What is supposed to happen when people get arrested for being homeless

By Leajay Harper /POOR Magazine 

“What is supposed to happen when people get arrested for being homeless? Do you come out housed? Do you get out healed?” a woman (who did not state her name) asked the Berkeley mayor and other council members at last nights city council meeting.

The meeting was for Berkeley city to now support the executive order placed by the governor last month. The executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them, and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same.

Since the order was In Place, we’ve seen violent sweeps happening in San Francisco, where Mayor London Breed promises to make people camping outside uncomfortable. One of the strategies that many cities are using to respond to the order is to incarcerate people that refuse to cooperate with police.

Vigilante crimes against homeless people have increased as more housed residents across Bay Area cities are reporting about the blight and public defecation. Because of the executive order put on by the governor, people in the community think they can take matters into their own hands in addressing the homeless because they feel law enforcement is behind them. The misappropriation of all the billions of dollars that CA says we have spent on housing and providing services to the unhoused have still failed to provide any reports showing how many people have actually been placed.

“You’re not supposed to be texting during a council meeting,” demands Sheryl, another angry resident frustrated because the body language was a direct reflection of how much compassion the stakeholders hold for our unhoused relatives.

The mayor was very adamant about people not disturbing the meeting, that if people speak out of turn they will be asked to leave, but my question is: How do they expect people to act when their freedom is a question on the table?

In the last month we have seen cities moving very fast to implement policies that criminalize people living outside, while people have been trying to get housing and are being given the run-around from agencies that the county has put in control of this process.

Another strategy that we see being used is to offer people bus tickets home… In Alameda County alone, a report on the unhoused states that 68% have lived here their whole lives.

And so again we ask, 

“Where do we go?”

There have been people placed into Tuff Shed communities with the promise from the city that people are temporarily put in tiny sheds for a max of 90 days. But the average time that it takes for a person to receive the housing through the coordinated entry system is a minimum of a year to actually get housed, and that is if you have a high enough score to get matched with a placement.

There are less than 300 county beds in shelters and over 7000 people currently unhoused. 

I was unhoused on Wood Street and when the city relocated me to a city sanctioned RV lot, I was lost and disconnected from the community I felt safe in for 10 years. In December, I was blessed to be welcomed as the 16th resident in permanent healing housing model, rent-free for life, at POOR Magazine’s Homefulness, which operates fully on the radical redistribution of wealth hoarders’ money. I would like to add that I didn't have to go through any bullshit ass city-ran agency to move into this community. It was the genuine love of the community that understands how much a person can strive once given the opportunity to heal from trauma, a lot of mine came from being swept time and time again. 

I think the most fucked up part for me is that there are plenty of self-ran communities that have been around for years and that provide people with everything that they need to remained housed forever. It doesn't make sense that more communities (like Homefulness) aren’t being supported or even modeled after because these communities put the people first instead of feeding the lie of capitalism and

colonization.

Here’s how you can get involved with us:

On October 4th 2024 Wood St Commons (west oakland unhoused community) and other supporting organizations and community allies will be riding our bikes from Oakland to Sacramento. We are hoping to meet with all of the Assembly and Senate Members that currently sit on the Housing committees and the Governor's office. For more information, see this Google form. You can also donate to the GoFundMe.