Letter to Chron: Wood Street residents have built an amazing homeless community. Why is Oakland evicting them?

Jan. 9, 2023 (SFChronicle.com)

Comments

Regarding “I’m a resident of the Wood Street encampment. Oakland is trying to erase my community” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, Jan. 6): The Wood Street encampment has a value that is completely belied by its ragged appearance. As LaMonte Ford well notes in his excellent article, it is something far more.

Having passed by many times, I went into the camp for the first time Thursday, and although I have worked in housing for decades, it is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Even though they work in circumstances that could hardly be more difficult (water? electricity? a floor? a roof?), they are creating not only a place of shelter for people with no resources and people that no one else will accept, but a community where they are building care, concern, compassion and even humanity.  

How many of us do or can say that? Let’s not use our collective city resources to evict the homeless.

Philip Rapier, Oakland

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