Bay Area

Housing Not Handcuffs: Residents and Leaders Call Out City for Aggressive Homelessness Policy

One week after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered cities to start clearing out homelessness encampments in their jurisdiction, San Francisco leaders and community members have voiced their concerns over the aggressive approach from the state, echoed by Mayor London Breed. On June 25, Newsom signed an executive order directing state agencies to begin evicting people from encampments, particularly ones that “pose a threat to the life, health, and safety of the community.” Mayor Breed has been clear about her stance on the crisis, saying that the city would have a “very aggressive” approach to cracking down on homeless encampments.

Published

10 months ago

August 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Hotel Whitcomb was previously a temporary location for San Francisco City Hall and most recently was occupied by residents during the pandemic for isolation. Advocates want the city to transform the space into permanent supportive housing. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

On June 25, Newsom signed an executive order directing state agencies to begin evicting people from encampments, particularly ones that “pose a threat to the life, health, and safety of the community.”

Mayor Breed has been clear about her stance on the crisis, saying that the city would have a “very aggressive” approach to cracking down on homeless encampments.

Supervisor Dean Preston said at a press conference Tuesday morning that he was “disappointed” in the mayor and his fellow elected officials in supporting a narrative that criminalizes unhoused people.

“Just because Trump’s Supreme Court says we, the city, has the power to start arresting people, citing people, criminally prosecuting people for being homeless without even offering them a place to stay, does not mean we have to take that invitation,” Preston said.

Advocates held their press conference in front of the vacant Hotel Whitcomb, which is located down the street from city hall. During the pandemic, the hotel was used as a temporary housing facility for Project Roomkey in order to isolate and house vulnerable people who were living on the street.

The community wants to use the hotel’s 459 rooms and dozens of other vacant units across the city, for permanent supportive housing to get people out of the encampments.

There are over 8,000 unhoused individuals in San Francisco, according to 2024 Point In Time Count data.

Angela Chan, Assistant Chief Attorney for the SF Public Defender’s Office, said it’s “extremely hard” to find temporary housing in the city because people feel unsafe and unwelcomed in certain shelters.

“Our ask or encouragement to the city is, let’s think through real solutions to really address the needs of people who are poor and unhoused because throwing people in jail, it makes things a lot worse, and it costs the city a lot more,” Chan told the Post.

The problem that attorneys are seeing is that unhoused individuals end up in jail for sleeping on the streets, only to be released the next day, still unhoused and awaiting a court date and possible fines or more jail time. The issue seems to be recycled and a way to kick the can down the road.

Chan said police are not assisting with resources for housing so it’s on the public defenders to find clients help.

With the sweeps not being anything new to the city, advocates are worried about what this “very aggressive” crackdown might mean for homeless residents.

“We have a situation where [the police] want to make it uncomfortable for them, take away their property, push them around from block to block… What we’ll see in the population is an increased level of trauma, longer episodes of homelessness, probably increased substance use, loss of medications and survival gear. All of these things really, really make a horrendous situation that much worse,” Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness, told the Post.

Friedenbach said policymakers are shifting blame to unhoused people for being homeless instead of faulting themselves for the lack of addressing the issue.

She said rising rents, inflation in the cost of living, and income disparities are all driving forces to homelessness. Cities and local municipalities should provide rental assistance, eviction defense and variety in housing on the public and private market, while also building and buying affordable homes to transform into new living complexes.

The city plans to increase their sweeps of encampments starting August 1.

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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.