matter if I'm black.

We need to hear from all the public commenters who have put forth their name.

Thank you.

Please.

I do need to through the chair.

I do need to hear the can you please state your name?

Honorably discharged.

Sir, can you state your name?

Order in the chamber.

Otherwise, we will move to recess.

Okay.

Okay, we're gonna move to a five minute recess.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Our recess is now over.

We will proceed with the special session.

Councilmember Houston.

Okay, and before we start, I just want to clarify the rules again.

So for the people who submitted a speaker card, you can cede up to a speaker who is interested in speaking above the one-minute limit, one minute of the time, but that person has up to five minutes to speak, and we're going to keep that as a hard rule just for fairness.

We have to get through all the speakers who have come today.

We also need to, we have our questions, the city council members to the staff, too.

They're also here, and so this is the way that we can proceed to deliberate on this policy.

Okay.

All right.

With that, we have our first public speaker following the recess, and I'll I would like you to please proceed.

Hello, my name is Tom Jensen.

I'm an honorably discharged veteran.

And under the Oakland proposed policy and its implementation of the EMP before that, I feel like a refugee in my own country.

And I would like to summarize the last speaker's comments.

And that is the homeless have not been involved in the development of Houston's proposal.

And that is not due process nor democracy.

It should be sent back to a committee that involves the homeless.

Thank you for your comment.

Council members, audience, my name is James Wool.

I live in Oakland.

I live in Eastville.

Thank you.

So my situation is I grew up on a tenant farm.

And I went to the University of Illinois with $20 from my father.

Since then, I've been on my own and have taken care of myself at 14.

I moved out of my father's house because I had an alcoholic stepmother.

The present situation is I'm working in a stokeland in a building that has been blocked by a homeless van.

He has expanded his encampment by three more vehicles, including one that was hauled away because it was stolen, and he has a pit bull chained to the front of our building, blocking our main entrance.

We're using an alternate entrance.

Yesterday he accosted me and told me that this was his territory.

Thank you.

Hello.

Thank you, Oakland City Council.

My name is Ethan Pintard.

First of all, thanks to Councilmember Ken Houston for bringing this matter to the public safety meeting.

Takes courage and leadership to address a problem of this magnitude.

It is time to repeal the 2020 encampment management policy and make a change.

Change is hard in the words of Barack Obama.

This law should be named.

This law.

Should have been named.

The encampment mismanagement policy.

After five years, from this current past, it is time to adopt a different approach and change the policy.

As we sit in the public safety hearing, I want to remind everyone a few things.

RVs directing waste into storm drains is not safe for anyone.

Our accumulation of garbage at the RVA camps, attracting pests and rodents are not safe for anyone.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, before we proceed to the next speaker, I just want to remind folks that are standing along the back wall.

Uh, we have extra space in the hearing room.

I'm going to ask you to please do that so we can manage the room.

Thank you.

It's out the hall down to the left.

Thank you.

Honorable uh public safety committee members.

My name is Mo Wright.

I am the co-chair of the Berkeley Alameda County Continuum of Care on August 28th, the COC submitted an application for HAP 6, uh, which is the state funding for homelessness mitigation.

Uh this provides money for our counties and cities.

Uh the city of Oakland is a co-applicant, and uh the total potential award is about 45 million dollars.

The policies in regard to homelessness and encampments of the county and cities are reviewed as part of this application, and the resolution you are discussing uh will be reviewed as part of our application if it passes.

The awarding authority, Cal Housing Community Development, uh requires encampment policies to be in compliance with the guidelines of the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, Cal ICH.

We have reviewed the policy and believe that it does not comply uh with guidance provided by Cal ICH.

That the policy is put in place.

Thank you, noted.

Good morning.

My name is Meg McAden, and I'm the founder of Human and Pet Initiative.

Um, we're a local nonprofit who helps support unhoused people and uh people at risk of losing their animals because um they don't have the resources to support them.

I urge you to vote no on an encampment and basement abatement policy.

We don't have housing in our community, so why would we yield our public space as a why wouldn't we yield our public space as a temporary option, especially when the alternative is criminalizing people for surviving?

Towing inhabited vehicles and arresting their owners cuts out the only form of shelter many people have.

I don't have that much.

Is someone ceding their time?

I cut my speech down when we were told we could only have one.

So the chair if you are ceding your time to the this.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is John Jones the third.

I'm on staff with Urban Strategies Council where I serve as the director of programs.

I will respectfully urge this body to not take action on this item.

And so you first ask, answer, and effectively incorporate a few elements.

The first is does this policy address the root cause?

No, it does not.

Is it moral?

Is it just?

What is Supreme Court going back and forth on this?

That should tell you something right there.

Number three, in terms of enforcement.

The challenge in Oakland is we always come up with laws that can't be enforced.

OPD is always telling us that need more officers.

They should not be given anything extra until they're first removed from underneath the NSA.

Finally, I would say this.

I'm deeply disappointed that all this talk about public safety and there's no mention of measure in.

That's a parcel tax, the voters passed it.

We need a program.

We need to address that.

So I would say until you answer these questions and you effectively incorporate it, please do not take action.

So we won't be here four years later tomorrow.

We're trying to fix what happened four years prior.

But I do thank you.

Respectfully.

Hello, my name is Becky Hom, and I work at the Asian Pacific Environmental Network or APEN.

APEN is opposed to the encampment abatement policy because it does not solve the homelessness crisis.

It just further destabilizes the lives of houseless community while also increasing criminalization.

The policy threatens houseless community members with citation or threat of arrest if they rebuild their encampments.

At the same time, the policy acknowledges there's not enough space in shelters and housing.

So what are people expected to do?

This policy does not leave room for the Measure W funds to go into effect to provide housing and also contradicts the framework.

Additionally, this policy contradicts and undermines the mayor's new Office of Homelessness strategy by excluding it from the encampment team that is supposed to oversee.

And the office hasn't even had time to come up with a plan and think through things.

So APEN urges you to vote no on this policy.

Thank you.

Greetings, I'm Nita B.

AKA Anita Diasis Morale.

I'm with the village, and I can say that the city has never followed the morale versus city of Oakland settlement regarding storing people's property.

The city has also never truly managed communities of unhoused residents.

Instead, the city has succeeded in neglecting communities of unhoused constituents.

This neglect has created an open door for housed predators and criminals to exploit and harm unhoused communities.

The illegal dump for illegal dumping to grow unchecked and for settlements to grow on the streets void of services, support, and a real pathway out of homelessness.

This policy is prioritizing the safety of businesses and unhoused residents over the desperate safety needs of our unhoused relatives.

This is not equity.

Yes, the city needs to do something different and to do it urgently, but the proposed encampment abatement policy is not the answer.

Open public lands now and move people off the streets and sidewalks and work with the county and service providers to provide services on site.

Stop neglecting the unhoused.

Don't criminalize the unhoused.

Across the country, including.

I work for McGuire and Hester.

We are a company founded in Oakland.

We're gonna celebrate our hundred-year anniversary next year.

Um, and we also are um a hundred percent employee owned.

Uh what I want to say is something needs to change.

Um, Ken Houston has has shared that.

We know this is a very difficult issue, but what is happening right now is not working, and it's something needs to change.

McGuire and Hester has over 600 employees.

Um, we're born in I'm born and raised in Oakland.

Our company is born and raised in Oakland.

But if if something doesn't change, we might be forced to move out.

Um, we had an encampment in front of our yard that we couldn't even get our employees into our building.

So I I and I have a lot of compassion.

I know there's great, there's great energy here, but something needs to change.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm probably one of the people that needs to change because right now I'm houseless.

Thank you.

Hi.

Uh I'm probably one of the people that needs to change because I'm currently houseless, and it feels important for us to the chair to this public speaker.

Please state your name for the record.

It's uh I'm just going to speak for now, please.

At this uh moment, I think it's important for us to consider the people who are targeted, whether it be a particular gender, a lineage, whether it be familial or patterns, um, uh orientation, and uh the innovations that we're not discussing, because we may look very different, but it may be similar in terms of these tertiary aspects that exist within all of us.

And when I don't feel safe in a particular place, because someone says, look at you don't look like you should be here, and um I'm denied shelter because I choose to study, opposed to engaging in other things, um, is unjust, and it's important um for us to consider other elements that exist.

Okay, you have one more minute.

Please state what is your name?

Thank you.

No, thank you.

Right now, my name is Ashley Green.

And um, to be able to see particular things and um hear that what I don't know isn't going to hurt me.

It has because I'm here, and a lot of you have awareness that I don't.

Um, when we talk about property, you can be talking about people, or you can be talking about tangible items.

Um, I have lost my tent.

I have been deemed as someone who uh should engage in particular things that market me as someone who is a threat, and with these other aspects that you guys have asked access to, you have deemed me someone who is a threat to the point where I don't even have access to my phone, and I'm questioning if the person that I'm speaking to is actually the person because there is technology and software that exists to manipulate certain aspects.

So um when I when it's the truth, it's easy to say that.

And when people in my life have gone on, say that too.

But don't consider me homeless because I need to experience something and have a particular value that you don't think I can actually or adequately manage because it's something within the realm of another socioeconomic status that you feel like I probably don't understand.

Okay, thank you.

Hi there, my name is Talia, and I'm with Love and Justice in the Streets, and I live in D2.

Since 2016, I have been involved with supporting unhoused community members in Oakland.

During this time, I have witnessed several hundred sweeps, and I've seen firsthand the extreme harm that sweeps cause.

From losing medication, important documents, ID, phones, clothing, and other critical belongings, to causing severe stress, bringing on seizures and panic attacks, and exacerbating other serious health conditions.

Sweeps only make life harder for unhoused people, which makes accessing housing more difficult.

The proposed ordinance is dangerous and wasteful.

In the midst of a budget crisis, it would spend millions while pushing people from one sidewalk to another with zero solutions.

House and unhoused residents want real solutions.

We want human rights and safety for all in our city.

I urge you to vote no on this cruel and inhumane ordinance and redirect all efforts to solutions, not sweeps and criminalization.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Satya.

I'm a district seven resident.

I'm gonna use my time to list off some of the organizations and businesses that have signed against this policy in just about the last week and a half, encompassing in total hundreds, if not thousands of people who oppose this haphazard, irresponsible, and violent proposal.

Parent voices Oakland, Anti-Police Terror Project, East Bay Housing Organization, West Oakland Punk Punks with Lunch, The Village Oakland, Poor News Network, Tech Workers Coalition of the Bay Area, Love and Justice in the Streets, East Bay Community Law Center, Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice, Sustainable Economies Law Center, Restore Oakland, Homeless Action Center, Where Do We Go, Care for Community, Oakland Rising, East Oakland Collective, Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, Homeless Advocacy Working Group, Auntie Francis Self Help Hunger Program, Alkali Rye Beverage Shop, Bar Chisme, Bay Maid, Curbside Creamery, Crisis Club Gallery, Edith's Pie, It's Your Move Games, Maple Street Denim, Mother Tongue Coffee, Oakland Guitars, Peppa's Mobile Pet Spa, Radically Fit.

Thank you for your comment.

Thank you.

My name is Bridget Nicoletti, and I'm an attorney at East Bay Community Law Center.

I've been working with the unhoused community for the last four years, and I now represent tenants in eviction proceedings.

The stakes regarding this proposal could not be higher.

Literally life and death for thousands of unhoused Oaklanders.

If the council moves too quickly, spurred on by fear, so much damage will be done.

The County Board of Supervisors just yesterday has called on the city to block this proposal because millions of dollars in homelessness funding may be lost.

With Donald Trump using the National Guard to sweep encampments in DC, the Supreme Court just the other day permitting ICE and police to racially profile in raids and cuts to federally subsidized housing.

Now is not the time to adopt a policy that further criminalizes black, brown, and disabled Oaklanders.

I call on the public safety committee to work with unhoused residents who have proposed numerous workable concrete policies and not take this policy forward.

Thank you.

Laura, hi, my name is uh Lily Robles.

I am here to oppose the encampment abatement uh policy.

This policy is based on the idea that the homelessness crisis is a problem for housed people inflicted by unhoused people who are simply taking up space and surviving in their own communities.

That is ridiculous.

The encampment abatement policy is not only financially wasteful, it is inhumane and pointless.

There is no promise of support, shelter, or storage of possessions.

It will only further harm and criminalize some of our most of our most vulnerable community members while failing to provide any solutions.

I encourage you to not vote for it.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Dr.

Sayodi Sun.

That's not how you say it, but it'll do.

I live in D1.

I oppose the encampment abatement policy.

This proposed policy is a bold attempt by the city to cover up the problem rather than to help people.

Unless the city deals with our housing crisis, there will always be unhoused people.

In my PhD, I study how regulatory agencies such as the EPA use science to create policies at the state and federal level, and any responsible policy would perform a cost-benefit analysis and considered alternative solutions.

As the previous previous speaker stated, this policy is incomplete.

It should not be voted on.

I will quote some alternatives for y'all to consider.

I advocate for safe parking programs, sanctioned encampments, and rapid every housing, while creating sites where the unhoused can utilize vacant spaces.

Working with housing providers who provide appropriate shelter is crucial.

Homelessness should be addressed as a housing and public health issue, not a criminal one.

These alternatives are from Ken Houston, the author of this encampment abatement policy in his candidate statement to the East Bay Housing Organization in September of 2024.

To see such a dramatic term makes me think there are alternative agendas here.

This policy is not ready.

Please do not vote on it.

Um I've been organizing around housing and other quality of life issues in Oakland for the last 13 years, and I'm currently the um organizing director at Care for Community Action.

I've signed time seated to me from Linda Warwick, who's participating on Zoom?

We've been door knocking uh in Oakland pretty much every week for the past two years.

Excuse me, through the chair to the public speaker.

Who is seeding your time.

Linda Warwick.

Linda, if you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand.

Linda, are you seating time?

Yes, I am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So we've been knocking on doors in every district of Oakland um every week for the last five years.

We've talked to tens of thousands of Oakland residents about this issue.

What we hear most from people is that they want to see deeply affordable and supportive housing that will get our neighbors off the streets.

This is something that Oakland residents have voted for over and over.

They've voted to pay higher taxes in order to pay for this, and they are frustrated at the lack of urgency that they see from the city to build this kind of housing.

Voters understand that 6,000 unsheltered Oaklanders are not gonna disappear overnight.

That we can't criminalize our way out of this crisis.

Any policy that doesn't address the fundamental issue of people having nowhere to go will fail.

It's not going to work.

It's frustrating to see you all rush this process, scheduling a special meeting when my council member who represents the district that has the largest number of encampments, can't even be here.

Y'all deliberately excluded her from this process, so that you can double down on a policy that has been failing.

Suddenly, there's all this urgency after years of resistance and delays to plans that would actually house people.

This policy will undermine our ability to work with the county and the state to do that.

It threatens our access to the funding we need to provide that kind of housing.

This policy is not what voters want, it's what the real estate industry wants.

Realtors and developers play an outsized role in our political system, which leads to policies like this that prioritize developer profits over the community's real needs.

So if you are killing projects for respite centers for homeless disabled elders, and you're voting for this, that says a lot.

This says a lot.

6,000 homeless Oaklanders are not going to magically disappear if this legislation passes.

If you take away vehicles that people are living in without providing shelter, they're gonna have to sleep somewhere.

We're doubling down on a policy that has already failed because it doesn't deal with the reality that people need somewhere to lay their heads at night.

That's what you should be focused on.

If you want to crack down on someone, crack down on the people who drive from all over the suburbs in the Bay Area to dump their trash in Oakland.

Thank you.

Group was formed in uh 2016-2017 with the assistance of the assistant city administrator.

And over that time, the group has proposed many beneficial policies for the city.

It initiated the homelessness commission.

It uh passed the vacant property tax for uh homelessness and illegal dumping.

It worked on uh Measure Q and and Measure W.

We sent a letter to you.

We hope that you will take the time to read it.

Oakland has a problem.

The problem is it has too many people.

Many people have been forced out of their housing and onto the street because Oakland doesn't have enough housing.

The uh, however, the solution to the problem is not to take their stuff and put them in jail.

The solution to the problem is got to be humanistic.

We proposed an a community and uh we proposed a working group to work something out.

This has been done many times before, and we hope that you'll read our letter and work for propose a working group.

Okay, uh, Mr.

Hawk, or Mr.

Mr.

Vad, you have another minute.

Mr.

Van.

Okay.

Okay, ah, we need to adjourn into a special meeting.

Uh, as we have the present uh the presence of the council president.

I need a motion.

Um motion to adjourn into a special meeting.

Can I go ahead and second that?

I'll second.

Thank you.

Due to the presence of councilmember Jenkins.

Council President Jenkins, the quorum of the city council was noted, and a motion was made by Councilmember Brown.

Seconded by Chair Wong to adjourn this meeting of the special public safety committee and convening to a special meeting of the full council at 12 39 a.m.

on roll.

Please disregard that.

Council President Jenkins will not be speaking.

Thank you.

Okay.

All right.

Please proceed.

You have a minute.

Thank you very much.

Yes.

We recognize that there is the city does have problems.

However, it is not a problem to be solved by backroom deals.

As the encampment management policy, the original policy was a backroom deal, which was a flawed deal, and it it should not have either happened or wouldn't put into effect.

And this the present encampment abatement policy is another backroom deal.

We don't need backroom deals.

We need solutions that take into account both the housed people and the unhoused people.

We need something humanistic.

We need a working group composed of both sides in this issue to work out something that will serve the needs of Oakland and serve the needs of our people, all of our people.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Jackie Smith.

I live in East Oakland.

I'm in District 7.

I happen to support Ken Houston's proposal for simple reasons.

We're making a very difficult situation much more difficult.

Funding.

Look, right now, East Oakland looks like a trash can.

And we understand that.

We understand that homeless people have to have some place to stay, and the encampments don't look that well, then our kids don't want to walk by there.

They don't feel safe.

Their parents don't feel safe.

But if we're going to do something about removing them, we have to do something about the resources to help them.

We have to.

No.

Go back in the boardroom, do what you do, find out how to get the resources to help these people to help them.

That's what we need to do.

It's not hard.

Thank you.

Okay, we are calling in our second half.

And please state your name.

Chantel De Ramos.

Okay, thank you.

Go ahead.

I'm a fifth-generation Oakland resident.

My grandparents were born here, lived here all my life.

My grandmother was the first black woman to be a clerk for the police department in Oakland.

They treated her like crap.

I thought I was coming to talk about illegal dumping.

That's I thought that's what we were talking about.

So I guess I'm gonna say something about the housing situation.

Is screwed up.

We cannot jail our way out of homelessness.

We can't.

Oakland has so much unused property, buildings.

We gotta put people someplace.

I don't, I don't like stepping over somebody on the sidewalk either.

But if that's all they got, I don't I we can't.

We can't put people in jail for not having a place to freaking live.

Let's give them a place to live.

Let's give them some help.

Let's get them some medical assistance.

Let's get them some financial assistance.

Let's get something.

We pay more property taxes in Oakland than any daggone body.

Why isn't it housing our people?

Okay.

Thank you for your comment.

We got a house.

Thank you for your comment.

Moving to our second half of speakers.

I think we need to get our homeless office.

Thank you.

We do need to move on to the next speaker.

Thank you.

Wanna call your name, please approach the podium.

As a reminder, Zoom speakers will be taken after in-person speakers.

If you are in hearing room one, when you call when you hear your name, please make your way to the chambers.

Dominique Walker.

Ethel Longscott, Wanda Kenye, John Genasco.

Lajeya Lej, excuse me, Tiny, Sierra Warwick, Christine Hernandez, Peter Brown, Zenobin Mills, Zenobia Mills, Patrice Mayo, Zach Stern, Sonny Rios, Jen Oakley, Massilia Cunningham, Miss Celia.

Cody and thank you.

Thank you, Miss Cunningham.

Miss Asada, Kat Brooks, Lance Wilson, Valerie L.

Brown, Kelsey Hubbard, Brendan Schaefer, Xavier, Dan Dunton.

And the last 10, Margaret LaFon, Victor W.

Robert Bonaire.

This is not twice.

Nell Mayhand, Carrie Lamar Willis, Tamika Perkins.

And Jeremiah Brookledge.

They're going together.

These are seated together.

I think you have them.

Yeah.

Jasmine Rogers.

Lashina Bibbs.

Lindsay Partridge.

Ivan Ortiz.

Zachariah James Caston.

God damn it.

Ivan Magana.

Let's see it together.

Sabrina Buster.

DeMarcus Frost.

And Timothy Evans.

If you heard your name, please approach the podium.

State your name for the record.

As a reminder, you do have one minute seating time up to five minutes.

And Zoom speakers will be taken last after in-person speaking.

Thank you.

Good afternoon to all the council members and everyone that's present at this time.

And I'm here to let everybody know that it's not right for no one to be out on the street homeless.

This is a rich country.

Each person should have a place to lay their heads.

This is a human right for everybody in the United States of America.

And it is our solution to this problem.

Because we have too many people out here homeless with nowhere to lay their heads.

We have mentally ill people out here that needs resources to help them.

Why are we out here arguing about what's going on and still trying to do something for the solution?

We need solution to this problem.

We need more affordable housing for our people, for all people.

We are all God's children.

And no one wants to be out there homeless.

No one wants to be outside on the street there with people passing by, us walking over you.

You don't want that.

Everybody wants privacy.

Privacy to me is very important.

Because you know, we don't know what it's all about until we become out there homeless ourselves.

That's the whole thing.

The problem is.

Because you know, we all are one paycheck from being homeless.

Do you realize that?

If we keep on just running our mouths, just talking and talking and not taking care of these solutions.

We need solutions to the problems.

And the problem is that we need solution is we need more affordable housing for our people.

To keep them off the streets.

Thank you, Miss Cunningham.

This is really embarrassing when we have tourists coming to our city.

They said, what's going on in Oakland?

Why are these people out here on the streets?

Now that's terrible.

That's that's embarrassing to me as an old lady.

But I'm yet young at heart.

I just want to say something to try to encourage everyone to just keep on living, baby.

Keep on living as old people used to tell me.

And you shall see what life is all about.

It's not easy, baby.

But just give on it.

Okay.

And I want to thank you all for listening to me.

And I know my district, I'm a member of the East Old College of the Family.

And my district is seven.

And I know Ken is trying his best to do what he can.

But he can't do it alone.

We have to have everybody to work with him to see that these solutions are taken care of.

One man cannot do it by themselves.

Okay.

But you know, thank you, Miss Cecilia Cunningham.

We do need to move to the next speaker.

Unless someone concede their time in the community.

I understand that.

Okay.

Very well.

Thank you.

But the community ain't gonna have to play an important role in this too.

So these solutions.

Thank you.

My name is Ethel Long Scott, and I have been a longtime resident worker here in Oakland.

Um, my heart's full from the earlier speaker, but I do rise to street to speak strongly in opposition to Council Member Houston's proposal.

I want to say you count my time now.

Y'all got to uh I reclaim my time, got it.

All right, am I back on the microphone now?

Let me just say for the record, I stand here before you to oppose the proposal by Mr.

Houston.

It will only make it harder for people if you, as you've already heard, to exit homelessness and it will increase the number of unsheltered persons.

It wastes money on ineffective and harmful practices during a budget crisis.

It violates human rights as people have spoken to, due process and the Americans with disability protections.

Mr.

Houston's policies aligns with the lawless Trump's criminalization and authoritization efforts.

And that ain't who we are.

Instead, we need to say and support the measures of the mayor of Mayor Lee and her new office of homelessness strategy, and that this proposal will actually undermine that.

This proposal contradicts with Measure W framework for requiring housing connections and services and inclusion of people with lived experiences.

Do not rush this.

Let this let the mayor's new office come together and let these measures then be discussed with the leadership of the people who are being impacted by these problems.

Thank you, Oakland, for speaking powerfully tonight.

Powerfully today.

We stand.

We are gonna fight.

You will not shut us down.

MAGA, you're gonna bring something on Oakland.

We're ready for you, baby.

Okay, thank you, ma'am.

Hi, my name is Wanda Kinsey.

I'm with Poor People's Campaign.

I was born and raised in East Oakland.

Never have I seen so many unsheltered people in my city.

Six thousand and counting unhoused.

Ken Houston's encampment abatement policy, which I've been studying, would criminalize the homeless and does nothing to ensure them a long-term safe, clean, habitable place to reside.

People who are unsheltered need housing, not proposed legislation that will seize their vehicles in which some call home.

It is cruel, inhumane, and people will die.

This piece of legislation is straight out of Donald Trump's authoritarian playbook.

I've done my part and have given two homeless people individuals, two dogs a place to dwell.

It would be compassionate if you would do the same, Mr.

Ken Euston.

Leger Harper.

And I was a resident on Wood Street for 10 years, now home full at homefulness.

And I just want to say I'm not where I am today.

I am where I am today because my community embraced me.

They didn't cancel me, they loved me.

And so once again, I want to thank you that you remind us that our family living outside are invisible in your eyes, that we are not seen as human beings deserving of love, dignity, and compassion.

And I want to also thank you for not shining the light on the true reality of homelessness, still just blaming us individuals while failing to recognize that the cost of living here in the Bay Area is so high.

I also want to speak a hard truth too often instead of real solutions like homefulness, like Wood Street Commons has presented what we see is still punishment for our people.

We see people criminalized simply for existing.

We see their belongings destroyed, their communities torn apart, and their lives treated as disposable.

We strongly oppose that BS.

So my name is Peter Brown.

I teach at Laney College.

I've lived in East Oakland as a homeowner for over 55 years.

This measure brings a defining moment in Oakland.

It says that if you have a home and a job that lets you afford that home, then you are worth something.

But if you don't have a home or a job that affords you a home, then you are worse than worthless.

You are in the way.

This measure is precisely in line with Trump's homeless policy, with Newsom's policy, and with Project 2025.

If you, if you vote for it, you are aligning yourself with that policy.

No matter what else you think you are doing.

You're talking about my students, my neighbors, my friends.

It is in line with giant real estate investment corporations that build big, shiny apartment buildings that are half empty because they are not housing, they are assets to be used as collateral to get more assets until the bubble pops and Oakland is left holding the bag.

If you vote for this, you're voting to support corporations that seek out stressed properties.

And rather than helping families stay in them, engineer owner or render defaults, foreclose evict, and then raise the rent.

There is not a shortage of housing.

Housing has been made unaffordable by design and by strategy.

Holding properties off market has been consciously used to jack up prices to jack up profits.

Do not get on the wrong side of this.

Do not get on the wrong side of history.

The people are the future, the corporations are the path.

They offer our communities nothing but extraction of profits.

And this will continue to get worse until you deny them the right to set prices and own property.

This is a defining moment in your political life.

Do not make a vote that makes you a stooge of the billionaires and corporations that make them rich.

Go after corporate crime, not the students' friends, and neighbors it destroys.

Do not attempt to soften or modify this measure.

Reject it unanimously.

Do the chair to the public speaker, you've already spoken.

You spoke earlier for your time, and your time was exceeded.

Thank you.

I want to make sure that we hear from the other speakers who've haven't had a chance to speak yet.

So I'm gonna ask for the next speaker to please come up.

Thank you.

Thank you for that mention.

Can we consider one minute?

I'm speaking twice.

Oh, sorry, sorry.

Oh okay, never mind.

Um I'm sorry, it just being updated with the the rules here.

I we we have to ask you to step aside and to call on to the next speaker.

Even 30 seconds.

I'm gonna ask for the next speaker to please come up.

We please step aside.

We will have the next speaker call.

I'm gonna confer with some some folks just to see if somebody can cede time to you, for example.

But in the meantime, please I need can't do it.

Okay.

Sorry, can't do it, so I'm gonna ask for the next speaker to come up.

Yeah.

Okay.

So uh there is an open forum period by which you can make another comment, but for this item, we're gonna we're gonna go through the line.

Thank you so much.

I just want to say that this relative is currently houseless and they have the right to speak, and there's more houseless people that are not being heard today, but I have three people who see no excuse me, four people needed their time order in the chamber.

There are four okay, please.

You will have an opportunity to speak again during the open forum session, but you've already spoken, and so I'm going to ask the current speaker at the podium to please proceed.

I am the person that I just showed.

Everyone needs an opportunity to say their piece.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, ma'am.

Please, if you keep on continuing, we will have to have security remove you.

We need to make sure that this is fair and everybody has their chance to speak.

Security.

Security, can we?

You just run into it.

Okay.

Excuse me.

You are continuing to disrupt the session.

Okay, thank you.

Please proceed.

Order in the chamber.

Okay.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

So I had four people cede their time to me.

Um, one is Veryl Powell, one is Moheet Mulkeem, um, this relative here.

Uh I don't have all of their other names, but do the chair.

Do the chair to the member of the public.

Can I get your first and last name?

And then the four people that are ceding their time to you.

Can somebody help me out?

Yeah.

I don't know.

Thank you.

And then, member of the public at the podium.

Can I get your first and last name?

Tiny gossip.

Tiny.

Okay.

Thank you.

And you said Morgan was on Zoom.

Oh, I don't know about Zoom.

Is there people on Zoom?

You know their name?

Meryl Powell on the Zoom.

Sorry, which person is on Zoom?

Daryl, if you're on Zoom, please raise your hand to be acknowledged and to verify that you will be seating time.

Veryl, can you confirm that you are time to Tiny Garcia?

Thank you.

Member of the public, you'll have a total of five minutes max.

I also am seeding my time, Camille Sakriston.

It's a total of a maximum of five minutes.

Thank you.

First of all, I just have to say that the relative who is just escorted out is one of many people who aren't in this room.

And yeah, we're in grief and we're neurodivergent and we're struggling just to survive.

So that pain that you just saw is just a little bit of what's outside.

And maybe you should get outside of this Greco-Roman palace of settler colonial lives more than more often.

Because then you would actually see us and hear us.

First of all, I want to take a moment of my time, a moment of silence for Sycamore Charlotte.

I want to take a moment of silence for JT.

I want to take a moment of silence for a Buddha.

I want to take a moment of silence for all of us who have died because of the already existent settler lives, I mean laws that you put in place to criminalize our bodies for the sole act of living outside.

That blood from those relatives is on your hands.

And with more fetishizing of our bodies because we struggle with the violence of exposure, but we don't have the privilege of privacy.

Because you will kill us.

So let's not get it twisted.

This is not a law or a bill or a proposal.

It's a death sentence.

It's a death sentence for folks who do not have the access to the lie of rent.

And yeah, we can talk about the cracker king in the white people's house all day and twice on Sundays.

But the reality is capitalism already existed.

It already took poor black elders' homes away.

One of the beautiful warriors on the group that signed to vote no on this was my beautiful sister Auntie Francis from self-help hunger program.

For those of you who know, they're trying to close that right now because it bothers the gentry fuckers who live nearby.

Now let me just tell you really simply that the majority of black elder relatives who sit at self-help hunker program and try to get a plate of food and some love had homes in North Oakland.

And they were taken away by as many of our relatives know white lawyers and white lies.

Have a funny way of taking poor people's and black people's homes away.

And that's what happened to them.

The foreclosure crisis, eviction, mortgage rates, and now and now all we see is videos like Mr.

Houston, where we're outside and we're messy and we're dirty and we no longer matter.

Because all you want to create is the notion that we are trash for the sole act of living outside.

Now, I just need to tell you because maybe you don't know, Mr.

Houston.

Me and my mom were houseless on the street for literally most of my childhood, starting when I was 11 years old.

Not because my mom did anything wrong, not because we were bad people, not because we were messy inherently or dirty or any of these things, but because my mom was disabled and she could not work.

She had dealt with trauma her whole life.

So we ended up outside, struggling in the underground economic economy.

And guess what?

We could not pay the rent.

And that never didn't change.

And when I was 18, I was incarcerated for the sole act of living outside.

I did three months in county.

And no matter how many times you jail us, study us, or sweep us.

It doesn't give us a home.

So at the end of the day, I want to say there are solutions.

Like my sister Leger talked about homefulness is happening in deep east to Tune.

This is stolen land.

This is a lonely LaShawn land.

And we already dealt with settler colonial terror in the original taking of this land.

But right now, homefulness is happening, and it's housing 25 houseless youth adults and elders in rent-free forever healing housing.

Maybe you should learn about it.

Maybe you should get out of this settler colonial spot, and maybe you should talk to us because we have solutions.

And no more about us without us legislation.

This has to end.

You're killing us.

You will kill more of us.

Oh.

Good morning.

My name is Zenobia Bro.

I've been in Oak.

Oh, good morning.

My name is Zenobia Bro.

I've been in Oakland over 60 years in East Oakland, deep East Oakland, and I'm a member of the Rainbow Neighborhood Council.

Because this is in the middle of the day, there's a lot of homeowners who are working that cannot be at this meeting.

Anyway, I uh um am in support of Ken's proposal because I feel that we have to start somewhere, and we have to, and the um RVs that are traffic and hazard safety in our neighborhood.

We've um I've also fed the homeless, and I've gone out to the neighborhoods and talked to them.

And I know they don't want to be there, but there's a lot that are coming from other towns, and as San Jose and San Francisco clamp down, we'll have more people in Oakland, and we'll have less uh resources to house the people who are in this community in this courtroom right now in this chambers.

So I and support of Ken to try to stop uh someone else from the coalition willing to cede time.

Okay, uh, never mind, please come up.

Hello, my name is Beatrice Mayo, and thank you, Councilman Houston, and I support, approve, strongly support and approve what you're trying to do.

I believe that in this day and time uh that it is time for intelligent people to stop, cease and desist the uh enablement factor that that we're doing.

Uh many people have made it from nothing.

I am from a family of sharecroppers who made it from nothing, and we made it.

My family made it, they couldn't hardly read or write.

So I urge you, we have to start somewhere, not from a selfish motive or of a nonprofit or purpose that doesn't benefit Oakland or the people who own homes and live here.

We need to start.

Or let's not do anything.

Let's let's let this city become a trash heap.

Let's let it be a wasteland, let no businesses want to come here, let not let not our kids want to be able to walk and have jobs.

Let's just do that.

We need an accelerated program, and I applaud your bravery to trying to start somewhere with intelligent people who know we need to do something and stop enabling people.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Uh, my name is Bob Bodner.

I'm also with the Rainbow Community Neighborhood Council, and I also uh echo the comments before me and particularly applaud Ken Houston for his courage and leadership to say something that needs to be said, which is that what we've been doing lately is not working for anyone, particularly the residents who might find themselves with an encampment next to their house.

A lot of these things catch fire.

Businesses have been lost.

I could speak of the American Emperor on East 12th.

That business is gone, it was burn up.

Economy lumber, burn up, lost half of their stuff because an encampment that was an adjacent.

I could also speak about the filth near some of the schools.

Ascend Elementary near Fruitvale has got a very smelly encampment right next to the playground.

And also 45th Avenue, you cannot, the kids cannot walk to Fremont High School because both sides of the sidewalk are blocked.

This type of stuff has to come to an end.

Thank you.

I want to highlight the racial disparities in homelessness.

In Alameda County, black people are 12% of our pop of the population, but 40% of the homeless.

The cause of homelessness started hundreds of years before Libby, with when with slavery, redlining, and not allowing black people to take mortgages.

Let's be honest.

Shelters and permanent housing are rarely offered when they when they are people are swept.

Therefore, towing people's homes and criminalizing poverty is not a solution.

It is an act of racism.

And anyone who supports encamp encampment abatement is ignoring the structural and systematic issues that are deeply woven in our history and is themselves.

I urge this council to not punish people for being poor.

Invest in real solutions that provide dignity, stability, and opportunity.

Hi, my name is Sonny Rios, and I'm a homeless outreach coordinator based in Oakland.

I just want to start by reading an important quote that can be found on the city's website.

In Oakland, poverty is a reality for some residents and the surrounding areas.

There is a sense of hopelessness.

We must learn from the past, which has taught us that having a lock them up mentality only exacerbates disparities in impacted communities of color.

This was written by Councilmember President Kevin Jenkins.

In 2022, Santa Clara University released a study called The Harms of Encampment Abatements on the Health of Unhoused People.

The number one finding is something we already know, where isolation and moving the problem away does not actually solve any of the core issues and causes more harm than it does.

For Councilmember Houston, your personal experience is important, but your policy does not stand up to decades of research that have been systematically neglected, underfunded, and ignored.

From encampment management policy to encampment abatement policy, what is this change signal other than a shifting focus to the past where disappearing the problem outweighs developing a humane alternative?

Hello, my name is Valerie Brown, and I'm a sole product of being homeless.

For the last three years or so, I've been homeless, and it was due to a death in my family from my spouse, and I lost everything.

It brought me to Operation Dignity, which I have known to hear that is a nonprofit organization that would be closing.

Why close something that works?

This worked and it helped me.

I'm a sole product that it does work.

Don't take away something that the homeless is encountering now and they need it.

The staff there, they're compassionate, they go be way and beyond how to navigating from people.

They also find them jobs where they can afford housing and live as I do.

I now have been living in a place coming from Operation Dignity for a year now.

So it works.

It's a nonprofit organization, and please don't take it away because it does work.

The homeless people are out there now, and they can benefit from this.

So this is something I beg of you.

Do not take away.

Thank you.

Lance Wilson is seeding his time, as is Sasha's.

To the chair to the public speaker is Sasha in the chambers.

Thank you.

Cat Brooks, anti-police terror project.

First of all, shame on you for chastising people for being vocal when that presentation just spit in the faces of the lived experience and the reality of what has, does, and will continue to happen on the streets of Oakland to the unhouse.

You are not the experts.

You ain't seen what they do to them.

These are the experts in here.

Not only that, you are not the most important people in this room.

These are the most important people in this room.

Not your presenters.

Not your staffers.

You the Patricia just told me this is your chambers.

Nah, this is our chambers.

We pay for this.

We you work for us.

For us, the people are having a rational response to ridiculous circumstances.

This city has never provided adequate housing, respected people's property, or treated unhoused relatives as human beings.

And as you know, Charlene, because I sent you the Cal Matters article, there is not a single solitary city-recognized housing provider not embroiled in corruption and scandal.

You don't have the solutions to this to pass this policy.

You don't have places to put people, and you won't put them there even if you did have them.

The article that I sent you said that the conditions with the housing providers is worse than jail.

Accountability and willingness to fix the mess you made.

Those are the markers of not just a solid human being, but of principled and competent leadership.

The city of Oakland made this mess.

You made it by uh catering to developers and corporations.

You made it by refusing to build um low income and actually affordable housing.

You made it because you wanted white rich people from San Francisco to come in and take what affordable housing there was so they could jack up their rents and we'd have a different income base.

I don't care if you were on this dais or not, you represent the city now.

So it is your time to take responsibility and fix the mess that you made.

Not blame the people who have been impacted by the mess that you made and fix it on their back.

Shame on you, and how dare you.

I've been I said in 2018, I've been saying it since I'll continue to say it.

The solution is not complicated, it's dumbass simple.

House people.

That is the solution.

That's the only solution.

Put them in housing.

There are abandoned buildings.

Use them.

Them condos that y'all built instead of affordable housing that are sitting empty, declare eminent domain like you did in West Oakland and fucked up our neighborhood and put people in there.

But this, what you are doing now is going to exacerbate, not solve the problem.

I told you the last time I was here.

Y'all knew you think that you're gonna pass policy that the masses, your bosses don't want you to pass, and we're just gonna lay down and take it.

I will remind you that this is Oakland, California, and maybe you should Google us.

Because some of you just got here for real, for real.

It's about to get hyphy in these streets.

I feel like I'm in a time machine.

We just did this shit.

This is bad policy, the same bad policy on steroids.

The definition of nutter is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

What you is gonna get is the same thing resistance, rebellion, and revolt in these streets.

Keep it up here.

Thank you.

Um morning, my name is Margaret Laffin.

I'm an attorney with Bay Area Legal Aid for Alameda County.

Our Alameda County office is located right here in Oakland.

We provide low income and very low income tenants with free civil legal aid assistance and work with multiple unhoused Oaklanders.

Um our clients are often disabled, living on general assistance of 336 per month for a maximum of $1,300 in disability benefits, which can take years to get on.

Expecting someone living on an incredibly limited fixed income per month without any additional assistance to keep an RV registered and operable is ridiculous.

The towing of an RV or a vehicle is a confiscation of a person's shelter and often of all of their most important belongings, medication, paperwork.

We are seeing clients enter homelessness due to medical conditions, due to domestic violence, due to unexpected loss of income.

These clients are longstanding Oakland residents, often of decades, who have been consistently outpriced and pushed out of their homes.

Low income apartments are rent on average about $500.

Excuse me.

Low-income apartments rent on average about $500 above the GA level in nearly half of someone's SSI disability benefits.

As we've been hearing over and over again, the wait list is unbelievably long for somebody to even get into housing.

As someone who has been personally working with unhoused clients for several years, it has become increasingly difficult to provide legal services as individuals are experiencing increased encampment sweeps with even less notice.

Our clients, we can't find we can't find our clients.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Sharon Corneau.

I'm the executive director of St.

Mary's Center in West Oakland.

We are a city contractor providing homeless services, and I come to tell you the impact of this poorly conceived, poorly written proposal on the results which you try to get us to deliver.

The city of Oakland is approximately 4% of our annual budget.

I want to say that everyone in this room is very angry about the impact of homelessness.

And because we see the county and other cities reducing homelessness while it increases in Oakland, we have to ask ourselves why and what works.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness did a study, which they recently updated of policies like this.

And they said services offered under the threat of arrest or removal are less effective.

They can erode trust and discourage participation.

Encampment evictions serve only to prolong one's experience of homelessness in the majority of cases where even more funding will be required to remove or support them again.

In conclusion, sir, you met with OPD, you met with DOT.

I invite you to come to St.

Mary's Center and meet with the real experts, seniors displaced in West Oakland.

Thank you.

Hello.

My name is Victor.

We I just like to say um, do the chair to the public speaker.

Can you please repeat your name?

Victor.

Victor, thank you.

These programs are helping a lot because without the program, I don't know what I would be doing right now or where I'll be at.

You know, the funding, we need more funding.

We need help, man.

You know what I'm saying?

It is easy for everybody to sit up here and argue at each other.

But we need to show each other love, man.

You know what I'm saying?

Show the love, man.

I've been in Oakland 62 years, man.

You know what I'm talking about?

And I ain't never seen it like this.

If it wasn't for these people, helping me.

I don't know what I'd be doing right there.

This is not no game.

People lie, man.

You play with my lie, and I'm tired of going to me.

I'm trying to do the right thing.

You know what I'm saying?

All I'm saying is, give us a bunch of men help us out.

That's all I'm saying.

I ain't trying to sit up here, all the blame nobody.

Help people, man.

We human.

We all this shit wouldn't be going on if we had help.

You know what I'm saying?

It wouldn't be on the street, nothing would be on the street.

You don't tell pieces, none of that.

Come on, y'all.

Y'all gotta put this love back in Oakland, man.

Where y'all from?

I'm from Oakland.

I've been here 52 years, man.

And I ain't never seen Oakland like this.

I swear, my mom.

I ain't never seen open Oakland like this here.

Without the front of the man, I don't know what's gonna happen, man.

You know what I'm saying?

I don't know what we have, what's gonna happen to me.

You know, I can't read and write, I can't do none of that.

So I need this help, man.

I need it.

Thank y'all.

Thank you.

Um just uh uh a point of privilege from the chair.

Um, we are actually going to convene into a special session uh of the city council.

Um, so and and with that, we'll proceed.

I'll I'll make the most I need a motion.

Thank you.

I'll second that.

Okay, thank you for seconding.

Please note that council member five present at 1 23 p.m.

And with that, due to the presence of Council, President Jenkins, a quorum of the city council was noted.

A motion made by Councilmember Brown, seconded by Councilmember Houston, to adjourn this meeting in a special public safety committee and convene to a special meeting of the full council at 1 25 p.m.

Unroll, Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Council Member Five.

I don't know.

We are adjourning to a special meeting due to the presence of Councilmember Jenkins because you made a full counsel through the chair to the clerk staff.

You don't need to adjourn again.

You already did at the presence of Councilmember Jenkins.

Councilmember Five who's on this committee.

So we're already adjourned into a special meeting.

Okay.

Okay.

So I guess that's denied.

We'll take a vote.

Okay, we're not taking a vote.

We're just gonna keep on through.

Oh, we do need to take a vote.

Okay.

Let's proceed with the vote then.

On roll.

Councilmember Brown.

Aye.

Sorry, Councilmember Five, we're voting on proceeding with a special uh session of the city council since we have Council President Jenkins with us.

Okay, this is wild.

Aye.

Councilmember Houston.

Aye.

And Chair Wong.

Aye.

The motion is passes with four ayes.

On the full council.

Thank you.

Please proceed.

Thank you.

Hi.

My name's Christine Hernandez.

I'm a mother of core.

I live in Oakland.

This is my youngest of four, Sophia Lena Hernandez.

I took her out of school today so that I wouldn't chicken out because I don't like public speaking.

My family was unhoused for from 2015 until 2018.

We actually lived in a banked owned property to make it work.

We had a window of time where we had no housing, and then we figured out something else creative, which we've been able to manifest into seven units of permanently affordable housing.

These are the kind of solutions that Oakland needs, not this.

And my family's now housed, but every time we step outside our door, we see our unhoused neighbors.

Because being unhoused, it can break the bonds of family, it can break it can break you.

And if we had been in that situation for any longer than we were, I don't know what we would have done.

But I feel like I would only be ashamed if I didn't come here today and speak out.

And I feel so much shame for you, Mr.

Houston, because you climbed the ladder and then you pulled it up behind you.

That's what you're trying to do here.

Okay.

Hello, my name is Kelsey, and I urge you to vote no on the EAP.

This policy would criminalize thousands of unhoused neighbors, 78% of which are people of color.

It is evil to pass a policy that criminalizes people for being in the very situation past racist policies have forced them into.

And also the city's negligence.

The health and safety concerns the city has and will now criminalize people for were caused by the city themselves refusing to provide trash services to encampments.

This proposed Trump aligned policy is not in compliance with Cal ICH guidance and would put a total of 45 million dollars of funding at risk.

It's ludicrous to pass a policy that contradicts and undermines the mayor's five-point plan, HCD's homelessness strategic plan, and puts this funding at risk.

There are only 1,300 beds for over 5,500 people living in Oakland.

How cowardly to criminalize people rather than implement data-driven and well thought out equity-based solutions.

The EAP legislation explicitly states that the past several years shelter spaces have become more limited.

And in the very next line, says that the proposed EAP would remove the requirement to make shelter offers prior to closing encampments.

Please vote no.

And I organize with uh California Poor People's Campaign a national call for a can you uh speak into your mic?

We're having trouble hearing you.

Ah, okay.

Just order in the order in the chamber so we can hear the speaker.

Okay, please proceed.

We just pause the clock.

Go ahead.

With all due respect, my name is Nell My Hand.

I organized with the California Poor People's Campaign.

A national call for a moral revival.

And I'm here to speak strongly against this death dealing abatement policy.

We know that homelessness is the result of policy violence.

It comes from the people who legislate the laws that say that there is no cap on rent, but people can pay a minimum wage, not a living wage, but a minimum wage.

And if the gap is such that we can't pay rent, then we can't be housed.

That's immoral.

We are organizing with people who are the most impacted by systemic racism.

Thank you.

Systemic poverty.

Climate.

I have a person's.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

So we have been working with the folks here who have been speaking out about their personal experiences as being unhoused.

I have my own personal experience of being a victim of policy violence that resulted in the foreclosure of my home, which left me homeless.

So we know that it's policy that leads to the conditions that we're now trying to address with an abatement policy.

And what we need to abate is poverty.

And that can be done.

It can be done through the same channels that you all are using now to tell us that we are not full human beings.

But we're here to tell you that we are five fifths, 100% of the time, human.

And we will not accept your policies that deny us housing, which is a human right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So we're I'm here to speak on behalf of the California campaign, the national campaign, which is committed to calling for real safety for us, the public.

We are the public, whether we're housed or unhoused.

We are the public, and actual safety is reliant upon justice and democracy.

And so we urge you to use your power as legislators to pursue every channel to put money into the hands of people who don't have money.

Housing cures homelessness, income, takes care of us being an eyesore for your donors and your funders.

We need justice, and we need it now.

Hello, okay.

Ready?

My name is Roshima White, and I'm a housing navigator for Operation Dignity.

I work with unhoused population to find them housing, supportive housing that they can afford.

I am also from the unhoused population.

I have been on house for many years.

Ken, I have showed you pictures.

I was just talking to you in confidant.

Um I have a documentary called Lead Me Home that I am in.

If we don't stand for something, we're gonna fall for everything.

And Ken, we need you to support us in this area because we are a people.

Don't see us as a pillar, see us as human beings.

People, the unhouse population, like I said, I'm from the unhoused population.

Some of us need to be on this board.

You see what I'm saying?

Because a lot of you, I can honestly say I can look at you and tell you've never been homeless ever in your life.

So what I'm saying to you, Ken is work with us.

Take one step so we can take two.

You take two so we can take one.

Work to us together as a community and as a people, for the people, by the people.

Thank you.

Yes, hi.

My name is Timothy Evans, and I have five five um minutes.

Please state your name for the record.

Timothy Evans.

Timothy Evans and Miss Buster, Sabrina.

And what's your name?

Sabrina Buster.

Sabrina Buster.

Ray Wayne.

Ray Wayne.

He am here.

He would need to be a chambers, Ray Wayne.

If you could make your way up to the chambers, that would be wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

DeMarcus Frost.

DeMarcus.

Alante Gallon.

Alante Gallant.

Alante, thank you.

One, two, three, four.

You got all of them.

Okay, please proceed.

Yes, hi.

Um good morning, Chamberman members and community members.

My name is Timothy Evans.

I am the executive director of Operation Dignity.

We have been in existence since 1993, and we are not closing.

I would like to like to invite the council members to work with us in outreach and encampment services.

It is a travesty that we are looking at losing funding because of our outreach and encampment services.

The work that my team does is exponential within this community.

Today I come to you not just as a nonprofit leader, but as a voice for thousands of our neighbors who cannot be here, who cannot be at this microphone, and who feel invisible.

And I must speak plainly to decrease funding for homelessness services in Oakland at this moment, is not only short-sighted but also wrongful.

Let me be clear.

In 2002, we know there are 6,000 people in homelessness right now.

The outreach that we do as an agency in collaboration with the city of Oakland with Amari Collins and his team is something that is needed for Oakland.

I think for a moment, more than one out of every 100 resident in Oakland live without a home.

Now, who are these people?

They are not faceless, they are humans.

They are you, they are me.

They are your mother, your father, your uncles, your brothers, your siblings.

They are your community.

These are your family members.

They are young people aging out of foster care, seniors who have exhausted their savings and now have become homeless.

These are veterans who have served this country without any support from the government.

Project 2025 is a discourse and a disgusting policy.

This is not accidental.

These are direct residents of the city, the county, and the community.

We prioritize our outreach, our cabins, our case management, and permanent supportive housing resources.

First, first of all, Oakland has thousands of people unhoused.

Why is that?

There's not enough permanent supportive housing, access to shelter, transitional housing programs, mental health services, and also access to vouchers.

Secondly, these cuts are a social consequence to Oakland.

You think that they're going to leave where they're currently?

They're going to come into Pliedmont, Montclair, Trestle Glen, Oakland Hills, and all of the excluding areas for these individuals.

Again, I live in East Oakland.

I love East Oakland.

Again, the third thing, economically short-sightedness.

Leaving people unhoused costs more.

Even every emergency room visit, every police call, every sanitation cleanup, and of that comes more taxpayer dollars.

Studies consistently show that providing shelter, housing, case management, and wraparound support services are key.

Encampment support, outreach support is something that my agency and my team does extremely well.

I acknowledge them on a daily basis because I want them to know that I am their community.

I want them to know that their community is my community.

I live around the corner from an encampment.

I know everybody that lives there.

And I make sure that I walk past, say, how are you doing today?

Have you been supported?

What's going on?

I do that on a regular basis.

I run my community, I walk my community.

It's not unsafe for me because I'm a black man first, and I'm going to support everybody within my community.

My team, my team, Tamika Perkins, program manager, Ivan Medina, program manager of my outreach team.

Lindsay Patridge, a part of my cabins program, who make sure that those individuals that are coming from encampments are going into our cabins program to get case management, mental health services, treatment services.

So they're doing that wraparound support services.

Human truth.

Council members, council members, every dollar that you cut puts these individuals at risk.

We cannot afford regression.

We cannot afford cruelty, disguised as budgeting.

We are we need, we need your courage, vision, and investment.

Operation Dignity has proven that with funding, outreach works, cabin works, housing pipelines work, people stabilize, heal, and thrive.

To cut funding, not is only a mistake.

It is a mistake within your community because they're coming to your community to live in your community in those homes that you think that think that are just going to be sold.

They will they will have squatter rights and they will be there.

I stand, I stand before you to say homelessness is solvable, but only if we sustain and we will solve it.

Let's be clear.

Let's work together as a community to do that.

Thank you.

So I got some time seated to me.

So I got Ivan Ortiz.

Please state your name for the record.

My name's Ivan McGaya.

Ivan.

Ivan Magania.

Thank you.

And then I also got some time seated from Zachary Caston.

Zach and who else?

Zach Caspin or Castan and Ivan Ortiz.

Zach and Ivan Ortiz.

Thank you.

Awesome.

My name's Ivan Magani.

I represent Operation Dignity.

These proposed cuts are not just numbers on a spreadsheet.

They dismantle the very community you've worked so hard to build.

In the last three years, our team has carried out more than 726 operations and have done more than 44,500 interactions and harm harm reduction distributions.

Every one of those numbers represents a face, a story, a neighbor, someone who might otherwise be left unseen, some of which sit in this very room.

Take her non-he's a Chilean national who immigrated from Columbia.

When he lost his homes, he called Operation Dignity.

He was placed in transitional housing and helped him secure a work visa.

Now her non today lives permanently housed.

He's working steadily and reunited with his family, who recently flew to visit him, by the way.

And then there's Victor, who cycled to program after program, only to be exited again and again, but we never gave up.

And just weeks ago, he called to say thank you.

I'm finally moving into my own apartment, and my grandkill children can come see me again.

Or Fred, who endured multiple encampment closures until we connected him with one of our internal programs.

After years of instability, Fred is now permanently housed.

And one of my personal Darlene, who lived in the street for eight years, too sick to walk for.

We kept showing up week after week until trust was built.

Today she's safely in housing.

These successes belong not to me, but to the staff who make it very possible every day.

People like Erica, Zach, Najee, Kayla, Ortiz, Carrie, Jeremy, Sabrina, and many more who have spoken, and some of which who haven't step into the field every day to care in that heat, in the rain, in the cold to coordinate referrals, connecting people to services, and building relationships rooted in trust.

These are not just faceless positions.

These are the backbone of the work we do, and without them, there is no bridge between the streets and stability.

And here's what's important.

Our scope of work has not changed in three years, with the only recent addition being a clinical care team, and yet the demand on us has grown far beyond what was re uh written.

And camping closures have multiplied, pulling staff away from deeper one-on-one engagements, still having consistently delivered above and beyond our scope.

The city has asked us to serve hundreds, we've served thousands.

And that's not that's that's why whenever Oakland opens a new program, Operation Dignity is the first they call.

When the Lake Mare Lodge opened, when 66 RV, Wood Street RV cabins uh launched, our team was the ones that filled those spaces.

When the city created the encampment resolution fund, Mosswood for Mosswood East 12 and MLK, it was our team that conducted the census, vetted the clients, and so for those programs could succeed.

Without those beds, without us, those beds remain empty.

Without us, those cabins remain unfulfilled.

Community members, council members, by cutting these budgets, you're not just trimming excess, you're dismantling the very bridge that connects people to the streets, from the streets to housing, from invisibility to dignity.

Outreach is not the end of the story.

It's the first step of the continuum that leads to cabins to housing to stability.

So I asked you to protect this work, protect these programs, and most of all, protect the people who cannot be here today to speak for themselves.

Thank you.

Um Jasmine Rogers.

So what is your name?

My name's Lindsay Cartridge.

Lindsay Partridge.

And Jasmine Rogers and Lashina Bibbs seeded their time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm the community cabins program manager in District Six resident.

In this past year, the OD community cabins provided shelter to 223 people who had been living on the streets.

Of those 223 people, 170 of them had been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

147 of the people served lived with a chronic health condition, and 124 of them have a physical disability.

During this time, we supported 56 people with their transition into permanent housing, and 33 people transitioned to a temporary indoor living situation.

97 of those 225 people are still currently enrolled in the cabins program where they are working with housing navigators to obtain permanent housing and access supportive services.

To be clear, people deserve better than a small shared space without running water and full electricity, but it's one of the few services currently funded, and many people are counting on it.

Maria is an elderly lady with memory issues who came into the program undocumented.

Our staff helped her get established as a permanent resident and supported her with getting dental implants to replace her missing teeth.

She just finally got a permanent supportive housing match for senior housing and will stay with us at the cabins until her housing comes through.

Jimmy has mental health challenges and periodically has meltdowns because he was put on the housing queue in 2022 and hasn't been housed yet.

He had gotten lost in the system and taken off the queue because no one kept up with him or knew where to find him.

Our staff does what they can every time he has a meltdown to calm his nerves and connect him with appropriate support services.

He's now back on the queue and waiting for a PSH match.

If he loses his safe haven at the cabins, he will likely go through the same cycle or end up criminalized for his mental health challenges.

Twenty of our current, more than 20 of our current and former residents showed up today to oppose this policy and advocate for services and housing.

Ramon is one of our site managers.

There have been many times that he has driven around town looking for our clients when they have housing appointments so that they don't miss their housing opportunities.

DeMarcus is another site manager who regularly cooks big feasts for all of his clients to show them that they are cared for, from Taco Tuesday to hibachi fried rice to chicken alfredo.

Jasmine Jasmine has been a housing navigator for five years.

She works tirelessly and tears up with emotion every time one of her clients get the new keys.

Roshima is another one of our housing navigators who proudly shares her own experience of having been unhoused to inspire her clients as she helps them navigate into permanent housing.

Sheena is a housing navigator who came in on her day off at a moment's notice to calm people down who were in a heated conflict so they wouldn't do something to lose their spot in the program and miss out on their housing opportunities as a result.

I get calls all day, every day of the week from people trying to get in the cabins so they can have a chance of getting off the streets and getting housed, but we aren't able to get them all in because we don't have enough space for everyone that needs these services.

Until the system is ready to take people off the street and put them directly into permanent supportive housing without going through a long drawn-out process, these programs are essential for making sure people don't fall through the cracks.

Thank you.

My name is Tamika.

My name is Tamika Perkins, and Jeremy Rutlich and Carrie Willis will submit their time to me as well.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

For more than 25 years, partnering with them and pioneering programs such as the community cabin sites, the expanded outreach team, and programs like Oprah, the Oakland Path Rehousing Initiative, which some of you may or may not know.

I want to start off by saying the mayor's whole election process was built on supporting the homeless, right?

So with that being said, our objection our objective is clear.

Is to highlight the critical importance of funding that sustains our community cabin and encampment management teams across Oakland.

If we cut essential housing, programs that save lives and give people the chance to rebuild and increase encampment closures without thought for our individuals and where they will relocate to is criminal within itself.

We must question our own ethical commitment to caring for every resident equally.

Without adequate shelter, people experiencing homelessness will naturally seek refuge elsewhere.

Closing encampments without a relocation plan will drive individuals into, as my esteemed colleagues said before, neighborhoods, schools, parks, business corridors.

This will heighten complaints, increase tension, and ultimately cost the city much more.

Worse, it risks criminalizing simply because they are unhoused.

And at the same time, reducing programs while demanding more outcomes from agencies with limited resources comes at a human cost.

Many of our staff, people who are dedicated their lives to this work, are already working more than one job just to survive Oakland's high cost of living.

If these cuts, if these cuts proceed, we risk losing the very staff who have built trusted relationships with our unhoused community.

And without them, we dismantle the system that residents rely on for guidance, stability, and hope.

If you move forward with the cuts, the consequence the city will face will be devastating because there is a cause and effect of everything that you do that happens.

From lawsuits from residents, clients, and other cities as Oakland drives its homeless into other communities and surrounding cities to avoid addressing the issues themselves.

Businesses feeling as if they are not supported, rising neighbor complaints, the burden on sanitation to go out and re-clean everything that was already done, which is already stretched and slow process.

And the biggest of all are unhoused neighbors who will lose their bridge to stability.

We should be moved to action to build and care for this city, not push personal agendas that cost time, money, and resources, and also that causing the city's respect and reputation.

If you think encampments are bad now, create a place where there's no space to put people, right?

It will be more.

Homelessness is not an individual issue, but it is a community one.

Thank you.

And as a community, we have to address it as one.

And if you were not sure of where we stand, we oppose.

My immediate family, there's six of us.

I'm a mother, grandmother, wife.

We were wrongfully evicted in November 2023.

It took a lot of steps to find Operation Dignity, but when we got there, they helped us.

We were homeless after that for a long time.

A year and a half.

And I'm sorry, I only have a minute to talk about what Operation Dignity did for us, but they helped us get our uh social security cards back.

Um I did it online, they were taking people in van rides.

Um, the money they helped give us so that we can be housed because I'm housed now.

I'm really grateful to Operation Dignity for that.

It was been a ride, but please keep Operation Dignity going.

Thank you.

I'm going to address the process and what is absolutely necessary to be included in the process.

You have a policy statement for fiscal impact that is required.

You say in the document the fiscal impact of the policy is yet to be determined.

You cannot push forward a policy without a fiscal impact statement of how you will be funding all of the necessary components of the policy.

Having said that, you have no serious intent to support homelessness because when you created your budget, you created no funds for homelessness.

You allocated funds for homeless prevention.

The next thing that is required is the race equity statement.

And instead of having a race equity statement, you say a formal race and equity analysis has yet to be completed.

Race inequity analysis on homelessness has been completed.

It has been completed.

Stop using the term bipot.

African Americans are the highest group impacted by homelessness, and the next highest group are white people, not indigenous, not Asians, not Latinos.

White people are not being recognized with the use of the term BIPOP.

Take it out the document.

So our next speaker, please.

I will now proceed to call the next batch of speakers.

Once again, our in-person speakers will go before our Zoom speakers, as well as if you are in hearing room one and you hear your name, please make your way to chambers.

Micah Green, Ari Joseph, Spencer Ferguson, Pamela Drake, Tishan Renee Jones, Alberto Para, Teresa Salazar.

Excuse me if I mispronounced your last name.

Adriana Martinez, Ofuri, Igbindian, my apologies.

Amy Laura Chase Fowler.

Noel Pono Dencheek or Doncheek.

Amber Kennedy.

Colin Pyth.

Josephine Gunman.

Layla Mossory.

Excuse me.

Michael Patak.

David Powell Johnson.

Miss West.

Natalie Cassidy, Jessica Lehman, Matthew Alan Cowley.

Arena Irkson or Irene Erkson.

Finn McDonald.

Latif McCloud.

If you hurt your name, please make your way to the podium.

State your name for the record.

If you are ceding time to someone, please make sure you are here within chambers or on Zoom.

And you have one minute.

Thank you.

We do have another batch of speakers that I will call after this batch.

Thank you.

First and foremost, I want to give a huge shout out to my team from the top to the bottom.

Since I've been with the company for the past year, I've seen us house so many people.

And you guys do not know how hard it is for these housing navigators to house people.

We get people with all types of mental disabilities, etc.

Some people even without documentation, and time after time for housing people.

Ken, I know you're not listening over there, but I would like to challenge you.

Mr.

Houston.

Can we pause my time then until he's ready to listen?

Maybe.

Through the chair to the public speakers, you may speak to the council member and they'll respond after.

Thank you.

I saw the videos you posted, but one thing that I didn't see was you and any of the videos, helping out, you know, throwing some gloves on, getting in the trenches with us.

So RED invited you out, but I would like to invite you guys out too, all of you to one of our cabinet sites, you know.

Come see what we do.

Come kick it with us for an hour or two.

Help us out.

Then I think you guys will have a really different insight on what it is we're doing here.

Once again, thank everybody and my company and Ken.

I hope you get it together.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Spencer Ferguson.

Uh, also born in Oakland.

Uh, I'm a business owner.

Uh, I also own property that our business runs out of in the industrial neighborhoods off the Hagenberger corridor.

Uh Ken, I really appreciate what he's done over here putting this uh business together.

Um what I appreciate about what Ken has done is from what I understand with his experience and he's seen what's out there, he knows how difficult it is for everybody in the unhoused community.

Uh, and I appreciate every all the efforts too there's so many outreach groups that are here that have been put forth a lot of effort and I empathize with our um unhoused neighbors.

Um, our neighborhood with in the business district has been negatively impacted multiple times over the last six or seven years with two different significant encampments that have uh moved into our neighborhood and made business very difficult.

We don't have places for employees to park.

Uh our vendors and our clients don't come into our offices.

I've lost important hires because they said no, I'm not gonna work in this neighborhood here where you guys uh have this uh uh this these encampments across the street.

Uh I've had many conversations with some of these campaign members, they're wonderful people, but the resource that they have out there, they can't sustain that type of lifestyle and that camping in this urban environment.

Um we need to do something, we need some kind of tool to do something to help out the businesses.

All right.

Good afternoon.

Uh, council members, my name is Ari Joseph, uh, and I live in West Oakland.

I moved to West Oakland about five years ago with my wife from Bedsty in New York.

And uh we loved Oakland so much we decided to buy our first place just two months ago uh downtown down the street from where we were before.

Uh I'm here today in support of repealing the 2020 and campaign management policy and adopting uh Councilmember Houston's 2025 policy.

Uh a few weeks ago, there was a fire, not literally 200 feet from my place.

My new place, a fire, uh, an encampment.

Uh, and the fire hydrant, uh, one of them that's closest to it, a block away, was covered under four feet of trash.

The smell was everywhere, right?

The fire department was there, they took care of it, it was great, I'm okay.

Everyone's okay, but I couldn't go outside, and neither could the kids in my community.

It's unsafe.

Uh, it's it's not fair to them, it's not fair to the unhoused, it's not fair to us and the people who live in the community.

We need to do something.

I know this isn't a final solution.

I think it's a necessary first step.

I really encourage you to vote for it.

Uh thank you.

Hi, my name is Afore Igmenadian, and I'm a proud IFPTE local.

My name is Afore Igbenadian, and I'm a proud IFPTE local 21 member.

I was raised in Oakland and currently live in District 3.

I was awarded my PhD in geography in 2020 and have been working as a transportation planner with the city of Oakland since then, a privilege I don't take for granted.

As I was leaving my apartment this morning, a man was sleeping in our entryway.

As I looked around him, I thought of the words of Brian Holdstone, author of the book, there is no place for us working and homeless in America.

He says the line separating housed from unhoused is infinitely more porous than we'd like to imagine.

I'm here today to oppose the encampment abatement policy.

It is clear that homelessness remains a top issue for me and other Oaklanders, but this solution isn't criminalization that only penalizes our unhoused neighbors.

Conducting sweeps is also not proven to help solve the homelessness crisis.

It only removes people from our site.

This EAP is not part of Mayor Lee's Office of Homelessness Solutions.

We should utilize Measure W resources to address homelessness.

The people who live on our streets are your constituents too.

Their voices matter.

Please listen to them.

We have a problem that we can't solve right now in this room today.

Homelessness is a major issue.

What council member Houston is doing is attempting us to move one step toward addressing that problem without ignoring the many issues that you heard about today.

And by the way, a shout out to Operation Dignity.

I've seen them on the street many, many times since I've been working on this for two years.

We need to work on something comprehensive.

Excuse me, this is a first step.

Again, that has nothing to do with all the issues that we have to tackle that you've heard about today.

We have to work on that together.

Let's work as a team.

Let's give our local businesses an opportunity to survive in the midst of all this change.

Thank you.

My number is Alberto Parras.

Excuse me, to the chair to the public speakers.

Can you repeat your first name?

My number.

So member district.

Las Redadas, and Campamentoson contraprocente.

I'm just gonna translate to for him, just to make sure that can use it.

Yes, I we would really appreciate that.

Good morning, council and community.

My name is Alberto Parra.

I am a tenant and a ACE member from District Five.

I'm here to oppose the resolution proposed by Councilmember Houston that amends Oakland's encampment policy.

The solution to homelessness is permanent housing.

We must focus on building and acquiring homes for extremely low-income residents.

Current encampment suites are counterproductive.

They displace people without providing viable alternatives, which is at odds with the mayor's new strategic plan.

Widespread sweeps are misuse of city resources that are costly, ineffective, and only move the problem from one corner to another.

I am the Reverend Dr.

Matthew Collie.

I would like to thank Ken for showing your prejudice, and I would like to thank security for outright omitting violating the constitutional rights of the men and women present here today.

With that, I will begin.

242 years after the Treaty of Paris, which ordained these lands sovereign, and eighty years after the end of tyrannical oppression of our brethren overseas.

Our city council now seeks during a time of great turbulence and the resurgence of tyranny to outlaw being poor.

So let us celebrate today for history is to be made.

All held the oligarchy, which on this day they do establish in an attempt to bolster and support tyrannical rule.

The rich have made the poor suffer and decree that the poor shall have no place in the communities which they have built.

Today a new generation of police will be born.

Now you may take me speaking the truth as an act of sedition.

I'll leave you with one last quote from Thomas Payne.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Unhoused people, that's a whole different situation.

We got plenty of representative and non-profit groups that handle that.

Snaps out to y'all.

Yeah, doing a wonderful job.

Keep it up, give them the money and the support they need.

But what Ken is saying in this particular proposition here, give him the support.

If you don't handle it here in Deep East Upland, you're gonna burn down up there sooner or later because it's on fire in our area.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Hello, members of the city council.

My name is Jessica Lehman.

I want to make sure you know that a majority of unhoused people are seniors and people with disabled person living in Oakland.

The UCSF Benioff Housing with other disabled and chronically ill people here.

Found that many seniors and people with disabilities became homeless due to one medical emergency or other crisis.

Homelessness reflects a failure of our society and our government to establish rent control, provide better caregiving options, offer rent help for job loss, and stop housing discrimination.

People with disabilities in particular are often not safe in shelters.

If shelters are even available, do not prioritize Oakland residents who simply don't want to think about and look at poor people over unhoused Oakland residents who don't have anywhere else to live.

Do not say you are tearing down people's homes in the name of disability access to sidewalks.

We will not allow disabled people to be pitted against each other.

The city needs to come up with solutions that provide housing and accessibility to all.

Remember, we are talking about people.

This proposal is cruel and dehumanizing.

You must vote no.

Criminalizing the homeless is morally wrong and cruel.

A majority of unhoused people are PWD or older people, and we will not be pitted against each other.

It is cruel to push people off the streets and tow their vehicles without offering housing and without even giving notice.

Do not say you were doing this to give disabled people access to sidewalks.

We are standing up for our unhoused neighbors and demand you vote no on this proposed ordinance.

You don't need to criminalize, you need to offer people affordable housing and assistance.

Thank you.

Hello, my name is Ben McDonald.

I'm a community member.

Through the chair to the public speaker, can you please repeat your name?

Ben McDonald.

Thank you.

I'm asking you to vote no on the encampment abatement policy.

This policy only increases the level of criminalization of houseless people without doing anything to actually improve safety for anyone.

The city does not need to broaden the conditions of arrest that will allow further harassment and antagonism towards people who live in vehicles.

Sorry, can you speak into the mic a little bit more and just uh speak a little louder to into the mic?

Thank you.

Instead of relying on police for the cities to invest in housing solutions and the direct needs of houseless people.

The current policies are futile and wholly punishing people who have no other choice, rather than addressing the underlying conditions.

Sweeps are extremely traumatic, unnecessary, and a waste of resources that should be spent providing pathways to housing.

While there are currently more unhoused residents than available shelter, the city cannot claim to be offering real solutions.

Hi, my name's Leila.

And um there's just so much to say.

Um, hi, can you hear me?

Okay, sorry.

Um I uh I'm currently housed, but I've also dealt with housing instability.

Uh I'm a child actually of suburbs of in all parts of California.

Uh well, my family still live in Oakland.

I was living in Oakland too.

You know, another problem is that even when they offer us housing, uh, you know, they have money for all these things.

They have money for genocides and wars all over the world.

I'm a child of immigrants myself, you know, a Middle Eastern Muslim background, and you know, we see that they have money for bombs and all these things, and like Tupac said, money for wars, we can't feed the poor.

How's the poor.

And actually, like the gentleman said, you know, actually, there's been so many buildings that they even offer, whether through backs, routes or other, and the elevators don't work.

He isn't pointing up far from here, the Henry Robinson.

You know, these buildings are up for lawsuits, I think.

You know, yeah, all of them.

And then, and then we get a voucher.

Oh, sorry, I got really loud.

They even um make uh more unaffordable like any any building I found with an elevator was priced higher than even vouchers and things like that.

So there needs to be a um more accountability of how also we're housing people and more community.

I know people that have their Section 8 or things are back on the street, the same thing because nobody's helping them.

They're breaking our hearts in our minds.

I'm sorry if you we do have to move on to the next speaker unless someone can see time.

Thank you.

I will now proceed to call the last set of speakers.

If you're your name, please approach the podium, state your name for the record.

You do have one minute.

If you hear your name and you're in hearing room one, please make your way to chambers and Zoom speakers will be taken after public speakers in person.

Jamie Kelly, Beverly Clark, Veda Leg, Bus Busse, Simon Lee, Tuan No, Nagayo Nago, Larry Greer, Emma Welty, Lamate Rush, Lamont Rush, thank you, Sandra Thompson, Margaret Gordon, Miss Margaret Gordon, thank you very much, Alex Penguis Panigis, excuse me if I'm mispronouncing your name, Matt Willingham, Armando Solazano, I think he's already Jenny Sullivan, Charlotte Tomiski, Alant Gallen, Rishima White.

That's a Monte, thank you.

Miss Margaret, thank you so much.

Can you pronounce uh this Mr.

Who?

Somebody may come over there and get it, whoever the staff is.

Can someone uh read off the names for us?

Shoya, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you very much for pulling us all together today.

So you have all these many voices and variety of voices.

Thank you very much.

But I want to stick to some facts.

My name is Miss Margaret Gordon.

I'm generally here speaking about the environmental justice, but today I want to talk about the injustice of housing.

And one of the facts that uh some of the facts are figures, some of y'all was big, maybe babies, uh little kids don't know about the history of housing in Oakland.

Since 1989, the market has determined who's gonna live in Oakland.

And what developers are gonna have parcels of land to build in Oakland since 1989.

First, and then also we had hopes federal program called Hope Six that reduced the density that was never replaced by public housing.

So we had a 400 unit public housing bill, they took 200 units, and a hundred and fifty, uh, one to two bedrooms, maybe going for for a low income, and the other 50 are so went to put uh multiple home ownership, all right?

That's a fact.

Then also we have no reason not to have any gobblers on the street.

We have two contracted garbage pickups companies here.

Why are they why is the city have not contracted them to pick up all this debris on the streets of Oakland?

Two.

Y'all got two.

CWS and um what's the other one?

Yes.

So why are they not picking up this trash and debris?

And the last thing I want to say is that when are we gonna have, like the other ladies talk about affordable housing, senior housing above 580?

Thank you.

And where are the maps also in the presentation?

There's no maps to give an idea of any land resources that are available for housing.

Why is there no maps?

Thank you.

Okay.

Can the next speaker please come up?

So the next speaker has to wait without a name.

What is your first analysis name?

Do the chair.

Patricia Costell, thank you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

And please speak into the microphone so we can all hear you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Good afternoon, Council Member Houston.

I am a third generation district seven council uh constituent.

This issue for me is a very triggering issue.

So I'm gonna read directly from here so that I can stay focused.

I myself have lived through the trauma of being unhoused.

I understand that homelessness is an issue.

It is an issue for all of us.

We're sick of it.

We're sick of having to come out and step over people, but also we can't continue to walk around in our communities and act like these people are invisible.

This proposal, council member Houston, it's not is not a proposal that seeks to provide human human humanitarian solutions for our people.

I am no longer homeless.

Everyone who knows me knows that I had to raise children on the streets, and that's not something easy to do.

Our mental health is compromised, and there are generational cycles of homelessness when we are raising children on the streets.

So I ask the council to please not pass or keep this proposal in committee.

Please lead with compassion and love and dignity because the city of Oakland is depending on you to be compassionate and comp and care about the people who have voted for you to be here.

Okay, thank you, Patricia.

We do have to move on to the next speaker.

Thank you.

I brought some copies of my um full statements to submit to the city council because um unfortunately I don't have the full two minutes that I budgeted for.

So I would just like to submit these for your uh your consideration.

Um, in terms of my statement, my name is Alex Pinegas.

I am a district four uh resident here on behalf of Just Cities and the Housing and Dignity Project.

I want to echo what uh Ms.

Oma Wally said.

Um we believe the public safety committee has a duty to understand and share with the public potential impacts from the proposal before taking any action.

First, this proposal needs a racial equity impact analysis by the Department of Race and Equity, which was created to ensure city policies do not result in racial inequities.

Second, amidst a budget crisis, the city should not increase costly ineffective sweeps without conducting conducting a budget analysis.

Third, the city attorney should conduct a legal analysis on whether this policy violates the Mirale settlement or any other laws.

Fourth, the UN has called Oakland's denial of basic necessities to encampments cruel, inhuman, and in violation of human rights.

The committee should request a Berkeley uh center of uh human rights analysis to determine whether this proposal violates human rights laws.

Finally, we ask that the committee request a public health impacts analysis from the county public health department before taking any action.

Please conduct these analyses as it is your duty to do.

Thank you.

My name is Larry Greer.

She's giving me her time.

And what is your name, ma'am?

I'll dare this council through the chair to the public speaker?

Give me one second.

What is your name, man?

Emma, thank you so much.

How dare this council to make me a criminal?

Where I pay taxes.

I'm unhoused right now because of incident.

Not my fault.

You take my tax money to put me back in prison when I work so hard to stay on the street in a house.

Yeah, I just want to draw attention to the fact that Oakland has a pretty significant um unhoused community of undocumented folks, and this policy would uh more or less remove the little barrier of safety that they have that's protecting them from the ice raids.

So it's totally unacceptable for y'all to go forward with this approach without having considered that factor.

Um, Okay.

All right.

We have Council Member Five.

So we have a quorum of the public safety committee.

So we're going to proceed with public comment.

Order in the chamber.

Okay.

All right.

The next public speaker, please come up to the podium.

Thank you.

Testing.

Armando.

So this is going to violate constitutional rights to due process and state-created danger.

It's not evidence-based.

It's fiscally irresponsible.

Forty-five million in hap funding is going to get messed up.

Criminalizing costs three times more than housing people.

Where is Ken Houston?

He's not here, but we can proceed.

Council Member Houston is bought by Philip Dreyfus, the real estate and hedge fund billionaire who funded his campaign and bankrolled the recalls, the anti-democratic recalls, and the local AstroTurf anti-poor hate network.

This is the agenda of the real estate lobby, the gentrification machine, it's the Trump agenda.

It's authoritarianism.

We can stand up to authoritarianism and to the Trump agenda by defending civil rights right now.

This is a despicable, hateful counterproductive policy.

Council Member Houston said the health and safety of the unhoused is not the city's responsibility.

It's our collective responsibility, our most vulnerable community members.

That's the lie at the heart of this.

That there's somehow this bold new plan that's also nothing new.

Thousands of people can't afford to live anywhere but their vehicles.

Solutions that actually give people what they need, safe parking, respite beds, social housing, bathrooms, trash pickup, land.

Those will require more political will, but they are also actually long-term solutions.

When you fall for this type of Trumpian, easy fix, whistle thinking, you get thousands of more people unsheltered on the streets, a higher mortality rate.

Do the chair to the public speaker.

What is your first name?

Jean, thank you.

And I have no idea what I'm gonna say because the things I was gonna say for all about.

So I'm just gonna uh make some observations of what I saw today at this meeting.

First of all, I want to send a big shout out to everybody that works in the homeless community, the executives, the um workers, the volunteers, the tireless energy, and none of them are here because they're out in the streets.

And we should appreciate that.

But um, I'm really was gonna be here to talk about the animals.

What about people that have to be separated from the animals?

But you know what?

I have to say, Ken, I've never seen anything like this before in my life.

That inframiral that you did was disgusting, and I swear to God, you must have cobble tunnel syndrome from buttoning and clothes in your fucking jacket.

I love your shoes.

Everybody, your ego is like, wow.

Sorry.

Yes, Councilmember Houston.

Um, sorry, Jenkins.

Oh, yeah, right.

There you go.

Sorry, new mic system.

Yeah, if possible, can we keep disability in here?

I know this is very charged, right?

But I think cussing at anyone is not founded, and just try and keep this civil if possible.

Okay, yeah, noted.

Okay, please proceed.

And yes, if people keep it civil.

Thank you.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Noel.

I'm a proud IFPTE local 21 member.

I'm a D3 resident, and I work for the city.

A big part of my job is to improve quality of life and build trust with Oakland's residents, all of Oakland's residents, housed in unhands, and I've always been very proud of my job, but it this policy makes me embarrassed to represent Oakland.

Paying for encampment sweeps is not only cruel to the Oaklanders getting their lives swept, it's also unpopular to Oakland, Oaklanders by your own survey, and it's a huge waste of funds.

I have a friend who is experiencing homelessness in Oakland for years.

He gave back so much to our community, even while on the streets, and it took supportive supportive programs to get him into a stable place he is now.

Not sweeps, not stealing his documents, which did happen, um, and that just sent him back time and time again.

My colleagues took the time to map the high sensitivity areas, and it's literally the whole city.

The idea of low sensitivity low sensitivity areas is a fake idea to make us feel better.

Where are people supposed to go when they are swept?

Oakland does not have enough shelter beds.

Listen to the people experiencing homelessness.

Thank you guys for speaking today.

Um good afternoon.

Um, Shakwita Pendarvis, and I also have uh, uh please speak into the mic so we can hear you.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Shakuda Pindarmas.

I have two minutes.

I have a Lamont Russian time also.

I'm here, um, standing here in life for everyone who is homeless, displaced right now.

Um I'm homeless, and if it wasn't for Operation Dignity, um helping me every day, you guys don't know what stability is for someone who's homeless until you get the dignity that operation dignity gives.

If you cut funds, if you take away, if you remove any of that, a lot of us will not make it.

I'm gonna I'm gonna be the one that's not gonna make it.

Mental health is is a crisis for me right now, and being homeless is a crisis for me right now, and I need my family.

And if it wasn't for dignity health, I wouldn't be able to see my father who's dying right now.

They pay out their pockets, they house out their pockets, they love out of their hearts, when you guys don't give them the money that they need, and when you take it away, what are we gonna do?

No one's gonna have anything.

We're gonna be on your porch, we're gonna be in your backyards, we're gonna be loitering in your cars, knocking on your doors, asking for support.

If you turn a blind eye right now, it's gonna be a lot of people hurting, and it might just be one of your family members.

You never know.

But if you open up your heart today and you listen and want to give, you'll see, and you'll appreciate the value of what you have that you have to give to us.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jasmine.

Um, Alante and Rashima gave me their minutes.

They should be here.

It's Alante and Rishima in chambers.

Thank you.

Okay.

So my name is Jasmine.

I'm a housing navigator for Operation Dignity.

I have been dealing with the unhoused population for more than 10 years, but in my current position as a housing navigator for the past five years.

My very first project I was personally a part of was helping the residents who lived at Moswood Park in Oakland during the year of 2020-2021 when COVID was just announced and running rapid.

So we were outside, literally like the first responders trying to help people that weren't able to really help themselves.

While doing that project, I believe we housed over to 40 or 50 people into permanent housing.

Now, as a housing navigator, I regularly access the coordinated entry system, which we rely on heavily heavily to um house our elders, our mentally disabled, and our chronic disabled.

With the permanent supportive housing, that's how all of my clients that do have fixed incomes can afford their rent because it goes off of their actual income and not what market rate is.

In order to afford rent, we need more affordable housing built and not propositions and laws that's not in the better of our people.

If you believe in funneling people into areas as a solution without trying to even fix the root of the problem in Oakland, you guys will experience way worse.

I'm born and raised in Oakland, and I personally have to work two jobs in order for me to afford my rent, but not everyone's fortunate uh fortunate enough to even obtain a job or even have multiple strings of income.

My story isn't for all, but I'm here representing the people that can't and the people that's not here.

So that's all I needed to say.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Beverly Clark.

I'm Beverly Clark, and I just want to say thank you to Operation Dignity for everything that they've helped me with in helping me find homes, a home for myself and where my kids can come visit me.

I didn't know any of this existed.

And if it wasn't for them and their help, then I wouldn't be able to move forward in my life.

Not all of us come from doing drugs and not wanting to work and just live off of the government's help.

We do work, we pay taxes, and what are y'all doing with our taxes?

Y'all take money from projects and different things like that, and where are y'all putting them?

I go out every single day looking for a new place.

And I'm coming across a bunch of apartment complexes that have these sky rises and all these things, and the garage can park the car.

What are y'all doing with the money for that?

Is that's where it's going.

That's where our taxes are going because you're not fixing our streets.

I know that for a fact.

And just because we're homeless doesn't mean that we don't have jobs.

So yes, a lot of us are homeless, but we're still paying taxes as well.

So y'all need to figure it out, get it together and stop penalizing those that are having problems in their lives, health problems and things like that.

If you became homeless tomorrow, where do you know about the money?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you, ma'am.

We do have to move on to the next public speaker.

Y'all need to stop.

You too.

Ma'am, we really do need to move on to the next public speaker.

Um, we please.

This is the rule that is that has been said, one minute for every speaker.

I need the next speaker to please come up.

I had another person see their time.

Uh Simon Lee.

Simon Lee.

What is your first announcement?

To the chair today.

Gene, thank you.

And then Simon in the chambers.

Yeah.

Simon, please raise your hand.

Thank you.

Um, okay, so I have been in and out of homelessness for the last eight years, including the entire time I was at Laney College, um, getting my associate's degree, and I was recently housed uh through the first vehicular residential facilities project in West Oakland, just down the street from mom's house, actually.

Um the main question that I really need to ask everybody here is whose side are you on?

Like for real, like this policy aligns with Trump and the rise of authoritarian government policies across the country.

As you like, are you on the side of Trump?

Like for real.

I mean, and the billionaires?

I mean, or are you on like the people's side that are here?

Ken, I know you were funded by mega millionaires like Philip Dreyfus, shocker that you're pushing this through.

Charlene, my understanding is that you were funded by not much better.

And Councilmember Brown, I'm not sure who you were funded by.

The only person that I really know about is Councilmember Fife.

I know you're on our side, and you're like you uh I live in your district.

Um, and Charlene and Councilmember Brown, I I really want y'all to think like is aligning with Trump and him really like how you want to climb like your political ladder.

I mean, if you want to criminalize somebody, you should criminalize the landlords who illegally operate 2,500 short-term rentals in Oakland.

I mean, instead of coming after us, what is that about?

Like, poor people have solutions to the things that we struggle with.

And this shit policy like needs to be thrown out.

Start over and lead with us.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Uh Matt Willingham.

Um, live in West Oakland, been there all my life.

Uh I just want to reiterate some of the things that my constituents have already said about using uh vacant land.

Uh Oakland has a lot of land, and it could use that land to house vacancy, uh house uh homelessness.

Um low income housing, that's gonna take a while.

It's not gonna happen overnight.

We need a solution right now.

We need to be able to house our homeless.

We need to be able to get resources to them.

We need to be able to get them many little jobs, anything that they need, but they need we need to be able to get to them, and we need to provide the services for them.

Uh once again, uh basically just utilizing the vacant land.

We have that land.

We'll uh Oakland Army base, it's vacant land.

Okay, you can use that.

Okay, because a lot of vacant land is state, state, federal, and city land that you can utilize.

Thank you.

Can you uh move closer to the mic so we can hear you?

Thank you.

Well, Colin Pithy with Local21 IFPTE, proud member.

You know, today there's already been so much said about how you know just violent and wasteful this measure is.

I just like to echo those comments.

You know, there's been no analysis done on this proposal.

You know, we need to be better at policy making.

And then I wonder, you know, maybe if we didn't donate half of our budget to the police, we would have the funds to fix this.

So thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Okay, before we move to our Zoom speakers, if you heard your name and you are in Zoom, be sure to raise your hand if you have not done so already.

Moving to our Zoom speakers.

Jennifer Finley, John Seal, Ronnie Boyd, Michael Beeson, Angelina Cornejo, Charlotte Timsky.

I don't call her neighborhood.

You may approach the podium, and I'll allow you to speak after I call the Zoom speakers, and please take your name for the record.

Uh Moheet Mokim, Elizabeth Klinger, Ari or Yoho, Jeff Levin, Aubrey Fraser, Lorkin Slitter, Derek Barnes, Risa Jaffe, James Birch, Stanford Ford, Todd Meister, and Simon Lee.

He's already spoken, yeah.

If you heard your name and you're on Zoom, or if you heard your name prior, please raise your hands here easily identified.

And before we go to Zoom, we will take our last two in-person speakers.

Please state your name for the record.

Go ahead and speak.

But we um we're having some trouble hearing you.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, that's great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Tashawn Jones.

I'm a proud member of District 3.

Um, and this is my daughter, Suhayla.

Uh and Suhayla, we're here.

Um, thankfully, my daughter, she schools at home, so I can do things like bring her and help her learn about things that she should know, which is about people that are making decisions about our livelihood and the livelihood of our neighbors.

Um, and these are important people, Susu.

But these people that are on that camera and these people out here are even more important.

So let's give our attention both to these people and these people out here.

You know, I have a neighbor that lives on 17th Street, uh, and we see him often when we're on our way to get coffee in the mornings.

And um, you know, he's having a hard time, and you know, one day my daughter, she was like, Oh, I don't know what's going on.

He was having a hard time.

And I said, So hey, let's just let's just walk.

People have hard times.

And, you know, he she said hello to him, and I'm you're gonna have to wrap it up soon, please.

My name is Peter Pan.

He was so playful with her.

And he was so he was so good in that, and you know, I would imagine that we have our guy, I'm we have to remember our reason to make it with one another, but it needs to be a remote, right?

But it means that.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

I am gonna have to call on the next speaker unless someone can see time.

Okay.

What's your name?

The person who's can who is seeding time.

I want to say that all the other things have uh, and I'm still unhappy.

We have here, so we can go to the program.

Angelina Cornejo from East Bay Housing Organizations, and we're very proud to have signed on to the letter that you all received.

Uh, we hear the frustration from people, and we are frustrated too.

We're frustrated with the punitive encampment sweeps.

We hear people lamenting that the problem is getting worse, and we agree that it is getting worse because we continue to do failed and expensive measures.

Encampment sweeps are costly and ineffective.

Evidence-based solutions would be better use of millions of dollars that are wasted by sweeps, not just pushing people from neighborhood to neighborhood.

Your presentation obscures the truth of the legislation.

The devil is in the details.

You are criminalizing people, creating more barriers for people to receive services and housing.

You may mention housing first, but you aren't giving people housing.

You do sweeps first.

You mentioned using measure W funds.

How?

Nowhere in the county's plans are sweeps.

This legislation contradicts the county.

The encampment management policy does not offer alternatives for those living in RVs.

Any encampment policy must be planned with the forthcoming homeless action strategic plan and the mayor's five-point plan, including safe sites for RVs.

Moving to our Zoom speakers.

Stanford Ford.

Yes, good afternoon.

Failure to pass the abatement policy will hurt unhoused and housed persons alike because more unhoused persons will move to Oakland because no other city in the Bay Area permits what Oakland permits on its streets.

Resources will shrink as a result, and more unhoused people will suffer.

I co-chair a community organization of 600 members in West Oakland.

I've spoken to at least 200 of my neighbors and small business owners over the last few years.

98% of whom would support this abatement policy, which does not criminalize homelessness.

It brings a reasonable amount of control to our streets, which will also benefit the unhoused.

Alameda County must provide compulsory hospitalization and nurturing treatment for mentally ill and drug addicted individuals until they are well instead of letting them recycle back into the streets.

That's 66% of the unhoused population.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment.

Moving to our next Zoom speaker.

Cheney, you may unmute yourself.

Did you fill out a speaker request for item three?

Yes, thank you.

My name is uh Kenny Turner.

Did you fill out a speaker request for item three?

Did I fill out?

No, I did not.

Okay.

Unfortunately, we will not be allowed to uh allow you to speak.

Only persons with that filled out a speaker request are allowed.

Well, moving to Valerie Bachelor.

I don't know.

Valerie, you may unmute yourself.

Did you fill out a speaker request?

I did fill up the speaker request.

And under which name, please.

Under Valerie Bachelor, School Board Director.

Unfortunately, we do not have a request with your name on it.

May I ask the chair to go ahead and speak because I do have a school board meeting to get to, and I want to make sure that my public comment is heard during this meeting.

Um, yeah, sorry, that's that's not allowed under these rules.

We can't do it.

Moving to our next speaker, speakers, Dominique Walker.

Dominique, you may unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.

Yes, I have time seated from see.

I have time seated from Courtney, Simone, Staten, and Lorkin, both on zone, Lorgan.

Yeah, this is Lorcan.

I seed my time to Dominique.

Thank you very much.

And Dominique, please repeat the second speaker.

Courtney Simone Staten.

Miss Staten, please unmute yourself.

Did you see your time?

Yes, I see my time.

Thank you.

You may proceed with your one-minute comment, Miss Walker.

I have three minutes.

I'm waiting for the time to change.

Thank you.

All right.

My name is Dominique Walker.

I was born and raised in East Oakland.

I attended Lockwood, Havens Court, Calcumont.

I co-founded the School of Social Justice in Oakland.

I co-founded Moss for Housing, which also sits in Oakland.

I sit as the vice chair of the Berkeley Rant Board.

I'm a medical student.

And first I'm going to say I say an amen to all my housing justice warriors that showed up today to speak against this horrible policy.

As someone who prides themselves on being from Oakland, being a part of that radical history, I am offended.

I'm offended that you can Houston would call yourself the son of Oakland.

You took a bad policy by Loren Taylor and made it worse.

This policy does criminalize homelessness.

The encampment abatement policy is in alignment with what's happening in Washington, D.C.

Fascism in the form of policy.

It's racist, it's cruel, and it's inhumane.

And if you truly cared about housing people, you would bring actual solutions.

Have you heard of the home together plan?

Have you talked to moms for housing?

There are real solutions.

We can't talk about how Oakland has changed without discussing a history and how it became the way it is today.

Everything that happened from the foreclosure crisis to the techies coming in and taking our homes and driving up the prices.

These were not victimless crimes.

And we're here once again trying to criminalize the victims.

The people will not stand for this.

I encourage committee members to vote no on this policy.

Lastly, the son of Oakland would never, would never.

And if you want to be called that, try doing something that helps Oakland instead of causing harm to Oakland.

Thank you.

And wait, I got some minutes.

So lastly, I consider myself one of the children of Oakland.

If you want to be considered the son of Oakland, you need to get to work and come with real solutions that do not criminalize the people of Oakland that have already been priced out and tricked out of their homes.

They're sitting they're living outside of their homes.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Miss Brody.

Uh moving to our next Zoom speaker.

God damn it.

Give me one second.

Calling on Jennifer Finley.

Please unmute yourself and you begin your one-minute comment.

I'm calling to oppose the empathy abatement plan that's just looking to get people out of your sight.

Why has there been so much resistance to proposals that would open space for people?

Ken Houston wanted a million dollars moved from the homeless prevention pilot to illegal dumping, saying it wouldn't be necessary.

There's things coming down the pipeline.

Council Member Wang, you blocked 150 beds at the Marriott and told the East Bay Times the policeman was a perfect example of institutional racism and that an interaction there could excuse me that an interaction could result in someone being seriously harmed like Manslaw.

What is the status of the shelter crisis ordinance?

Councilmember Houston refused to afford it from LAC to council despite urgency posing a threat to existing publicist interventions, then walked out of the meeting causing a loss of quorum and ending the meeting.

Why don't you want solutions?

Why didn't this go to the LEC meeting under Council Member Fife rather than the Public Safety Commission under Councilmember Wang?

Thank you for your comment, Miss Finley.

Moving to our next Zoom speaker.

You may unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.

Hi, this is Risa Jaffe.

I am a 40-year Oakland resident.

At the end of 2024, I did not know two members of my family would enter hospice in 2025.

Both have now passed.

My sister less than a month ago.

As I'm sure you can imagine, all this has caused me to put my focus on family and not give my usual time and attention to what is happening in Oakland.

But when I heard about what is being proposed today, I knew I needed to bug up because my trauma from these two deaths is nothing in comparison to the trauma of being unhoused.

For many years, I've been asking City Council to address the systemic problems and stop wasting our tax dollars playing a game of whack-a-mole with encampment closures.

What is being proposed today is not offering the needed solution, housing with supportive services.

Instead, it is criminalizing poverty.

Please vote no on this shameful legislation.

Thank you.

Moving to our next speaker.

That is Valerie.

You may unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.

Thank you.

My name is Valerie Bachelor, and I'm here today as the vice president of the Oakland Unified School Board representing district.

Valerie you may begin your comment.

Hi.

My name is Valerie Bachelor, and I'm here today as the vice president of the Oakland Unified School Board, representing District 6.

I urge you to vote no on the amended encampment policy.

Instead, to work with the school district, community organizations, and stakeholders to tap into Measure W funds to ensure that we support our unhoused.

Council Member Houston, Councilmember Wang, I joined you and Barbara Lee at the County Board of Supervisors meeting to advocate for a majority of the Measure W funds to go towards housing solutions, and we won.

If we work together, we can create real housing for unhoused neighbors, including families with children in our district.

This amendment is inhumane and is risking wasting resources and costly sweeps that just move people from one corner to another.

By criminalizing homelessness, you will be making it harder for people to get housing and jobs deepening this crisis.

The path forward is collaboration, not punishment.

Please vote no and commit to solutions that center housing.

Thank you for your comment, Miss Valerie.

Moving to Irina, you may unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.

Irena.

Good afternoon.

Ten years ago, Oakland was a vibrant, thriving city that was a pleasure to live in.

And then Libby Shaff invited our own house neighbors to move in.

And they came, and now you see the results.

Over the last 10 years, Oakland has spiraled downwards.

Our sidewalks once walkable are now covered with tents, trash, needles, feces, and broken glass.

Businesses are fleeing, families are avoiding public spaces, and both housed and unhoused residents are living in unsafe, unsustainable conditions.

You know why Oakland has 58% of Alameda County's unhoused population?

Because the city tolerates it at the expense of tax-paying citizens.

We have normalized this insanity.

There's no magic wand that will give everyone free and safe housing.

That's not realistic, rational, or doable.

Housing is not a human right.

It is a privilege that we work and pay for.

Thank you for your comment.

Moving to our next Zoom speaker, Miss Sierra.

Please unmute yourself and begin your one-minute comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Hi, I'm Sierra.

I'm an educator born and raised in Oakland.

I'm now pursuing a master's degree at SF State despite still living in my mom's trailer, trying to build a better life for us.

I'm missing a class right now because Ken Houston's trying to push this through as fast as possible out of the public eye.

Why are you scared of what Oakland will say about this, Councilmember?

Could it be you're afraid to hear from a people who voted just this year for a progressive mayor whose homelessness strategic plan seeks to protect our neighbors instead of harming them?

And who is not afraid of Donald Trump?

Instead of standing on the principles we voted for and letting the mayor's new Office of Homelessness Solutions do their work, you're scurrying to fall in line with Trump's fascist agenda.

Oakland has voted for solutions that uplift the dignity of our people.

It's time to direct power into those solutions, not divert it into a failed strategy that echoes Trump's lies about us and betrays Oakland's values.