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Wood Street resident Jeremy Beebe at Saturday’s holiday party, where he sold some of his original artwork. He’s posing by a painting he made about the West Oakland community.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0Natalie Orenstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Trays of colorful cookies, fluffy dinner rolls, pots of poinsettias, individually wrapped butter mints and candy canes, chips, dips, salsas, olives, and heavily frosted cupcakes lined the long red tables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Christmas tree weighted down with ornaments watched over the gathering. Drinks, alcoholic and otherwise, flowed freely. Everything was wrapped in tinsel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the third annual holiday party on Wood Street, \u201ca way to say thanks to everyone and to do the same thing everybody does,\u201d said John Janosko. \u201cWe\u2019ve always had that model. Just because we\u2019re unhoused doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t celebrate life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Saturday party drew dozens of people, unhoused and housed, over the course of the afternoon. They gathered at what remains of what has long been Oakland\u2019s largest homeless encampment. The event doubled as an art show, with some residents selling drawings and paintings they created.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Wood Street residents, the party was a welcome moment of celebration at the end of a tough year. Dozens of fires, one deadly<\/a>, broke out at the blocks-long site. Residents have been engaged in a protracted tussle, both on the ground<\/a> and in court<\/a>, with government agencies working to shut down the encampment, who\u2019ve cited the fires and other safety issues. This fall, Caltrans successfully moved people off<\/a> the large area owned by the state, fencing off the property. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A number of people are still living on the southernmost stretch of the West Oakland camp, around 18th and 20th streets, on land owned by the city of Oakland across from Raimondi Park. Those residents have just gotten word that the city plans to close that site, too, from Jan. 9-20. An affordable housing development<\/a> is slated to be built there and can\u2019t break ground if people are living on the property. Residents have been offered spots in the city\u2019s emergency shelter facilities, as well as \u201ccommunity cabin\u201d sites and RV parking lots, according to city spokesperson Jean Walsh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe city has been and is continuing to meet with Wood Street community members to ensure residents are matched to shelter according to their needs,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Janosko said the residents plan to protest the closure and hope to stay put.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re not just destroying an encampment, you\u2019re destroying a community,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople rely on this as an anchor point. Lifelong Medical comes here, we have parties, there\u2019s clothing donations. If they do somehow take us away, we want them to know what they\u2019re taking away. We have artists, electricians, chefs, people\u2019s moms and dads.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The residents call their community the Wood Street Commons<\/a> and say they can govern themselves if they\u2019re allowed access to public land and basic services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the looming January closure was not top of mind on Saturday. The partiers ate, drank, and chatted. Portable toilets were decorated with stockings and bows. One woman who said she\u2019s not very extroverted hung out on the edge of the party, painting her tiny home and quietly observing the festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeremy Beebe was among the artists selling pieces that afternoon. Wearing overalls over a shirt he\u2019d decorated, Beebe stood next to several piles of intricate neon drawings and watercolors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI started [drawing] daily mandalas as a meditation device,\u201d he said. \u201cAs an artist, there\u2019s an amazing abundance of materials on Wood Street. That\u2019s why I love it here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Susan and Barry Stock bought one of Beebe\u2019s pieces to give as a gift. The couple moved to Oakland this year from Hollywood, Florida, and quickly began volunteering on Wood Street through Kehillah Community Synagogue<\/a>. They said Oakland is nothing like Florida, where \u201cbeing homeless is very criminalized,\u201d but they expected to find more robust city services and more housed residents engaging with the people living on the streets here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen you have a population like this, you really have to work with the people and understand what they need in order to support them,\u201d said Susan Stock. She and her husband have been impressed with the systems the Wood Street residents have established and empathize with them, having lost their own house and jobs in the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Theo Cedar Jones, a former Wood Street resident now living with other \u201cCaltrans refugees\u201d a few blocks away on Pine Street, said he hopes the newly elected Oakland officials take a different tack. The planned Jan. 9 closure starts the same day Mayor-elect Sheng Thao and the new city councilmembers will be sworn in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thao didn\u2019t immediately respond to an inquiry about her plans for Wood Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the residents displaced from the parts of the camp owned by Caltrans and the railroad have accepted the government offers of shelter and housing. Many others have simply reparked their RVs on surrounding streets, snaking around the park. Beebe said he\u2019s considered moving into one of the city\u2019s \u201csafe parking\u201d sites for RVs\u2014there\u2019s one on Wood Street, with security, showers, and social services\u2014but said the rules at those sites make them feel \u201cinstitutionalized\u201d and \u201clike incarceration,\u201d which he\u2019s experienced in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt goes between love and hate, my relationship with this place,\u201d Beebe said of Wood Street. \u201cBut I think that if I had a place that was more brick and mortar, I\u2019d still be down here. For the materials, the people, the freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your donation makes this and all our other local reporting possible. Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Oaklandside relies on reader support to remain free for everyone in our community. Your donation goes beyond supporting our journalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also helps your family, friends and Oakland neighbors have access to reliable, independent reporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donate<\/a>TAGGED:<\/strong>Homelessness<\/a>Wood Street<\/a> natalie@oaklandside.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Natalie Orenstein covers housing and homelessness for The Oaklandside. She was previously on staff at Berkeleyside, where her extensive reporting on the legacy of school desegregation received recognition from the Society of Professional Journalists NorCal and the Education Writers Association. Natalie\u2019s reporting has also appeared in The J Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere, and she\u2019s written about public policy for a number of research institutes and think tanks. Natalie lives in Oakland, grew up in Berkeley, and has only left her beloved East Bay once, to attend Pomona College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unhoused residents and friends gathered for an elaborate celebration this weekend, knowing the city plans to close the encampment in January. by\u00a0Natalie Orenstein December 19, 2022 (Oaklandside.org) Trays of colorful cookies, fluffy dinner rolls, pots of poinsettias, individually wrapped butter mints and candy canes, chips, dips, salsas, olives, and heavily… Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/image-2.png\")
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nNATALIE ORENSTEIN<\/h2>\n\n\n\n