No Matter What The Court Says, We Continue To Fight For Housing As A Human Right
In what has now been a series of rulings gutting decades of civil rights protections and empowering the executive/enforcement branch of government, the United States Supreme Court ruled this past Friday, June 29, 2024, that it is illegal to be homeless.
This decision will disproportionately impact Black and disabled people who are already disproportionately impacted by state violence. And it will further legitimize the practice of forced evictions of our unhoused neighbors. We reject this decision, and we are committed to defending the rights of our communities in the face of this violent decision.
We reject this decision, and we are committed to defending the rights of our communities in the face of this violent decision.
In the last several years of California’s housing crisis, as houseless community members faced relentless evictions, communities like that of Wood Street in West Oakland were able to come together to build a commons organized for housing solutions. Rather than work with impacted community members towards solutions, the state plans to re-traumatize and displace houseless communities through forced evictions backed by armed law enforcement. Our organizations have seen the devastating impacts of sweeps, including the loss of resources like healthcare and food, loss of community and property. We will continue to work with impacted community members and values-aligned organizations towards permanent and supportive housing solutions.
We call our local community to action!
We encourage those who can give to do so generously to the Love in Justice in the Streets (LJS) rapid response fund that supports unhoused community members during sweeps. When state actors demolish and trash people’s belongings through sweeps, Punks with Lunch and LJS offer food, water, and other supplies, replacing survival gear including tents, blankets and clothing. These supplies are as necessary as ever in this heat wave as the City of Oakland continues to sweep unhoused communities.
With the threat of increased sweeps and the heightened police presence that they bring, we also call on our community to volunteer with APTP’s MH1 program, supporting encampment defense through trauma-informed crisis response.
Housing is a human right and we demand a protected “Right to Housing” be added to the state constitution and Oakland city charter. We demand the decommodification of housing through practices such as limiting speculation, increasing tenant protections, rent caps, public housing, land trusts, adopting “Housing First” policies, low barrier client-centered trauma-informed transitional housing and permanent supportive housing, and an immediate END to encampment sweeps which exacerbate personal and community crises at great expense which could be instead invested into solutions.
Anti Police-Terror Project
Love and Justice in the Streets
Punks w/ Lunch
References:
https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/homeless-encampment-cleanup-schedule