Oh, Give Me a Home....

Food, recipes, fashion, sport, education, exercise, sexuality, travel.
User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Joe Guy »

Oakland moms call offer for temporary housing 'an insult'

One of the homeless mothers who has been living in a vacant West Oakland house since Nov. 18 scoffed Saturday night at an offer by the house's owner to pay to move them out and shelter them for the next two months, calling the offer "an insult."

"It is deeply disingenuous for this multi-million-dollar corporation, through their multi-million-dollar public relations firm, to pretend to be concerned about the well being of black families," said Dominique Walker, one of the mothers who has been staying at this Magnolia Street house, owned by the real estate investment firm Wedgewood Properties. "Wedgewood CEO Greg Geiser is desperate to avoid taking responsibility for how this company has contributed to the housing crisis that is causing families like mine to be homeless and for participating in an industry that has robbed Black and marginalized communities of land and wealth for generations."

Earlier Saturday, Wedgewood said it's offering to pay for the women's move to a shelter run by a nonprofit and pay for them to stay there for two months.

"We urge the group to leave peacefully and voluntarily. We will pay Catholic Charities of the East Bay, one of the leading providers of homeless services in Oakland, to provide shelter and assistance to the moms for the next two months," said Sam Singer, a spokesman for Wedgewood Properties.

That offer came a day after an Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled Walker and Sameerah Karim, 41, who both belong to a group called Moms 4 Housing, have no valid claim of possession to the house at 2928 Magnolia St. The judge's ruling means the mothers have five business days before the Alameda County Sheriff will evict them.

After Friday's court ruling, Moms 4 Housing posted on Twitter that "The moms, and the community behind us, will not leave the property."

"We want to buy this home through the Oakland Community Land Trust, but Wedgewood would rather see our kids be in shelters or worse," Walker said in her statement Saturday night. "We have seen corporations with blood on their hands try to buy public favor and this is an example. Their 'offer' is an insult."
I get it. It's everyone else's fault for the situation you're in so you should be allowed to occupy a home that you don't own. The property owners are victimizing you and being racist toward you and your children.

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18299
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by BoSoxGal »

You’re right! Those nasty uppity black bitches got no cause to complain when it’s clearly all their own fault they are homeless. They should take the table scraps being tossed at them and STFU. Just like all the rest of the uppity brown people should!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
Scooter
Posts: 16540
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:04 pm
Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Scooter »

Evicting someone from a home and saying "hey, there's a shelter for you" is pretty ridiculous. It's not a substitute and barely a stopgap for permanent housing. The "offer" serves no purpose other than PR and easing the owner's conscience.

That being said, they were squatting. They can't expect to be able to continue to do so indefinitely, or to have that rewarded by having their illegal occupancy converted into a legitimate tenancy.

On the broader issue, however, allowing livable housing to sit vacant in the midst of a shortage , whether for speculative or other purposes, should not be without consequence. Many Canadian cities have taken a dim view of it and have imposed additional taxes on vacant housing in order to discourage it.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Joe Guy »

If someone were occupying a home I owned, I wouldn't be offering them anything other than an eviction. Paying for a shelter for someone who broke into your house and won't leave is a pretty good offer. The home does look like it needs work and should be repaired and rented out though. The article obviously doesn't tell the whole story.

User avatar
TPFKA@W
Posts: 4833
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:50 am

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by TPFKA@W »

I will never understand the mentality.

User avatar
Scooter
Posts: 16540
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:04 pm
Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Scooter »

Joe Guy wrote:If someone were occupying a home I owned, I wouldn't be offering them anything other than an eviction. Paying for a shelter for someone who broke into your house and won't leave is a pretty good offer.
I wouldn't have offered anything, the offer can only be intended to make the owner look good, either to themselves or others. What does "paying for a shelter" even mean, anyway? Either a shelter has space for them or it does not; "payment" is not going to get them a spot when it doesn't exist. What they are really doing is making a donation to a shelter that isn't really tied in any way to getting these people a space, so why not just call it what it is?
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Joe Guy »

A lot of shelters do charge you if you stay more than a week. I don't know how it works in other states or Canada.

ETA: Families are placed in motels by social services in some cities. That's could be an option they're planning to pay for since they may not qualify for homeless assistance. Who knows?
Last edited by Joe Guy on Mon Jan 13, 2020 5:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
TPFKA@W
Posts: 4833
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:50 am

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by TPFKA@W »

Joe Guy wrote:A lot of shelters do charge you if you stay more than a week. I don't know how it works in other states or Canada.
I just read that to be the case in the UK as well. TIL.

User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Joe Guy »

I just realized that I forgot to post the source of the article. There’s a photo of the house there.

User avatar
Guinevere
Posts: 8989
Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2010 3:01 pm

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Guinevere »

Scooter wrote:
Joe Guy wrote:If someone were occupying a home I owned, I wouldn't be offering them anything other than an eviction. Paying for a shelter for someone who broke into your house and won't leave is a pretty good offer.
I wouldn't have offered anything, the offer can only be intended to make the owner look good, either to themselves or others. What does "paying for a shelter" even mean, anyway? Either a shelter has space for them or it does not; "payment" is not going to get them a spot when it doesn't exist. What they are really doing is making a donation to a shelter that isn't really tied in any way to getting these people a space, so why not just call it what it is?
The offer is intended to induce the women and their families to leave voluntarily, without having to go through the eviction process -- which requires lawyers, time, and money. It's pretty difficult here in Massachusetts. I can only imagine how difficult it is in California.

Affordable housing is and has been a huge issue in many places, and the solutions aren't great. In Massachusetts, some cities and towns, and now even the legislature, are starting to discuss a transfer tax on real property transactions and using the dollars to create a trust fund for affordable housing (however that's defined, and in most instances, "affordable housing" isn't, for the people that really need it). I don't know if that's the answer either, but it's better than doing nothing, relying on shelters, or having people so desperate they are willing to squat in an empty house.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

User avatar
Long Run
Posts: 6717
Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:47 pm

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Long Run »

Guinevere wrote: The offer is intended to induce the women and their families to leave voluntarily, without having to go through the eviction process -- which requires lawyers, time, and money.
A friend of mine who owns/manages dozens of units had his first eviction situation a couple of years ago. When I explained the costs involved, he offered the tenants a cash payment of about half his expected costs if they would vacate within a week, which they did. The owner in this story sounds like a developer that buys distressed and beat up homes, renovates them and then sells them (like we can see on any number of HGTV programs). However, in this situation the squatters have far less rights than holdover tenants. No easy solution for the bigger problem of homelessness, but this situation is pretty straight forward.

User avatar
Scooter
Posts: 16540
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:04 pm
Location: Toronto, ON

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Scooter »

The eviction process appears to have happened, as the court had ruled and the sheriff was due to arrive in a few days to carry it out.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Joe Guy »

Guinevere wrote:.....Affordable housing is and has been a huge issue in many places, and the solutions aren't great......
Where I live "Affordable Housing" is a joke. The politicians use that term to make them sound concerned about needy people but what they, the builders and cities really want is more housing to generate more revenue. The average person can't afford to rent here but new construction fills up fast with employees of Google, Facebook and other well paid employees. They are also changing zoning ordinances and giving exemptions to allow people with single family homes to add ADUs (additional dwelling units) to their residences for renting. All this does is cram more people into a smaller area. People who want to live in a single family home are being criticized and told to move someplace else.

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

User avatar
datsunaholic
Posts: 1790
Joined: Sun Dec 13, 2015 12:53 am
Location: The Wet Coast

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by datsunaholic »

Same here. Apartments in downtown Seattle, surrounded by Google and Amazon run in excess of $2500 a month for a 350sqft 1bedroom apartment. When it takes 10 times minimum wage just to afford an apartment, actual affordable housing is impossible. True, sub-$1000 units exist elsewhere in the city in older buildings, but they aren't being built new.
Death is Nature's way of telling you to slow down.

User avatar
TPFKA@W
Posts: 4833
Joined: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:50 am

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by TPFKA@W »

This is why people move to Indiana, affordable housing. Oh and to see tornadoes.

User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....Update

Post by Joe Guy »

Update....
Deputies evict squatting Oakland moms in pre-dawn raid

In an early morning raid, sheriff's deputies evicted a group of mothers illegally occupying a vacant house in Oakland.

Multiple videos posted by news organizations online show the mothers being pulled out of the house and put in handcuffs by deputies just before 6 a.m. Protesters stood outside chanting "shame on you" at the deputies.

Alameda County sheriff's deputies arrested two women and a man during the eviction, a sheriff's spokesman confirmed. KQED News reported the three arrested were mothers Tolani King and Misty Cross and activist Jesse Turner, all of whom are being charged with obstructing a police officer in the course of their duties. The home's doors and windows were subsequently boarded up by officers.

The women's children were removed from the home on Monday night, according to KCBS Radio.

Wedgewood Inc. bought the property for $501,000 at a foreclosure auction last year. They had planned to flip the 1,500-square-foot property, which is on Magnolia Street in West Oakland.

The women and their children moved into the three-bedroom house without permission in November, partly to protest the methods of speculators who they say snap up distressed homes and leave them empty despite the housing crisis.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Patrick McKinney ruled on Friday that the women do not have the right to stay and must leave within five days.

McKinney allowed lawyers for one of the women, Dominique Walker, and her recently formed collective, Moms 4 Housing, to make their case. They argued that housing is a right and that the court must give the women the right to possess the house(yeah, that's the ticket!), especially because it sat vacant for so long and the alternative would be to send the women to live on the streets.

The judge denied Walker's request to offer expert testimony on the right to housing through federal and international law.

“The court recognizes the importance of these issues but, as raised in connection with Ms. Walker's claim of right to possession, finds that they are outside the scope of this proceeding," McKinney wrote.

In recent days, supporters of the women have gathered in front of the house.

Wedgewood Inc. offered to house the women for two months through Catholic Charities and pay for moving expenses. The sheriff's office also offered services. Moms 4 Housing rejected the offers.

Moms 4 Housing issued a statement on Twitter after the eviction: "We’ve built a movement of thousands of Oaklanders who showed up at a moments notice to reject police violence and advocate for homes for families. This isn’t over, and it won’t be over until everyone in the Oakland community has a safe and dignified place to live."

Wedgewood also released a statement: "Wedgewood is pleased the illegal occupation of its Oakland home has ended peacefully. That is what the company has sought since the start. We will now work with a non-profit, Shelter 37, to renovate the home giving opportunities to at-risk Oakland youths and splitting the profits with the non-profit so that other youths may benefit."

The case reflects California's severe housing shortage and growing numbers of homeless people. Federal officials said last month that an uptick in the country's homeless population was driven entirely by a 16% increase in California, where the median sales price of a home is $500,000 and is even higher in the San Francisco Bay Area.
source

User avatar
BoSoxGal
Posts: 18299
Joined: Tue Apr 06, 2010 10:36 pm
Location: The Heart of Red Sox Nation

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by BoSoxGal »

There isn’t a single housing market in the USA where minimum wage will cover the rent anymore - not even flyover flatland.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

User avatar
RayThom
Posts: 8604
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:38 pm
Location: Longwood Gardens PA 19348

Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by RayThom »

A few years ago a squatter in the Philly area claimed that Sharia law gave him the right to take possession of a vacant home that he liked. Pennsylvania law said otherwise.

He. too, left "his" home in handcuffs, never to return.

The 'Man' is always keeping someone down.
Image
“In a world whose absurdity appears to be so impenetrable, we simply must reach a greater degree of understanding among us, a greater sincerity.” 

User avatar
Joe Guy
Posts: 13925
Joined: Fri Apr 09, 2010 2:40 pm
Location: Redweird City, California

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Joe Guy »

BoSoxGal wrote:There isn’t a single housing market in the USA where minimum wage will cover the rent anymore - not even flyover flatland.
I don't ever remember a time when minimum wage covered rent. That's why so many people starting out move into rentals with friends. Even a fairly good wage won't leave you a lot of cash for other things. It's been that way for as long as I can remember.

And I can remember things from before you were born.... :mrgreen:

User avatar
Econoline
Posts: 9555
Joined: Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:25 pm
Location: DeKalb, Illinois...out amidst the corn, soybeans, and Republicans

Re: Oh, Give Me a Home....

Post by Econoline »

Joe Guy wrote:It's been that way for as long as I can remember.

And I can remember things from before you were born.... :mrgreen:
I'm not sure how much older I am than you, but when my wife and I were just married the minimum wage was $1.40/hr (it went up to $1.60 a couple of months later), and we rented our first apartment in Chicago for $60 a month.
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
God @The Tweet of God

Post Reply