By Neha Suri
OAKLAND, CA – Mayor of Oakland, Sheng Thao, has threatened more sweeps and criminalization of homeless folks in the area following a violent houseless sweep of more than 100 people this past week at the intersection of West Grand and Martin Luther King Jr. Way, according to homeless advocates.
The sweep comes amid promises that Oakland would relocate the houseless residents to a newly-built Jack London Inn before permanently moving them into supportive housing, said advocates in a statement.
Stated in the city’s 7.2 million dollar grant application, advocates said Oakland claimed the relocation of the residents would be done before the sweep, yet the inn has yet to be finished and no permanent supportive housing has been named.
A former houseless resident of the cleared down encampment described what happened in the sweep, charging in a statement, that “they came here and tore all of our tents down, threw all of our belongings and even a wheelchair into the trash bin, and promised us services and housing but actually gave us no housing.”
Such sweeps and criminalization, said unhoused advocates, have been increasing in recent months after an order from California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom called for homeless encampments to be cleared across the state, noting this authority comes from a recent ruling issued by the Supreme Court in the Grants Pass vs. Johnson case, where cities are now given the authority to begin such sweeps.
Mayor Thao is only one of many city leaders across the state executing Newsom’s guidance, with Mayor London Breed of San Francisco and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles following suit, statewide homeless groups allege.
Critics of Mayor Thao and similar homeless encampment sweeps, like the one she recently led, have claimed funds the city acquired from the sweep could have instead been used to actually relocate the houseless residents into permanent or even temporary housing.
Jeremy Miller, legal advocate with Poor People’s Law Clinic at Homefulness/POOR Magazine responded to the sweep, stating “notwithstanding the Grants Pass Ruling of denial of protection under the 8th Amendment, there is the 14th Amendment, which implies a ‘citizen’s’ right to life and the material resources that guarantee life, such as food, water, shelter, and essentially all of the things that are stolen from people in these violent sweeps, as such, sweeps are not just unethical but patently unconstitutional.”
According to the unhoused statement, Marty, one of the WeSearch reporters who contributed to the 2024 RoofLessRadio WeSearch report, wrote about houseless victims of violent sweeps from Oakland to San Francisco, stating the “increasingly violent sweeps being ordered by Gov. Newsom and Mayors from Oakland to San Francisco to Los Angeles (are aimed) to disappear our houseless bodies and lives from the public streets of so-called California following the Grants Pass vs Johnson Court Case.”
It is not a coincidence that we are hearing similar complaints from homeless people all over the Bay Area in regard to the escalating violence (of these homeless sweeps). I (Malik) have seen an uptick in the incarceration of homeless people who are being victimized by this statewide attack on the homeless. I’ve spoken to an advocate from San Francisco recently and asked was there a set plan as to where the homeless were being relocated. They responded: “There is no plan. Things change on a day-to-day basis and there is no housing being provided for the homeless.” One of the reasons why I’ve been so passionate and committed in regard to my reporting on oversight of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office is because it is our most vulnerable community members that are being rounded up like animals and forced into that death camp known as Santa Rita Jail. Mayor Sheng Thao and Mayor London Breed should be ashamed of themselves because many of the people that they are hurting look just like them. I think it’s important for everyone to remember that this executive order to disappear the houseless came from the Governor’s mansion in Sacramento. I still stand in strong solidarity with Poor Magazine and support the much needed WeSearch project. Down with Krapitalism.