Activism

Protesters Demand Hotel Rooms for Homeless During Rally and Occupation

Published

5 years ago

May 27, 2020

53 year old lifelong Bay Area resident Romalita poses during a rally outside Palms Motel on Fri May 22. An unidentified legal observer stands in the background. Photo by Zack Haber.

On Fri May 22 to Sat May 23, housed and unhoused protestors gathered outside Palms Motel for a little over 16 hours to call for 37MLK, a community of mostly elder female lifelong Bay Area unhoused residents, to be sheltered in hotel rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 40 people showed up throughout the 16 hours, with the peak crowd reaching around 30 as one protester, Stefani Echeverría-Fenn, occupied a Palms Motel room by barricading herself to security bars in the room’s bathroom.

The protest started around 11 a.m. People displayed signs emphasizing the urgency of sheltering homeless people. Signs read “HOTELS NOT GRAVES,” and “KEEP US ALIVE.” Echeverría-Fenn wore a shirt that read “I WON’T LET MY UNHOUSED FAM DIE QUIETLY.”

Some 37MLK residents are especially at risk to the dangers of the outdoors and to COVID-19 due to medical conditions and disabilities. Alice, who’s 52, relies on a colostomy bag to digest properly.

“[Cleaning the bag] is a pretty easy procedure but it’s not so easy when you can’t just go turn on water,” she said.

Alice also works as a certified nursing assistant doing in-home care. Her inability to isolate puts her and her client at a heightened risk for contracting COVID-19.

“My main thing is to keep [my colonoscopy bag] clean so I can be healthy for my client,” she said.

Romalita is 53 and is badly in need of hip surgery. She can’t stand for more than 10 minutes at a time. At the protest, she told The Oakland Post the doctors wouldn’t perform the surgery if she didn’t have stable shelter.

“The surgical doctor doesn’t want me to get an infection being outside,” she said.

Both Alice and Romalita had stayed at Palms Hotel for a week, but on Friday, funds that had been acquired through donations had run out, and they planned to live outdoors at 37MLK, where they’d sleep in tents.

Another sign at the protest read “CALL LIBBY OPEN THE EMPTY ROOMS 510-238-3141,” listing Mayor Libby Schaaf’s work phone number. 37MLK residents as well as the mutual aid and housing justice group, Love and Justice in The Streets (LAJITS), have been encouraging residents to call Mayor Schaaf to use hotel rooms, the vast majority of which sit empty due to COVID-19, to shelter homeless people.

LAJITS has pointed out that Oakland Code of Ordinance 8.50.050 allows the city administration of Oakland to “obtain vital supplies, equipment and such properties found lacking and needed for the protection of life and property,” during a state or local emergency, both of which have been declared due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Under the code, Oakland city administration has the power to commandeer such resources.

The Oakland Post emailed Justin Berton, spokesperson for Mayor Schaaf, mentioned Oakland Code of Ordinance 8.50.050, and asked: “Are hotel rooms considered vital and found lacking to protect life in Oakland?” and “If so, are their plans to obtain hotel rooms through the city for homeless residents?”

Berton sent a prepared statement from the director of communications, Karen Boyd.

Boyd’s statement did not say if the city was providing funds for hotels, or if the city planned to obtain or commandeer hotel rooms but said, “We continue to support the county in making referrals into their hotel programs.”

Project Roomkey, which is funded by the state and the county, has secured space for about 520 people including homeless, COVID positive, and high-risk Alameda County residents. In a meeting in mid-May, the county revealed about a third of Project Roomkey’s rooms were still vacant. The program moved its first Oakland homeless resident in on March 25, who showed symptoms of COVID-19. The 2019 point in time (PIT) count lists Alameda County’s homeless population at 8,022, though activists and policymakers largely agree that PIT counts undercount homeless populations, so the true number is likely higher.

Boyd’s statement also said, “our emergency COVID-19 budget proposed additional support for motel vouchers and for funding to help people exit homelessness into permanent housing.” The proposed voucher program would offer 50,000$ in state funds for hotels, less the yearly salary of a first-year Oakland Police officer. The statement also said 56 people are currently being sheltered in trailers provided by the state through Operation Homebase.

Due to the number of hotel rooms available and the slow pace in which the county is filling them, activists are continuing to push the city of Oakland to secure rooms itself while collecting private donations to lease them at loveandjusticeinthestreets.com and through Venmo at @ars_hoetica.

Echeverría-Fenn remained barricaded in the Palms Motel room until around 3 a.m, as protestors continued to be present outside to ensure her safety, when she voluntarily left. Oakland Police came between around and 11:30 pm till 12:30 am but made no arrest nor forced her to leave.

Although she was not arrested, the threat of arrest was real as she hadn’t paid for the room. In a livestream on Facebook as police were present, she said “There can be no business as usual while Oakland is in a public health crisis, a human rights crisis, a civil rights crisis. Members of the unhoused community who are very dear to me personally are literally dying on the street. We lost three of our unhoused comrades in the last one month alone. So I feel like whatever can happen to me in the course of my arrest cannot possibly be as traumatizing as the day to day experience of unhoused folks in Oakland.”

Zack Haber

Posts by Zack Haber

Activism

Gov. Newsom Approves $170 Million to Fast Track Wildfire Resilience

AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

Published

21 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook page.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media

With wildfire season approaching, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 100, unlocking $170 million to fast-track wildfire prevention and forest management projects — many of which directly protect communities of color, who are often hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.

“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” said Newsom when he announced the funding on April 14.

“We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires,” he said.

Newsom also signed an executive order suspending certain regulations to allow urgent work to move forward faster.

This funding builds on California’s broader Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, a $2.7 billion effort to reduce fuel loads, increase prescribed burning, and harden communities. The state has also launched new dashboards to keep the public informed and hold agencies accountable.

California has also committed to continue investing $200 million annually through 2028 to expand this effort, ensuring long-term resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities.

Oakland Post

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Activism

California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

Published

21 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Shutterstock

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.

Oakland Post

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Activism

California Holds the Line on DEI as Trump Administration Threatens School Funding

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

Published

22 hours ago

April 28, 2025

Oakland Post

Shutterstock

By Joe W. Bowers Jr
California Black Media

California education leaders are pushing back against the Trump administration’s directive to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in its K-12 public schools — despite threats to take away billions in federal funding.

The conflict began on Feb. 14, when Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), issued a “Dear Colleague” letter warning that DEI-related programs in public schools could violate federal civil rights law. The letter, which cited Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ended race-conscious admissions, ordered schools to eliminate race-based considerations in areas such as admissions, scholarships, hiring, discipline, and student programming.

According to Trainor, “DEI programs discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

On April 3, the DOE escalated the pressure, sending a follow-up letter to states demanding that every local educational agency (LEA) certify — within 10 business days — that they were not using federal funds to support “illegal DEI.” The certification requirement, tied to continued federal aid, raised the stakes for California, which receives more than $16 billion annually in federal education funding.

So far, California has refused to comply with the DOE order.

“There is nothing in state or federal law that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote David Schapira, California’s Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction, in an April 4 letter to superintendents and charter school administrators. Schapira noted that all of California’s more than 1,000 traditional public school districts submit Title VI compliance assurances annually and are subject to regular oversight by the state and the federal government.

In a formal response to the DOE on April 11, the California Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond collectively rejected the certification demand, calling it vague, legally unsupported, and procedurally improper.

“California and its nearly 2,000 LEAs (including traditional public schools and charter schools) have already provided the requisite guarantee that its programs and services are, and will be, in compliance with Title VI and its implementing regulation,” the letter says.

Thurmond added in a statement, “Today, California affirmed existing and continued compliance with federal laws while we stay the course to move the needle for all students. As our responses to the United States Department of Education state and as the plain text of state and federal laws affirm, there is nothing unlawful about broad core values such as diversity, equity and inclusion. I am proud of our students, educators and school communities who continue to focus on teaching and learning, despite federal actions intended to distract and disrupt.”

California officials say that the federal government cannot change existing civil rights enforcement standards without going through formal rule-making procedures, which require public notice and comment.

Other states are taking a similar approach. In a letter to the DOE, Daniel Morton-Bentley, deputy commissioner and counsel for the New York State Education Department, wrote, “We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’ But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”