Oakland's mayor of five months Sheng Thao has now made some controversial statements about addressing the city's homelessness crisis, perpetuating an often-shared misconception that homeless people are moving to the Bay Area for its better homeless services.
The Chronicle spent five months digging into Oakland’s homeless crisis by shadowing four longtime residents to better understand their connection to the city, how they lost their housing and what the city might do to help them.
Don t show me this message again✕
The kitchen and community clinic at Cob on Wood, an eco-village built inside a massive homeless encampment in Oakland, where residents may soon be evicted. (Courtesy of Cob on Wood)
Wood Street is where the Bay Area sends its unwanted. In a series of lots in an industrial corner of West Oakland, arsonists torch abandoned cars. Contractors dump old building materials and trash without permits near the train tracks. It’s where the city’s police, in the process of forcibly clearing out the more than 140 encampments of unhoused people that dot the region, tell people to go to be left alone, under the shadow of a raised highway bridge on Interstate 880.
Oakland homeless encampments have seen a spike in blazes. Firefighters are worried
FacebookTwitterEmail
Pete Stathakos of the Oakland Fire Department looks at a torched RV at the Wood Street encampment on Monday, April 26, 2021 in Oakland, California. There have been over 40 fire related incidents at homeless encampments in 2021.Photos by Gabrielle Lurie/The Chronicle
As Eric Owens watched flames destroy his friend’s RV in East Oakland in early May, he was reminded of his own loss. Just seven months ago, Owens lost his RV his home for two years to a fire.
The 59-year-old Oakland resident lost photos of his family, generators to keep him warm, clothes and a tent. Now, he lives in a dilapidated silver BMW.