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Alameda County In-Home Caretakers Seek $20 Wage, More Accessible Health Care

According to Lupe Martinez, who is SEIU 2015’s chief negotiator, many caretakers work well over 80 hours a month, but don’t receive healthcare, because much of those hours are off the books. As a result, many caretakers are effectively working a full-time job with no healthcare benefits. To help with this problem, SEIU 2015 wants a contract that would lower the minimum hours caretakers would need to work per month to qualify for such benefits.

Published

4 years ago

December 22, 2021

Oakland Post

Alameda County IHSS caretaker Allen Whitfield (left) sits next to his mother, Charlene Smith, who is also his caretaking client, in her apartment complex in Union City. Whitfield and other caretakers in the SEIU 2015 union are preparing to ask for a $20 wage and expanded access to health care in their new contract. Photo by Zack Haber on December 13.

By Zack Haber

SEIU 2015, the union that represents more than 21,000 caretakers who work for Alameda County’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), will be starting negotiations for a new contract early next year that they hope will ensure a $20-an-hour wage and improved access to health care for its members.

“Alameda is one of the most expensive places to live in the Bay Area,” said Lupe Martinez, who is SEIU 2015’s chief negotiator. “In order to provide their essential services, our members need to be able to have the proper wages to live here.”

SEIU 2015 sees their proposed wage increase as a way of reducing the wage gap across gender and racial lines. Across California, 81% of IHSS caretakers are women and 74% are people of color.

IHSS caretakers support those who are disabled or over 65 years old, and who are also unable to live at home safely without help. Typical duties include cooking, cleaning, giving out medications, helping with grocery shopping and bathing, and taking clients to doctor’s appointments.

“People do in-home care work because they love the people,” said Allen Whitfield, a lifelong Oakland resident who’s now in his 60s and works as a caretaker for two clients. “It’s definitely not for the pay.

Currently, Alameda County IHSS caretakers make an hourly wage of $15.75. Starting next year, their wage will increase to $16.75. The union plans to ask for a contract that allows all its members to make at least $20 an hour by 2024, and they’ve been circulating a petition calling for all California caretakers to get this wage increase.

Whitfield likes his job and says he’s “all for being there for people who need help, especially the underdog.” With the current rate of pay though, he can’t afford to rent his own apartment. Even renting a room in a house with roommates is so expensive that he often has to do odd jobs over the weekend to pay his bills. He regularly gets opportunities for steady work in other places for a higher salary, but he doesn’t take the work for one key reason.

“The only reason I don’t take other work,” Whitfield said. “Is that it would get in the way of taking care of my mom.”

Like many, but not all, IHSS caretakers, Whitfield’s clients are family members. In addition to caring for his mother, one of his distant relatives is also a client. Although on paper Whitfield works a little under 30 hours a week, he says he spends well over 40 hours a week caring for his mother and his distant relative.

According to Lupe Martinez, Whitfield’s experience is common among IHSS workers. She says that many clients’ need for care often far exceeds the number of hours that the county allots them to hire a paid caretaker. As a result, many caretakers, and not just those who work for family members, work extra hours off the books because they want to be there for their clients who often have no one else to turn to.

“If you see someone badly in need of care services,” she said. “You’re going to want to help them.”

“It’s an endless job because most of the time [clients] need more care than the hours provided,” said Whitfield.

The extra, unpaid work sometimes makes the job unsustainable. In the mid-2010s, Whitfield had another client who was blind and needed a lot of extra care. But Whitfield couldn’t get enough on-the-book hours to afford to be able to keep him as a client. The blind man has a new caretaker now, and he keeps in touch with Whitfield as a friend by calling him occasionally. While looking back on the forced separation, Whitfield described it as “kind of heartbreaking.”

Partly due to the reality that caretakers work off-the-book hours, SEIU 2015 wants to change how the county provides them health care. The county currently requires that all IHSS caretakers have at least 80 on-the-book hours per month to qualify for health care benefits.

According to Martinez, many caretakers work well over 80 hours a month, but don’t receive healthcare, because much of those hours are off the books. As a result, many caretakers are effectively working a full-time job with no healthcare benefits. To help with this problem, SEIU 2015 wants a contract that would lower the minimum hours caretakers would need to work per month to qualify for such benefits.

The Oakland Post called the Alameda County’s administration office and e-mailed that office detailed questions about how IHSS hours are allocated to clients and if the county plans to expand health care coverage and/or provide a $20 wage in the new contract but was met with no response.

Although Whitfield is committed to taking care of his clients, he feels the wage he makes from the county as a caretaker as well as the lack of appropriate hours is unfair and that the low pay “keeps people in poverty.”

“We just don’t get paid enough for the job that we do and the care that’s needed,” he said. “I don’t think we’re valued at all.”

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Oakland Post: Week of November 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 5 – 11, 2025

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1 week ago

November 7, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of October 29 – November 4, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 29 – November 4, 2025

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2 weeks ago

November 3, 2025

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Past, Present, Possible! Oakland Residents Invited to Reimagine the 980 Freeway

Organizers ask attendees coming to 1233 Preservation Park Way to think of the event as a “time portal”—a walkable journey through the Past (harm and flourishing), Present (community conditions and resilience), and Future (collective visioning).

Published

3 weeks ago

October 27, 2025

Oakland Post

Hundreds of residents in West Oakland were forced out by eminent domain before construction began on the 980 freeway in 1968. Courtesy photo.

By Randolph Belle
Special to The Post

Join EVOAK!, a nonprofit addressing the historical harm to West Oakland since construction of the 980 freeway began in 1968, will hold a block party on Oct. 25 at Preservation Park for a day of imagination and community-building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Organizers ask attendees coming to 1233 Preservation Park Way to think of the event as a “time portal”—a walkable journey through the Past (harm and flourishing), Present (community conditions and resilience), and Future (collective visioning).

Activities include:

Interactive Visioning: Site mapping, 3-D/digital modeling, and design activities to reimagine housing, parks, culture, enterprise, and mobility.
Story & Memory: Oral history circles capturing life before the freeway, the rupture it caused, and visions for repair.
Data & Policy: Exhibits on health, environment, wealth impacts, and policy discussions.
Culture & Reflection: Films, installations, and performances honoring Oakland’s creativity and civic power.

The site of the party – Preservation Park – itself tells part of the story of the impact on the community. Its stately Victorians were uprooted and relocated to the site decades ago to make way for the I-980 freeway, which displaced hundreds of Black families and severed the heart of West Oakland. Now, in that same space, attendees will gather to reckon with past harms, honor the resilience that carried the community forward, and co-create an equitable and inclusive future.

A Legacy of Resistance

In 1979, Paul Cobb, publisher of the Post News Group and then a 36-year-old civil-rights organizer, defiantly planted himself in front of a bulldozer on Brush Street to prevent another historic Victorian home from being flattened for the long-delayed I-980 Freeway. Refusing to move, Cobb was arrested and hauled off in handcuffs—a moment that landed him on the front page of the Oakland Tribune.

Cobb and his family had a long history of fighting for their community, particularly around infrastructure projects in West Oakland. In 1954, his family was part of an NAACP lawsuit challenging the U.S. Post Office’s decision to place its main facility in the neighborhood, which wiped out an entire community of Black residents.

In 1964, they opposed the BART line down Seventh Street—the “Harlem of the West.” Later, Cobb was deeply involved in successfully rerouting the Cypress Freeway out of the neighborhood after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

The 980 Freeway, a 1.6-mile stretch, created an ominous barrier severing West Oakland from Downtown. Opposition stemmed from its very existence and the national practice of plowing freeways through Black communities with little input from residents and no regard for health, economic, or social impacts. By the time Cobb stood before the bulldozer, construction was inevitable, and his fight shifted toward jobs and economic opportunity.

Fast-forward 45 years: Cobb recalled the story at a convening of “Super OGs” organized to gather input from legacy residents on reimagining the corridor. He quickly retrieved his framed Tribune front page, adding a new dimension to the conversation about the dedication required to make change. Themes of harm repair and restoration surfaced again and again, grounded in memories of a thriving, cohesive Black neighborhood before the freeway.

The Lasting Scar

The 980 Freeway was touted as a road to prosperity—funneling economic opportunity into the City Center, igniting downtown commerce, and creating jobs. Instead, it cut a gash through the city, erasing 503 homes, four churches, 22 businesses, and hundreds of dreams. A promised second approach to the Bay Bridge never materialized.

Planning began in the late 1940s, bulldozers arrived in 1968, and after years of delays and opposition, the freeway opened in 1985. By then, Oakland’s economic engines had shifted, leaving behind a 600-foot-wide wound that resulted in fewer jobs, poorer health outcomes, and a divided neighborhood. The harm of displacement and loss of generational wealth was compounded through redlining, disinvestment, drugs, and the police state. Many residents fled to outlying cities, while those who stayed carried forward the spirit of perseverance.

The Big Picture

At stake now is up to 67 acres of new, buildable land in Downtown West Oakland. This time, we must not repeat the institutional wrongs of the past. Instead, we must be as deliberate in building a collective, equitable vision as planners once were in destroying communities.

EVOAK!’s strategy is rooted in four pillars: health, housing, economic development, and cultural preservation. These were the very foundations stripped away, and they are what they aim to reclaim. West Oakland continues to suffer among the worst social determinants of health in the region, much of it linked to the three freeways cutting through the neighborhood.

The harms of urban planning also decimated cultural life, reinforced oppressive public safety policies, underfunded education, and fueled poverty and blight.

Healing the Wound

West Oakland was once the center of Black culture during the Great Migration—the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and home to the “School of Champions,” the mighty Warriors of McClymonds High. Drawing on that legacy, we must channel the community’s proud past into a bold, community-led future that restores connection, sparks innovation, and uplifts every resident.

Two years ago, Caltrans won a federal Reconnecting Communities grant to fund Vision 980, a community-driven study co-led by local partners. Phase 1 launched in Spring 2024 with surveys and outreach; Phase 2, a feasibility study, begins in 2026. Over 4,000 surveys have already been completed. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity could transform the corridor into a blank slate—making way for accessible housing, open space, cultural facilities, and economic opportunity for West Oakland and the entire region.

Leading with Community

In parallel, EVOAK! is advancing a community-led process to complement Caltrans’ work. EVOAK! is developing a framework for community power-building, quantifying harm, exploring policy and legislative repair strategies, structuring community governance, and hosting arts activations to spark collective imagination. The goal: a spirit of co-creation and true collaboration.

What EVOAK! Learned So Far

Through surveys, interviews, and gatherings, residents have voiced their priorities: a healthy environment, stable housing, and opportunities to thrive. Elders with decades in the neighborhood shared stories of resilience, community bonds, and visions of what repair should look like.

They heard from folks like Ezra Payton, whose family home was destroyed at Eighth and Brush streets; Ernestine Nettles, still a pillar of civic life and activism; Tom Bowden, a blues man who performed on Seventh Street as a child 70 years ago; Queen Thurston, whose family moved to West Oakland in 1942; Leo Bazille who served on the Oakland City Council from 1983 to 1993; Herman Brown, still organizing in the community today; Greg Bridges, whose family’s home was picked up and moved in the construction process; Martha Carpenter Peterson, who has a vivid memory of better times in West Oakland; Sharon Graves, who experienced both the challenges and the triumphs of the neighborhood; Lionel Wilson, Jr., whose family were anchors of pre-freeway North Oakland; Dorothy Lazard, a resident of 13th Street in the ’60s and font of historical knowledge; Bishop Henry Williams, whose simple request is to “tell the truth,” James Moree, affectionately known as “Jimmy”; the Flippin twins, still anchored in the community; and Maxine Ussery, whose father was a business and land owner before redlining.

EVOAK! will continue to capture these stories and invites the public to share theirs as well.

Beyond the Block Party

The 980 Block Party is just the beginning. Beyond this one-day event, EVOAK! Is building a long-term process to ensure West Oakland’s future is shaped by those who lived its past. To succeed, EVOAK! Is seeking partners across the community—residents, neighborhood associations, faith groups, and organizations—to help connect with legacy residents and host conversations.

980 Block Party Event Details
Saturday, Oct. 25
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Preservation Park, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA 94612
980BlockParty.org
info@evoak.org