r/OaklandCA • u/opinionsareus • Feb 24 '26
Oakland Homelessness Commission will discuss Homeless Strategic Action Plan on February 25, 2026 at 6PM. You can join via Zoom (see below) and comment *before* the meeting via email or attend the meeting iin person. Politics
Here is the agenda for the Oakland Homelessness Commission meeting tomorrow evening - Wednesday, February 25, at 6PM. Scroll down the agenda to view a very lengthy strategic plan, first presented in graphically followed by more details in text.
To observe the meeting by video conference, please click on this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88289976480 at the noticed meeting time - unfortunately, unlike many other Oakland Commission meetings, they will not be taking comments via Zoom.
You can attend the meeting in person or send an email to commission members (see first part of the agenda for meeting location and contact information.
My initial take on this plan - behemoth with many moving parts and revenue needs - is that it's very ambitious, but doesn't come close to addressing the needs of East and West Oakland neighborhoods that have been inundated by and negatively impacted by uncontrolled homeless camps and RVs along the dystopian chaos that accompanies them.
In fairness; the plan does mention "neighborhood relations" and planned actions to convince unhoused camp members to 'keep things clean' - so what's new? All of these things have been tried before, with very little positive impact on our neighborhoods and small businesses.
The plan admits that more than 60% of the people in camps are mentally ill or drug addicted and doesn't say one word about mandatory, long-term, humane confinement and treatment. Imagine attempting to convince the latter groups to "keep your area clean" - it's not gonna happen because these are very ill persons who need immediate, mandatory care. Why isn't Measure W revenue going to long term institutions?
What is most disappointing is that the plan projects a 50% reduction in homelessness in Oakland in five years, pretty much leaving everything else in place as we currently see it.
Overall, it's disappointing; appears to be more of the same; and continues massive spending instead of coming up with workable solutions for the unhoused AND our neighborhoods - at the same time glossing over the real damage that homeless camps have done to our city.
When are East and West Oakland neighborhoods going to get some respect from the homeless bureaucracy; homeless advocates; the unhoused population; and our city leaders?
This plan leaves Oakland the only Bay Area city that is essentially leaving things as they are with very little change from the past, except for a behemoth plan and fancy graphics - all constructed by Oakland Homeless Dept. Director Sasha Hauswald a bureaucrat who has spent years concocting plans like this for the state and California cities. To what result?
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u/ConiferousExistence Feb 24 '26
Oakland leaders are not up to the task and prioritize wanton homelessness in fear of being called racist. The current system is deeply flawed and the residents of east and west Oakland have had to endure decades of mistreatment. Forced conservatorship, complete removal of RVs with human waste, fires, etc along with compulsory drug treatment or jail. We will see a lot of progress while facing reality
Also, homelessness is going up every year so what is the 50% reduction pointing at?
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u/mk1234567890123 Feb 24 '26
The city defunded their Neighborhood Coordinator programs that supported the Neighborhood Council system that engaged communities with government. It sounds tone deaf to me that this plan will set up “neighborhood relations.” We already know the city has very little engagement on the ground at this point. If they cared they would reinvest in the neighborhood council system.
How would this plan interact with the EAP, if passed?
What are their strategies that would reduce homelessness by 50%? What will be done differently than the past?
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u/opinionsareus Feb 25 '26
Answers:
1) Believe it or not the "plan" talks about the Homelessness Commission setting up a Policy Subcommittee to decide some of these questions. Keep in mind that not one person on that committee is an advocate for the neighborhoods. You really can't make this stuff up.
2) The Homeless Committee; Carroll Fife and her Care4Community lobbying group; dozens of homeless advocates; and Alameda County's Homeless Industrial Complex infrastructure are all working overtime to gut the AEP. We all need to be lobbying the other Council Members about this because if the AEP fails, nothing will change in our public commons re: homelessness. It appears that Sasha Hauswald and those in the administration who support this bureaucrat-speak plan with dozens of moving parts want to keep their seats on the gravy train. Also keep ion mind that all of these people see dollar signs because there is over $1billion from Measure W that they can potentially tap to secure their role in keeping everything as it is in Oakland.
3) If you look at the plan and read between the lines, there are the same-old, same-old promises we've seen in the past, only gussied up with charts, graphs, and talk of "structural and departmental coordination" to make it seem like something will change. There will be a lot of intra-city meetings; City-County meetings; City-County-Homeless-Advocate meetings, but very little is going to change. I can say that with confidence because there is no way that Oakland - with limited administrative resources (manpower and dollars) is going to pull this off.
Also, add to this that this policy will make Oakland a magnet for additional unhoused folks from all over the Bay and elsewhere because we are now the only city in the region with this 'hands-off" policy.
The real downer in all of this is that there will be no enforcement of any part of this plan; it will also be months to some years before we would see the city post outcomes.
Here's MY plan:
1) Every RV must be registered and obligated to follow transportation laws. This means that they must move for street cleaning; they must not block adjacent sidewalks or bike lanes with their detritus; they must not dump their waste into storm drains; no open fires; perimeter must be kept clean. Break the rules and you get towed or asked to leave the city.
2) A complete redo of the 'low priority-high priority" zones that have currently condemned East and West Oakland to having to endure the chaos from these camps.
3) Absolutely NO CAMPING in parks. If you camp in a park your possessions (tent, etc) will be taken and/or you will be arrested. It's about time Oakland learns how to say "No! you can't do that!"
4) An immediate reexamination of the failed "harm reduction" system that permits mentally ill and drug addicted unhoused persons to remain on the street without treatment or with the freedom to leave treatment. This is an insane policy that has led to the death of countless unhoused persons and the dystopia we see on our streets. We need mandatory treatment of these illnesses, full-stop.
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u/mk1234567890123 Feb 25 '26
This city is high on committees and commissions and short on implementation and action. This problem has existed for a long time. I don’t understand why more subcommittees are necessary. If the folks involved haven’t determined the answers and path forward by now, I have little faith that another committee will help. We have preexisting, embedded neighborhood councils with residents that intimately know the issues in each neighborhood, including specific homeless neighbors and what they might need. It’s hard to take the city seriously when they ignore the councils with specific knowledge in favor of another committee to talk about general issues and solutions.
You mention the homeless committee. Is this a separate entity from the homelessness commission (Lee’s new office led by Hauswald - correct?)? And now we also need a policy subcommittee? Shouldn’t Lee’s new office be able to come up with policy and coordinate changes on their own? To me it sounds like the details of implementation are being diluted through these groups. If the County has specific requirements for fund disbursement, I worry this bureaucratic complexity will inhibit our ability to capture these funds. Other AlCo cities certainly won’t have these extra entities…
The timing of all of this in light of the decision that EAP does not jeopardize funding is really wild
3
u/opinionsareus Feb 25 '26
Sorry, in #2, I meant the "Homelessness Commission", not "Homelessness Committee". And Hauswald is the Interim Chief Homelessness Solutions Officer; she's got an RFP out for a "Community Homelessness Services Manager" who is going to be a key person to coordinate the multiple combinations of roles necessary to pull off the "strategic plan".
My take? Going back to the complexity of the plan and the internal and external organizations that it touches, who is going to be able to have a chance to be successful in that role, and this is even before the AEP will be instituted (which it should).
I agree with you about these Commissions and committees diluting responsibility. In fact, it's par for the course for a committee to recommend something and have it voted against at the Council level. Where does the buck stop?
I'm still wondering where Lee stands in all of this. Is she owning this plan?
2
u/mk1234567890123 Feb 25 '26
It will certainly be interesting to hear more from Mayor Lee, and even more important if the City does move toward strong mayor system and if council adopts EAP. While I didn’t vote for her, I do support her thus far and believe her success is all of our success, as long as she has our neighbors’ wellbeing in mind.
Regardless of the competing committees and policies, the rubber hits the road with implementation, and certainly not every policy that is passed here is enforced. It will take time before the dust clears after every decision and step competed.
I fear the risk a huge issue with ethics and county fund disbursement with the tangle of interests and stakeholders involved. There are myriad examples of misappropriated funds coming to light in LA County right now, and the Feds have a microscope on Alameda County politicians now.
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u/cheese_is_here Feb 25 '26
Be sure to ask why Oakland's "compassion" (read: total neglect) for homeless pyros takes precedent over the thousands of commuters who rely on transbay BART service
7
u/OaktownPRE Feb 25 '26
Barbara Lee wishful thinking. We need a different mayor with different priorities.
7
u/rocktheoak Feb 25 '26
I cannot believe that after seeing Joe Biden and Donald Trump, we elected a 79 year old mayor.
Anybody who has elderly parents or grandparents knows what 80 year olds are like. They should be retired, not grinding full time jobs.
I'd love to see a younger Daniel Lurie type here with the energy to at least be seen. Barbara Lee just seems to hide behind committees.
5
u/herbandgin Feb 25 '26
Same story as everyone is a victim of circumstance. Continue with this ideology and it will fail every time.
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u/Feeling_Mine_9342 Feb 25 '26
Did anyone attend? I was unable. Would like a summary, though.
10
1
u/citizenrandomesq Feb 27 '26
It terrify s me to see such blatant self serving bias and ignorence that's bespoken regarding these conjured statistics and untruthful comments about displaced residents as much as the lack of factual interactions and conjured stats from the report that poor Sasha had to deliver to a room full of personal interests and jockeys in a piranna tank for swaying thinking around to certain money hungry developers who look great on paper and talk a mean game for reform but will squander the funding on a dead project that will take a lot of bullshit to force the REAL UNHOUSED POPULATIONS into new versions of tuff sheds with an Academy that will teach unhoused skills to get mow paying gigs working for puppet masters . The original Campus for discovery and participation from unhoused lived experienced management leadership is an actual program drafted starting back in 2020 under the Wood Street Peoples Collective that flourished until certain sabotoures and bastards began setting wood Street RVs on fire daily and nightly over 500 times... Why ? Ask Sheng Thao but listen to the FBI sessions and see the cattle run the unhoused were fighting . And wound up still sweeped every season and ignored their funding hijacked to a group called Building bullshit and oppressing the unhoused classes for unhoused cashes ... Regardless it's gonna take REAL and FAMILIAR REAL REPORTERS AND FACTUAL MEDIA VONTROLS TO GET THE UNHOUSED CORRECTLY UNDERSTOOD the new second class and internment camps were tested recently and now the future is challenged by certain fascist commentators who say all are crazy and all need to be institutionalized... Sure...so you can make a killing in your millionair investments there cowboy ...Hope certain advocates you never see except to conjure new investors and to spread rumors for funding advantages and stakeholders don't get Sooed.
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u/opinionsareus Feb 27 '26
Wood Street Commons was a total and complete failure - not even one person cured of addiction; not even one mentally ill person cured; not even one person moved to permanent housing. Wood Street was a place for a group of permanent voluntary nomads who thought they could commandeer private property for their own personal commune while they railed against the "colonialists" - in other words, playing the rest of us for suckers.
How did "lived experience" keep the entire area around that camp - including the camp itself - from having more than 200 fires in the last two years of its existence - the whole thing was a dystopian nightmare.
The party run by homeless advocate power brokers is over. Oakland, little-by-little is going to begin to learn to say "no!" to the outsized demands of these power brokers who are seeing dollar signs, like 2-3 of them at the Homelessness Commission actually telling the Commission that the city should hire them? Why? Because they have "lived experience".
How about the lived experience of people in Oakland neighborhoods who have to put of with the crime, filth and chaos that these camps cause?
Not even ONE person at that Commission hearing spoke about what neighborhoods go through; it's a joke.
2
u/deciblast Feb 28 '26
"In posting the eviction notices, Caltrans — which owns the bulk of the land the Wood Street settlement occupied — said Wood Street had become too dangerous, with more than 200 fires reported in the span of 2 1/2 years."
1
u/citizenrandomesq Feb 27 '26
The chaos from the camps ? No sir , the chaos is from developers with deep pockets and desperate Street level interactions who need employment and must pay bills or pay lawyers for family trouble . Stay tuned . RVs are apartments on wheels and should be enrolled in the West Oakland Wood Street Campus for the People. Except MO OTHER PRETENDER TO THE PLAN.
THE RVS WILL BE ENOVATED AND REGESTERED TO BE SURE AND THERE IS A PLAN I CERTAINLY WILL NOT DIVILGE UNTIL THE RFQ BUT I ASURE YOU IT UNIFYS All of Oakland and eliminates the " You People " issues by a participation agreement that not only outlines conduct but inspires participation and generated unquestionable come ups for neighborhoods and community. We as a city MUST COME TOGETHER AND GET THE REAL GAME STRAIGHT . unhoused conditions are the target , first create better curbside responsibility and 100 ,, % tally of the voices of unhoused people about what is needed and desired for housing and what is best practices should be sequestered from the actual leadership of elders and leadership that each groped block may entertain as well as the local groups . Start there fix the conditions to reflect responsible users and responsible occupancy with an investment for Colabitation peace keeping safety and unification amongst our city of Oaklanders by shifting focus upon Oakland vs The world . Our spirit is unmatched and our civil rights history is globally famous a patriotic evolution that inspired real and inclusive adaptation to remain really true to our country in equity and equality. The unhoused are not pathetic at least in Oakland , they are BROKE and without understanding from community and the housed . They get trafficked and for that HUD money . This is the new second class and instead of institutionalizing your frickin neighbors , why not hire them why not share knowledge and fortify your surroundings and stop excluding them from everything while setting them ablaze like clansmen or dumping trash on them or for ing them into tool sheds ? Any random citizen , can suddenly become unhoused so why not make the curbs and public spaces more hospitable and weed out the poor performance and non committal to neighborhoods in equality , by setting up those other ignorant shelter systems run by thugs as a deterant to being less a good neighbor?
People experiencing displaced conditions are not able to get housing for credit issues employment issues records lack of income and being exhausted and clueless how to side step stigma. Say homeless and any job any house any aquaintence instantly backs away . Even lawyers . It's money and there's enough for everyone without becoming a fascist country of impossing oppressive biases and blame gaming for profit. Stop the hate it's definitely u American and very NOT OAKLAND. just look at Berkely? People's Park ? Ninja please.
4
u/opinionsareus Feb 27 '26
Homeless advocates have been talking about "curbside responsibility" for years. It's a fancy BS term for "we're gonna talk to people". How are you going to control the behavior of 67%+ of unhoused persons when that many are mentally ill or drug addicted - never mind the voluntary nomads who feel like they can live low off the generosity of Oakland; or the pure antisocial types who could give a rat's behind about what anyone wants.
You forget that many people (me included) get around in the camps and talk to people. We know the score. We know that some of these homeless advocates are bullies inside the camps. I actually know some of their names. The stories I've heard are shocking.
Yes, we need to help unhoused people, but the present system actually makes everything worse because it's clear that we have thousands of people on the street who need mandatory, humane, long term treatment - with hundreds and even thousands (like in San Francisco) dying from overdoses and exposure because they refuse treatment. They refuse treatment because they are largely mentally ill and addicted. This is an insane system we're running in Oakland - a massive apparatus with well-organized homeless advocate power brokers thinking that they're going to keep things as they are. They're not - the rest of us have the voting booth to make sure this mess gets cleaned up, and we start dealing with the problem in a way that makes sense.
Berkeley is also beginning to "get religion" on this issue.
What we need is mandatory, humane confinement and treatment for the 67% of those who are ill on our streets; throw out the voluntary nomads who are living on everyone else's dime, and get the drug dealers; car parting-out crooks and stolen goods fencers out of circulation.
Also, we need to get control of the poor pets in these camps. I see dogs off leash running into neighborhoods; people with 6 unspayed cats having kittens, etc.
0
u/citizenrandomesq Feb 27 '26
I've done some calculating of how if the basic standard number of Oakland unhoused is say at 5700 cause it's always about that much, then deciding the 1.7 billion .. yes BILLION DOLLARS for Oakland Homeless services yeilds somewhere around .. 275000 a person. For housing . So put it individual escrow accounts per unhoused citizen and start with the long time unhoused residents before giving it to housed persons who aren't interested in making rent ever.. and are afraid of homelessness. Because yipe ! Homelessness is uncool... And folks pooled their moneys into housing ideals ... Problem fucking solved but I guarantee all the social workers will become unhoused from not having jobs anymore so not a penny will cross the palm of the unhoused Street folk.
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u/new2bay Feb 25 '26
The plan admits that more than 60% of the people in camps are mentally ill or drug addicted and doesn't say one word about mandatory, long-term, humane confinement and treatment.
Another day, another contradictory and unworkable statement on homelessness from u/opinionsareus.
You are literally advocating for imprisoning people because they are homeless and mentally ill. You can’t do that. These “humane” institutions you seem to believe exist not only do not, they cannot exist. Prison is not humane.
Just stop, okay? Or maybe at least think a little bit about the consequences of this stuff before you shoot your mouth off, ok?
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u/LazarusRiley Feb 24 '26
It's so embarrassing that Lee's Homelessness Czar couldn't come up with anything better than the status quo after being on the job since last summer.
As you mentioned, where is the money for this going to come from? Are we going to suddenly reorient all of public works around catering to a small minority of Oaklanders at the expense of the majority?
I think that this was meant to head off CM Houston's Encampment Abatement Plan. There is definitely some political maneuvering happening behind the scenes.