Family members, along with their children and supporters, packed into the lobby of the office of Mayor Libby Schaaf in City Hall Thursday afternoon, demanding that the mayor take steps to provide emergency relief for themselves and other homeless families.
“I lost my house, and I’m sleeping in my truck,” said Cortney Glenn, who is seeking a place to live for herself and her four children.
The family has been homeless since January.
In open letter to Schaaf, grandmother Paula Beal said, “Like thousands of other families in Oakland, we are sick and tired of being homeless. Everywhere we go, it’s barriers. Everyone has a different story of how they became homeless, but every homeless person has experienced the things we’ve experienced,” including discrimination, inadequate protection from landlords, nowhere to turn for help and constant fear and threats to safety.
The groups demand Mayor Schaaf provide:
Emergency relief for homeless families – “No child under the age of 18 should be without shelter on your watch;”
Protect Oakland renters – put the renter’s protection initiative on the November ballot and extend the emergency moratorium on rent increases and evictions;
Redistribute at least 25 percent of the Oakland Police Department’s budget to fund programs and services to prevent and address displacement, poverty and violence in Oakland.
Watch Community READY Corps’s video posted on facebook.
Organizations supporting the action included Community Ready Corps and Just Cause: Causa Justa.
For more information, go to www.crc4sd.org/ blog/2016/6/30/open-letter-to-libby-schaaf-froma-homeless-oakland-family
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