Community

Where Can Oakland’s Homeless Park Their Vehicles?

Published

5 years ago

October 11, 2019

Lifelong Oakland residents Andre Franklin (left) and Gary Watson (right), a veteran, are among those who wonder where they can safely park the vehicles they live in.

Many Oakland residents who live in vehicles wonder where they can feel safe as city run and sponsored safe parking sites have been inaccessible to them.

“This is a crisis,” said Councilmember Nikki Fortunado Bas during a city council meeting on Oct 1. “The largest growth of [Oakland’s] unhoused residents is people living in their cars and RVs.”

Bas then cited an official count of 1,558 Oakland residents who live in vehicles.

In reports written from Oct 15 to 25 2018, the City Administration of Oakland laid plans to use federal funds to provide up to 200 safe parking spots for unhoused Oakland residents who live in vehicles. After about a year around 50 vehicles are using the programs. The reports proposed four city run sites of which two are currently open and five city sponsored sites in church parking lots, of which two are also currently open.

“People living in RVs often fear their vehicles will be towed due to expired registration or unpaid parking tickets,” wrote assistant city administrator Joe DeVries in a report regarding homeless services. “If an RV is towed, the cost to retrieve it is so prohibitive that it often means the person ends up living on the street.”

But the city of Oakland is still towing unhoused peoples’ vehicles as five of the nine proposed safe parking sites remain unopened. During recent evictions the city towed lifelong Oakland residents Anthony Thompkins’ and Dre Nash’s vehicles which had served as their homes.

At Oakland’s city council meeting on Oct 1, council president Rebecca Kaplan and Councilmember Bas sponsored an emergency ordinance that declared a shelter crisis which allows the city more flexibility in how it can use public space to house its residents. The ordinance renewed a previous shelter crisis declaration but also included a new paragraph that would have required the city to open parking sites for inoperable vehicles and to use city funds to tow and repair these vehicles at the sites.

“Until such designated allowable parking is identified” the paragraph reads, “the city shall refrain from towing such vehicles.”

The additional paragraph within the emergency ordinance would have made the city unable to tow homeless people’s vehicles to impound lots but was removed before the final vote which, as an emergency ordinance, required all six attending city council members’ approval.

“We’re striking that one paragraph regarding towing,” said Council President Kaplan at the Oct 1 meeting, “until further discussions can happen about that and the towing policy can come back as a separate item.”

Councilmember Larry Reid voiced skepticism at the meeting while addressing Kaplan about the services for RVs.

“The more and more service you provide,” said Reid, “the more and more people from outside of Oakland are going to come and inundate the streets with these raggedy RVs.”

The additional services could be helpful for Andre Franklin and Gary Watson, lifelong Oakland residents who live in vans by Lake Merritt. Franklin claims he was stunned on Oct 5 when an Oakland Police officer told him that he planned to tow Franklin’s vehicle that he allows Watson to live in for not being properly registered. After the officer called a tow truck a local resident, Angela Shannon, who was passing by at the time of the incident, parked her vehicle between the tow truck and Franklin’s van, making it impossible to reach, and proposed alternative options to the officer.

When an additional officer showed up, he suggested calling a number for Pastor Ken Chambers, who helps organize safe parking sites in church parking lots through the city sponsored program run by the Interfaith Council of Alameda County (ICAC), to ask if Watson could move there with the van. But the move was impossible because the van was inoperable and even if it wasn’t, the program requires that residents move their vehicles every morning at 7am. Watson has disabilities that make driving impossible. The officers decided not to tow the vehicle.

Although the City of Oakland’s and ICAC planned to offer 50 safe parking spots only 18 people are currently registered with the program. Chambers is seeking more people who need shelter. While the site rules including no alcohol, drugs, cooking or pets dissuade some people, Chambers thinks others don’t yet know about the site.

“We’ve been doing outreach with a shoestring budget,” said Chambers, “but we have to do that because if you build a program they will come but first they have to know about it.”

Residents interested in the program can visit interfaithac.org/safecarpark to register for the program which allows parking from 7pm to 7am everyday. People can also show up to West Side Missionary Church at 732 Willow Street in West Oakland any day at 7pm to register in person.

Zack Haber

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City Government

San Pablo Appoints New Economic Development and Housing Manager

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo. Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Published

15 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Kieron Slaughter. Photo courtesy of the City of San Pablo

The Richmond Standard

Kieron Slaughter has been appointed as the economic development & housing manager for the City of San Pablo.

Since 2017, Slaughter has served as chief strategic officer for economic innovation in the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development. Previously, he served in a 2.5-year appointment in the Pacific West Region as one of 10 Urban Fellows in the United States National Park Service.

Before that he was an associate planner in the City of Richmond’s Planning and Building Services Department from 2007-2015.

San Pablo City Manager Matt Rodriguez lauded Slaughter’s extensive experience in economic development, housing and planning, saying he will add a “valuable perspective to the City Manager’s Office.”

Slaughter, a Berkeley resident, will start in his new role on Nov. 12, with a base annual salary of $164,928, according to the City of San Pablo.

Oakland Post

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City Government

Aaron Osorio Rises Up Ranks to Become Richmond’s Fire Chief

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10. “I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.” Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Published

15 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Richmond Fire Department Chief Aaron Osorio. Courtesy photo

By Mike Kinney

The Richmond Standard

For Aaron Osorio, it started with a ride along on a firetruck at age 10.

“I thought it was the coolest job,” he said, adding, “I knew being in fire service would make a big difference in the community.”

Now a 27-year fire service veteran, Osorio appears to approach his work with the same youthful exuberance. And that’s good for the city as Osorio was recently named chief of the historic Richmond Fire Department.

Osorio is a San Francisco native who rose up the ranks in the Richmond Fire Department over the last 21 years before being elevated to chief.

He joined the department in 2002 and has served in multiple roles including firefighters, engineer, captain, battalion chief, training director and deputy fire chief. He said he truly loves working in this community.

While it isn’t common for a fire department to hire a chief that came up through its ranks, Osorio was credited by the city for serving Richmond well during uncommon times.

The city lauded him for developing internal policies and vaccination clinics during the initial COVID response, for supporting activation of the emergency operations center in response to a potential mudslide disaster in Seacliff last year, helping to draft mutual aid agreements and working to increase fire response capabilities for industrial incidents.

He’s also led departmental hiring and recruitment since 2018.

Osorio said it is an honor to be hired as chief and has big plans for the department moving forward. He said he wants to continue hiring and promoting for vacant positions, and also completing a strategic plan guiding the direction of the organization.

He also aims to replace and renovate a number of fire department facilities placed on the Capital Improvement Plan and create new ways to recruit that will enhance the diversity of the department.

Osorio said his experience within, and love for, the city of Richmond puts him in a good position to lead the department. He says he knows what is needed and also the challenges that are unique to the city.

“I look forward to utilizing that institutional knowledge to move the fire department forward in a positive direction and enhance the services we provide to the community,” the chief said.

Osorio holds a bachelor of science degree in Fire Administration and is also a California State Fire Marshal-certified chief officer, company officer, and state instructor.

He also holds numerous certifications in fire, rescue, hazardous material, and incident command.

The chief has been married to his wife, Maria, for 26 years and they have two sons, Roman and Mateo.

Oakland Post

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Barbara Lee

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

15 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.