Carroll Fife, our new Oakland District Three City Councilmember, conducted a land search, and explained why in an email to her constituents, of which this vlogger is one of them. The video playlist is on Zennie62 YouTube, and made from her YouTube channel is below. I took the liberty of making it because her videos, in a number of cases, had either zero or single-digit views, and I, who made Oakland’s first YouTube Partner Channel, know how to repair the problem.
Just click on the photo, below, to see the video playlist:
Here’s the email explaining what Councilmember Fife is doing:
Dear movement family,
We take care of us. That’s not just a slogan, it’s how I live my life. And now it’s time for the people of Oakland to take care of US.
During a recent City Council committee meeting, City staff published a list of City-owned properties to use as locations for tiny homes, trailer parking or other services for unhoused residents. They asked each city councilmember to pick suitable spots in our district, but the list they gave for District 3 only included five properties and all but one were listed as “unsuitable.”
So I’m taking matters into my own hands. This Saturday, April 3rd, we’re going hunting for a suitable site.
I’ll be live-streaming our tour of potential sites for homelessness services starting at 10 am on Saturday at Mosswood Park. Join me on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube as we visit existing encampments like the one at Wood Street to learn about the conditions and needs there, and tour sites including the Army Base to find land that can be used to help address the housing crisis in our city. You can also report locations of vacant buildings and land to our webform HERE.
I am exploring every possibility to get people into housing. When I submitted my budget recommendations, I proposed to purchase a vacant student dormitory to serve as emergency housing for unsheltered people because it is unacceptable for any form of housing to be sitting empty while people are on the streets in a pandemic. This week the Council adopted my proposal and voted to lease the building with federal funds with the ultimate goal of purchase. I will continue to advocate that this not be a temporary solution, but rather a permanent one, by fighting to get funding to buy the building and make it permanently affordable housing.
Yours in solidarity,
Carroll Fife
Stay tuned.