Bay Area

Opinion – COVID-19 and the African American Community

Published

5 years ago

May 7, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting the African American community especially hard due to stark health disparities that were widespread well before this pandemic.

Our Black community here in Oakland and Alameda County is now, once again, particularly at-risk for a dangerous health problem. While Alameda County’s Latino and Pacific Islander communities are also experiencing disproportionately high rates of COVID-19, African Americans are dying at the highest rates. This is a very stressful and frightening reality.

Governments at all levels must stay focused on this disparity to avoid the worst outcomes of this epidemic and protect our community, especially our beloved seniors. The way that this virus appears to cause higher rates of fatalities among African Americans needs to be central to the way we tackle this problem.

During the last few months there have been unprecedented organizational challenges caused by COVID-19, including a nationwide shortage of tests; an uphill battle to acquire enough personal protection equipment (PPE) for health workers and the community; medical staffing shortages due to the scale of this pandemic and the urgency of getting care and housing to people who are homeless.

Throughout this turmoil we remain focused on the ways that the outbreak is hitting some communities so much harder. Why? Because while this disease does not discriminate, it does not erase racism against the African American community.

In response, the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency’s Public Health Department (ACPHD) is working to reduce disparities and promote health equity.

For the COVID-19 response, ACPHD is using a multi-pronged strategy: increasing access to testing, facilitating isolation and quarantine through health and social supports, providing community-specific health education, and improving the quality and integrity of race/ethnicity data.

We can and must mitigate the long-term health and socioeconomic impacts of this pandemic on communities of color.

Here are a few of the ways that our County has been responding to COVID-19:

• The County’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) is acting as a central hub for distribution of PPE, like masks and gowns, for local organizations. The OES purchases supplies and also receives PPE from state and federal sources, and directs it to the appropriate healthcare facilities and community organizations in the County. While PPE remains in tight supply nationwide, OES has fulfilled over 90% of the requests received.

• ACPHD has launched a testing team, focused on increasing access to COVID-19 testing through partnerships with cities, community clinics, and faith-based organizations. Any testing sites that come online in the county must comply with ACPHD guidelines, including access for low-income and homeless individuals as needed. I’m proud to say that Roots Community Clinic is leading the way with their walk-up test site in East Oakland, which serves all.

• Due to decades of discrimination, the Black community makes up a significantly disproportionate share of the county’s homeless population. We have quickly expanded the availability of shelter and testing by working with the state of California to acquire hotel space throughout the county for unsheltered individuals who are COVID-19 positive or at high risk for complications from the disease. The program continues to expand with more hotels currently being added throughout the county.

• Although the emerging data in Alameda County and California shows that the racial disparity is not as extreme here as it is in some cities, any disparity is unacceptable. To keep our communities informed of this issue, the county has been updating a COVID-19 data dashboard with information on the spread of the disease, including by zip code and racial group. View the dashboard at acphd.org/2019-ncov.

We have much more work to do. We need to continue to increase testing and expand contact tracing to help us identify new cases early and understand how the COVID-19 is spreading in our communities.

We need culturally competent teams to do this work. We need to overcome a history of discriminatory policies and outcomes that brought us here. We need to continue to support families, workers, small businesses and communities struggling with the economic consequences of this pandemic.

We cannot accept as fact that the Black community will get sick and die at inequitable rates. As we keep fighting COVID-19, we must do so in a manner that substantively addresses the historical racial health inequities of Alameda County.

Supervisor Nate Miley represents Alameda County District 4, which includes Pleasanton, Oakland and Castro Valley.

Nate Miley

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Bay Area

Oakland Awarded $28 Million Grant from Governor Newsom to Sustain Long-Term Solutions Addressing Homelessness

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the City of Oakland has won a$28,446,565.83 grant as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program. This program provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

Published

13 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Governor Gavin Newsom announced the City of Oakland has won a$28,446,565.83 grant as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program.

This program provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and the Oakland City Administrator’s Office staff held a press conference today to discuss the grant and the City’s successful implementing of the Mayor’s Executive Order on the Encampment Management Policy.

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Pamela Price Appoints Deputy D.A. Jennifer Kassan as New Director of Community Support Bureau

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau. Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Published

13 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau.

Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Working in the DA’s new administration since 2023, Kassan was most recently assigned to the Organized Retail Theft Prosecution team.

Kassan has a master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship from Yale Law School, and graduated from Yale Law School in 1995. She earned her B.A. in Psychology with a minor emphasis in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley.

Kassan’s education, extensive legal background, list of notable accomplishments and impressive resume includes helping to found and lead multiple organizations to support community wealth building including:

Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization that promotes locally-based community economic development,
the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information, training, and representation to support sustainable economies
the Force for Good Fund, a nonprofit impact investment fund
Crowdfund Main Street, a licensed portal for regulation crowdfunding
Opportunity Main Street, a place-based ecosystem building organization that supports under-represented entrepreneurs and provides education about community-based investing.

In addition, Kassan served as an elected member of the City Council of Fremont, California from 2018 to 2024, and on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.

In 2020 she was named to the list of World-Changing Women in Conscious Business by SOCAP Global.

“We are excited to see Jenny accept the role as the new leader for the Community Support Bureau,” said Price. “She brings a wealth of talent, experience, and a vision to expand our office’s engagement with community groups and residents, that will level-up our

outreach programs and partnerships with local organizations with the aim of promoting crime prevention.

“We thank Interim CSB Director Esther Lemus, who is now assigned to our office’s

Restitution Unit, for her hard work and a great job fostering positive relationships between the DAO and the community.”

Oakland Post

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Bay Area

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s Open Letter to Philip Dreyfuss, Recall Election’s Primary Funder

Oaklanders Defending Democracy, a group opposing the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, shared an open letter she wrote to Philip Dreyfuss of Farallon Capital, a coal hedge fund. According to Thao’s supporters, “Dreyfuss is the primary funder of the recall effort to remove her from office. He has not explained his motivations or answered one question about why he’s funding the recall or what his agenda is for Oakland.

Published

14 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Special to The Post

Publishers note: Oaklanders Defending Democracy, a group opposing the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, shared an open letter she wrote to Philip Dreyfuss of Farallon Capital, a coal hedge fund.

According to Thao’s supporters, “Dreyfuss is the primary funder of the recall effort to remove her from office. He has not explained his motivations or answered one question about why he’s funding the recall or what his agenda is for Oakland.

“All we know about him is his firm has invested over $2 billion in coal since 2022. Farallon Capital is a global hedge fund with $39 billion capital under management, headquartered in San Francisco, the supporters say.

The effort to recall Mayor Sheng Thao was built on top of an argument about a crime wave, pinning the blame for it on a newly elected Mayor. Now that crime has dropped massively, recall proponents are left with no compelling argument.

Oct. 30

Dear Philip Dreyfuss,

We haven’t met. As you know, I’m the Mayor of Oakland, elected in 2022 to serve and protect this city. Since stepping into office, I’ve tackled rising crime, homelessness, and budget challenges head-on, working tirelessly for Oakland’s future.

You are a hedge-fund manager and coal investor who doesn’t live in Oakland who is trying to buy our city government. But the people didn’t elect you, they elected me to protect them from people like you.

Shortly after my term began, you launched a campaign to remove me from office, pouring in nearly $500,000 of your own wealth. We’ll know the outcome of your campaign on Nov. 6, but let’s be clear about what’s at stake.

Since I took office, crime has dropped over 30%—we’re on track for less than 100 homicides for the first time since 2019, with 15,000 fewer crimes overall.

We’ve invested hundreds of millions into affordable housing, modernized our 911 system, streamlined construction permitting, and are fighting to make Oakland a safer and cleaner city.

If your recall succeeds, Oakland will see four mayors in just five years, another election for mayor the following year and a whopping $10 million cost to taxpayers. In other words, chaos. None of this will impact you because you don’t live here.

Oaklanders deserve to know who you are. I looked into your record and found that the hedge fund you help manage, Farallon Capital, has invested over $2 billion in coal since 2022.

For years, Oakland has stood tall against coal money threatening the health of West Oakland, Chinatown, Jack London and downtown.

Did you know that life expectancy in West Oakland is 7.5 years lower than the County average? Or that our children suffer from asthma at a rate twice as high as the rest of the County?

Philip, instead of trying to use your wealth to hijack our democracy and create chaos in our city you could have put your money where your mouth is.

Instead of investing in coal you could have invested in our young people—created scholarships for our college-bound kids, funded apprenticeships for those who want to learn a trade or helped rid our schools of lead.

Instead, you chose to divide us while you try to buy us. But I’m here to tell you, Philip, on behalf of the 450,000 residents of my city that Oakland is not for sale. NO to coal. NO to chaos. And NO to your selfish and self-serving recall.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, City Hall, Oakland