Activism

City’s Homeless Efforts Are “Inefficient” and Often “Harm More Than Help,” Advocates Say

Published

6 years ago

December 5, 2019

Community members and the Oakland City Council came together this week to look at the successes and failures of ongoing local attempts to grapple with the city’s rapidly growing homelessness emergency and to propose comprehensive solutions that so far have remained elusive.

At Wednesday evening’s special Life Enrichment Committee meeting, chaired by Councilmember Loren Taylor, city officials presented a report, “PATH Framework,” meant to serve as an approach for “addressing homelessness across the full spectrum of services form prevention and intervention to solutions/housing.”

Shredding the city’s current practices, members of the community, including The Village in Oakland and the East Oakland Collective, criticized the city for spending millions of dollars “on ineffective approaches that harm more than help curbside residents.”

Homeless advocates are demanding an immediate end of evictions of curbside communities, demolitions of homes and towing of vehicles people live in or store belongings in; (and) an immediate end to the destruction of curbside residents’ personal property and survival gear.

The advocates also are calling on the Mayor and Administration to implement a resolution passed by the City Council a year and a half ago, which said two parcels of public land in each district should be designated as spaces for curbside communities.

At present, the city maintains 692 beds and spaces. The homeless population in the city is variously estimated at 4,000, 7,000 and 14,000.

The city currently is spending $34 million to deal with homelessness, which includes city, county, state, federal and private funds. Forty-six percent of the money is one-time funding.

City officials estimate that fully implementing their approach would cost $123 million a year, plus $220 million in one-time capital costs.

Opening the meeting, Councilmember Taylor said, “Business as usual (clearly) has not been working…. (This) is an opportunity to address this crisis, to give it the attention it deserves.”

“We’re spending a lot of money on police removing people without knowing where the people go…There need to be allowed self -governing places,” said Council President Rebecca Kaplan.

“We’ve kind of have a lose-lose (situation),” she said, pointing out that the city pushes the homeless from place to place, but housed neighbors with complaints are not getting served either.

The city has over 4,000 vacant lots, some of which could be used as safe places for self-governing encampments, she said.Calling for more mental health services, Councilmember Noel Gallo said, ““We don’t have anything to the scale that we need,” he said.

One of the community speakers at the meeting was Dominique Walker, a member of Moms 4 Housing, which has been occupying a vacant home in Oakland since late November.
“There is no reason why people shouldn’t have houses in Oakland,” Walker said. “There are four vacant homes for everyone homeless person in this city.

“Our organization came out of a desperate need. I work two jobs, and we’re still homeless.” Walker said the city should manage a database of vacant properties, fix these properties and “house homeless moms and kids in them.”

“Gov. Newsom has declared this a state of emergency. You should acknowledge that and treat it as such,” instead of proposing “solutions that aren’t solutions,” she said.

Ken Epstein

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.