Bay Area

COMMENTARY: Oakland’s Plan to Rehouse Wood Street Residents Can Only Fail a Self-Reliant Community

A large community of unhoused people have been living in an empty lot at 1707 Wood Street. The city of Oakland would like to remove them as soon as possible so they can build 170 units of affordable housing there. If you live in Oakland or spend any considerable amount of time here, then you have probably seen this encampment at least a few times. The West Oakland community is estimated to include 200-300 individuals. They support each other in accessing food, water, medicine, clothing and other basic living necessities.

Published

2 years ago

March 16, 2023

Oakland Post

A camp for unhoused in Oakland. iStock photo by Alex B. Mount, June 2020.

By Daisha Williams
Post News Group Intern

If you live in Oakland or spend any considerable amount of time here, then you have probably seen this encampment at least a few times. The West Oakland community is estimated to include 200-300 individuals. They support each other in accessing food, water, medicine, clothing and other basic living necessities.

In an interview with a city of Oakland official, a spokesperson for the community, John Janosko, described a bike ride that they all took to Sacramento last October.

“That bike ride was amazing for me. Everyone had a chance to bond,” he said. “The people in Sacramento were so welcoming and it was my birthday that morning and they had a cake at 1 o’clock in the morning when we finally rolled in.”

This bike ride was planned, organized and executed by people who have banded together to survive in a system that doesn’t seem to care if they live or die and made the best of those circumstances.

Before the city of Oakland can begin building affordable housing, they are required to provide shelter for the people currently living there. The initial plan was to simply provide cabins near the lot for the people to live in. On Feb. 3, the U.S. District Judge William Orick said that the city could move forward with disbanding this unit only for that ruling to be reversed a week later, on Feb. 10.

Oakland Assistant City Administrator LaTonda Simmons said that the delay was due to issues finalizing the contract for the cabins as well as “IT network challenges.”

The city hasn’t released a timeline detailing when they expect to begin moving people out. Simmons commented on the delay in a statement. “We believe this minor delay will result in an even more supportive cabin program for the Wood Street community.”

Current plans for shelter for the residents include cabins with 30 beds each, which are expected to accommodate 100 people. There will also be 29 parking spaces available for people living in RVs with electrical hookups and bathrooms available.

Furthermore, the city expects to have 100 more beds available at other shelters in Oakland, which will effectively divide the community that the Wood Street residents have created for themselves.

But it is also the case that the amount of affordable housing that the city plans to build in this lot will not be enough to accommodate the people currently living there and what the city considers “affordable housing” is not affordable for many people.

Another hindrance for the community is the difficulty of qualifying for affordable housing.

One hurdle is that it is necessary to provide proof of income, which makes it even less accessible.

Another is that applicants must pass a criminal background screening. Since homelessness itself has been criminalized, many people currently living in the lot will not be able to pass that screening and qualify.

Many of the people now living at the Wood Street lot were residents of a neighboring encampment that was cleared out about a year ago. That they are back on the street can indicate that the city’s processes for quickly finding housing for people in dire need are ineffective.

This is summarized best by what James Vann, co-founder and advisor to the Oakland Homeless Advocacy Working Group, said in response to Judge Orwick’s decision.

“The calamity that will follow is another instance of the City’s failure to acknowledge the homelessness crisis as real and to implement timely actions to assure adequate accommodations and health and safety of the affected unhoused residents.”

Sources for this news article include the Mercury News, the City of Oakland and the Post News Group.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.