Oakland’s Homeless Mothers Spark a Movement
By: Azucena Rasilla
Tags: Bay Area, Cities, Oakland, Equality, Bay Area Housing

I watched in horror, along with the rest of Oakland, as videos surfaced online showing the forceful and shameful eviction of a group of homeless moms from a vacant West Oakland home they had been occupying since November to give themselves and their children a safe place to live.

The group of women — Dominique Walker, Sameerah Karim, Tolani King, and Misty Cross — took over the house at 2928 Magnolia Street, owned by Wedgewood Properties, a Redondo Beach–based real estate investment group, which had been sitting empty for two years.

In recent months, the women, all members of Moms 4 Housing, have received an enormous amount of support from the community, as well as from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. What the moms wanted from Wedgewood was simple: for it to sell the home to the Oakland Community Land Trust; in turn, the property would remain affordable in perpetuity.

Instead, at 5 a.m. this past Tuesday, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office sent a tanklike vehicle down the street to the house, along with soldiers carrying AR-15s. This entire display of warlike tactics was all to remove mothers from a place where they sought shelter — a place no one else is using. The women were charged with misdemeanors. After the eviction, Wedgewood sent a crew to board up the property, erect a temporary chain-link fence around the premises, and dump all the moms’ belongings onto the street without giving them a chance to properly pack their furniture—even their kids’ toys.

The story created a firestorm, not only for the cruelty displayed toward these women and their families, but also because it represents the larger problems of inequality and displacement that have reached a boiling point in the Bay Area. Evicting tenants in Oakland is nothing new, but it’s been particularly bad in recent years, especially for renters who are Black, Brown, senior, or disabled, as landlords make way for wealthier newcomers.

Destiny Johnson, 12, bottom, and her sister, Demi Johnson, five, the daughters of Moms 4 Housing’s Misty Cross, spend time in their room in a vacant house in West Oakland. Photo: Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images

There are countless tragic stories of eviction, such as when one of the last single-room occupancies— then called the Travelers Hotel — was sold in April 2016 and the new owner evicted its tenants, who were mostly low-income or seniors. The building was remodeled and turned into a swanky communal-living space. Then there’s the story of Jahahara Alkebulan-Ma’at, a disabled senior whose landlord evicted him on Christmas Day and posted a pro-Trump billboard on the building. Over in Fruitvale, neighbors rallied to prevent the eviction of a Latinx family living in an apartment with the help of a Section 8 voucher, but the developer wanted them out and saw to it.

These stories happen every day throughout this town, which is why the Moms 4 Housing case has struck such a cord. When being able to rent a place becomes unattainable, people will resort to other ways.

I write this essay not from a journalistic perspective, but as a lifelong Oaklander, one who — much like Dominique, Sameerah, Tolani, and Misty — knows what it’s like to count pennies every month in hopes that you can make your rent. Someone who has seen her hometown slip away from hardworking low- and middle-income families who have called Oakland home for generations. Someone whose own family has dealt with the pain and trauma of eviction.

The moms of the house on Magnolia Street are out there bravely doing the labor many of us wish we had the guts to do.

I’ve seen firsthand how landlords take advantage of the new reality here: Why rent to a local Black or Brown family for a reasonable amount when there’s a wealthy transplant ready to pay inflated rent? The number of high-income renters in Oakland earning more than $150,000 grew by 173% between 2014 and 2018, according to an analysis by RentCafé.

The moms of the house on Magnolia Street are out there bravely doing the labor many of us wish we had the guts to do. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve driven or walked by an empty home, quickly pulling the public records on my phone and wondering if the owner would be willing to rent at a more affordable monthly rent or sell to someone who hopes to stay in Oakland.

What people who are opposed to Moms 4 Housing’s unconventional methods do not understand is that as a city, as people, we’ve reached our limit. Conventional methods haven’t worked, so here we are fighting for our right to stay in the city we love, the city that birthed and nurtured us, the city that made us resilient and political. For those who tell us to move elsewhere — somewhere we can afford — my answer to you is this: No one should have to make hundreds of thousands of dollars just to be able to stay in their hometown, near family and everything they know.

The attention Moms 4 Housing is receiving is the start of a much-needed revolution to shed light on the desperate need for affordable housing.

We were here when apartments around Lake Merritt were $600 and a family could comfortably rent a house for under $2,000. We were here when no one else wanted to be — when Oakland was a stain on the map, when people from San Francisco were too afraid to cross the bridge. We grew up without all the hipster coffee shops, bars, and restaurants. We loved that Oakland. And we are tired of seeing our friends and family get displaced by those with a fleeting affection for our city.

The attention Moms 4 Housing is receiving is the start of a much-needed revolution to shed light on the desperate need for affordable housing. Sadly, their initial momentum wasn’t enough to garner national press coverage; it was the unnecessary force used to carry out the eviction that finally made national outlets pay attention.

The group’s movement had been overlooked for so long on a national level for many reasons, but first and foremost because they are Black women who carry a stigma of being homeless. Most people can’t fathom that someone with a job would be unable to secure housing. But one of the moms, Sameerah Karim, still could not afford a place despite working three jobs. I’d argue that if the residents of the house on Magnolia were white women with white children, the press attention and outcome would have turned out much differently.

My far-fetched wish is that transplants who moved to Oakland will realize the role they have played in the displacement of Black and Brown families and step up to join the fight, rather than contribute to the problem.

As I sit here typing this, my income spreadsheet on the next tab over, wondering how I’m going to pay my rent next month, my heart is heavy for Dominique, Sameerah, Tolani, Misty, and their children. It is heavy for so many families who are suffering here. If (God forbid) I have to move out of my apartment because I can no longer afford the rent, at least I have the option of going back to my parents’ place. Who do the mothers have to turn to?

My far-fetched wish is that transplants who moved to Oakland realize the role they have played in the displacement of Black and Brown families and step up to join the fight, rather than contribute to the problem. Activists have worked tirelessly to make sure the moms and their small revolution garnered attention, but the burden to find a solution is on all of us, especially those who came to the city for a job and played a role in gentrification.

If you own investment properties, are you willing to rent to these women at an affordable price that locals can pay? If you have a property sitting vacant, are you willing to let it go for a lower selling price? If you are new to town, are you willing to show up, protest, and support these women? That is the kind of activism we need. The fight for them to get a home is not over.

To my local lawmakers, especially to Mayor Libby Schaaf, do you want this to be your legacy — the displacement of families? Stop catering to developers who contribute to your campaigns, and use your political power to help your constituents.

The mothers represent all of us Oaklanders, fighting every day to remain rooted in our hometown. We value building and maintaining community. We all want to prosper, have a family (if we choose), and live comfortably. Housing is a human right. I thank Dominique, Sameerah, Tolani, and Misty for starting this housing revolution. Who is willing to join them?