SOFT NEWS Oaklanders sick of the housing crisis build a complex below an underpass

[Cardinal]

Oaklanders build complex with shower, kitchen, and CLINIC for homeless

Cob on Wood is a small village center along Wood Street in West Oakland, beneath Interstate 880, which has transformed a patch of one of the city's biggest homeless encampments.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Oaklanders sick of the housing crisis build a complex below an underpass complete with a hot shower, fully stocked kitchen, outdoor pizza oven and CLINIC for around 300 homeless residents at nearby encampments

• Cob on Wood is a small village center along Wood Street in West Oakland, beneath Interstate 880
• It has transformed a patch of one of the city's biggest homeless encampments into a community area
• Between 150 and 300 homeless people access the services and facilities including small huts known as 'cobins' for homeless people to safely shelter
• There's also a communal kitchen, hot shower and compostable toilet, and a free store full of donated clothing
• The center has a free health clinic with on-site practitioners, vegetable gardens and a cob pizza oven
• It also provides opportunities such as construction training, cooking classes and careers development
• Unhoused residents told DailyMail.com they finally have a place 'that I can call home'
• Local organizers began the project in December in response to the city's inadequate response to the homelessness crisis

Oakland residents sick of the housing crisis have built a complex below an underpass complete with a hot shower, fully stocked community kitchen, outdoor pizza oven and health clinic for around 300 homeless people living at nearby encampments to make use of.
Dubbed Cob on Wood, the small village center sprung up in recent months along Wood Street in West Oakland, beneath Interstate 880, transforming a patch of one of the city's biggest homeless encampments into a community area that residents can make their own.
It was developed back in December by a group of local organizers who decided to take matters into their own hands to tackle the homelessness crisis and provide much-needed support for the city's homeless population, who were especially hard hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, it serves anywhere between 150 and 300 homeless people in the area with a focus on the residents having stewardship and governance of the land and offering opportunities for their future such as construction training, nutrition and cooking classes and careers development.
Unhoused residents making use of the center's facilities told DailyMail.com they finally have a place 'that I can call home' as they said people from all walks of lives and professions have fallen into homelessness in the community.
Organizers plan to develop the site further with a GoFundMe campaign reaching more than $57,000 in donations by Saturday morning.

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Oakland residents sick of the housing crisis have built a complex below an underpass dubbed Cob on Wood

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An inside view of a tiny home, called a cobin, at Cob on Wood in Oakland, California, made from foraged materials

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Vibrant murals add color to the area and there's even a cob pizza oven for people to enjoy their dining experience

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Dubbed Cob on Wood, the small village center sprung up along Wood Street in West Oakland, beneath Interstate 880, in recent months

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The site is complete with a hot shower, fully stocked community kitchen, outdoor pizza oven and health clinic

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It features colorful murals and offers services for around 300 homeless people living at nearby encampments to make use of

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The full-stocked kitchen is open 24/7 7 for people to make use of its food, fridge, stove, pantry and sink

 

[Cardinal]

The small civic center features a network of small huts known as 'cobins' for homeless people living in vehicles, tents and improvised shelters nearby to safely take shelter in.
There's also a communal kitchen with sink, stove, pantry and fridge stocked full of food that residents can access 24/7 seven days a week.
A hot shower and compostable toilet have also been built on site and residents have access to a free store full of donated clothing and toys for them to take as they need.
Other services include a free health clinic with herbal remedies, balms and salves as well as on-site practitioners to help the vulnerable population stay healthy.


The aesthetic of the area has also been completely transformed.
Where once trash and needles littered the area, gravel pathways have been laid, flowers and vegetable gardens planted potted and picnic tables set up to create a communal outdoor space.
Vibrant murals add color to the area and there's even a cob pizza oven for people to enjoy.
The structures are made from foraged materials including sand, water, straw and subsoil making sustainable and long lasting.
Beyond the physical benefits of offering these services to homeless residents, the village aims to provide a sense of community and land ownership.

One resident called Oliver told DailyMail.com the creation of Cob on Wood has given him somewhere to go as he reminded people that 'we're regular people just like y'all.'
'I didn't expect to be on Wood Street but I am on Wood Street and this is basically a home that I can call home because I have nowhere to go,' he said.
'Yes we are homeless people but, you know what, we're regular people just like y'all.'
He said people living on the street and using the facilities are 'hard workers' who have come from all sorts of professions and have fallen on hard times.
'We're hard workers - we have welders, construction jobs, teachers, we got young people here that know how to dance and sing,' he said.
'We got people that basically are mechanics work on big boy trucks, big boy welders, regular people.'
Another resident Lydia told how she ended up moving to an encampment in the area because her RV was gettign towed.
'My first RV was towed a few years ago,' she told DailyMail.com.
'When I asked police where I could go that my RV wouldn't be towed they said Wood Street.'

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The free store within the Cob on Wood complex is available for people to take what they need when they need it

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Resident Marchant Lane stands among the area which has been transformed since the development began in December

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A sewing area for people to amend or make clothing. The area has a focus on the residents having stewardship and governance of the land

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A hot shower is seen with towels available for use. There is also a compostable toilet on site for residents to use

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The compostable toilet is pictured. Organizers plan to develop the site further with a GoFundMe campaign reaching more than $57,000 in donations by Saturday morning

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A small garden used to grow herbs is seen at the site. Unhoused residents making use of the center's facilities told DailyMail.com they finally have a place 'that I can call home'
Cob on Wood organizer Leah Van Winkle told DailyMail.com between 150 and 300 people live in the nearby area and can make use of the facilities and services on offer.
Van Winkle said three community groups Living Earth Structures, Essential Food and Medicine (EFAM) and Artists Building Communities came together in December to develop the area in response to resident requests.
'Cob on Wood itself serves the broader Wood Street community which is a much larger space anywhere between 150 and 300 people live on this land,' she said.
'These structures were erected in terms of getting to know the community and what they need and hearing a lot of need for support structures.'
The land where Wood Street - and now Cob on Wood - is based is partly owned by the state's transport agency, Caltrans, and partly the city of Oakland and the organizers are turning their attentions to trying to protect residents from eviction and further displacement.
'We've been reaching out a lot more to residents and collaborating with residents to stop evictions, to stop displacement,' said Van Winkle.

 

[Cardinal]

She said the focus is on working with residents to give them a sense of land ownership and enabling them to enjoy and run the space as they wish.
'What really matters here is that residents from this place, from this land, are fully living into these structures and are guiding their own process of self-governance and stewardship of land,' she said.
'We're having a big weekend of clean up efforts this weekend and probably ongoing in to the next weeks which are 100 percent residents led.

'Residents will be leading the clear-up effort and that's really the role of organizations in this space to build up the efforts on the ground and not just give residents a voice at the table but create the ground where people can just come up and live into their own visions and be stewards of land and space and community.'
There is also the aim to build residential 'cobins' for homeless people to live in long term as well as chicken coops, and a water system to install a washer and dryer using recycled water.
Oakland has been rocked by soaring rates of homelessness in recent times with official data revealing at least 140 encampments across the city.
But the city has been slammed for its inadequate response to the crisis.

An audit released in April found the city was 'not adequately prepared to shoulder such a massive project' and 'did not have a strategy.'
This came after the United Nations general assembly slammed the city's treatment of homeless people as 'cruel and inhumane' in 2018.
The city has launched a number of projects including its Tuff Shed program offering temporary transitional shelters to the homeless and assisting in the finding of permanent housing.
'Safe RV Parking' sites have also been set up to prevent the displacement of people and has invested $12.6 million over the past two years.
But both homeless and housed residents in the city believe efforts have fallen short and the situation only worsened due to COVID-19 as the homeless population nationwide were vulnerable to cramped conditions and lack of healthcare amid the pandemic.
The community area provides an alternative remedy to help tackle the city's homelessness crisis.

Lots more pics at link

 

[Faroe]

Reminds me of the day shelter I used to work at.
It is pretty. Hope they can keep it nice.

 

[mzkitty]

Interesting concept. I really hope it does help.

 

[Samuel Adams]

Needs to go nationwide.

Tribal.....community....everbody got everybody’s back.

No property taxes, mortgages or building permits.

 

[ShadowMan]

Not so sure I'd want to build anything UNDER that overhead freeway in EARTHQUAKE COUNTRY!!

Can you say....PANCAKE!!

However, I like the idea of COB cabins over those rag tag tents and lean-to's on every back street. Even a composting toilet is FAR BETTER than the homeless just crapping on the sidewalks!! I don't know the answer to this homeless issue but we have to do SOMETHING!! This situation is getting totally out of hand!

 

[dawgofwar10]

Finally, the community doing what it used to do with the down and out. How long before state or feds come in and screw this up.

 

[Cardinal]

In many ways this is actually better than the gov moving these people to where ever. They get to stay together and continue to build a community, while getting their basic needs met and the services they can use.

 

[SpokaneMan]

Love it.... Cardinal? would you come spend the rest of your life with me in one of those?

 

[rob0126]

Helping the homeless is a good thing. I hope it is successful.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Needs to go nationwide.

Tribal.....community....everbody got everybody’s back.

No property taxes, mortgages or building permits.

If they don't have to get building permits, better make it hard for them to be sued if/when someone has a slip and fall or something similar. All it is going to take is one "resident" to find a lawyer.

 

[Dennis Olson]

This is extremely cool. Hope it works out.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Finally, the community doing what it used to do with the down and out. How long before state or feds come in and screw this up.

5..... 4..... 3..... 2....

 

[Doomer Doug]

The homeles are regular people just like you all.
Except I am not a drug addict, or mentally ill, or an alcoholic so F/<** ed up I live under a road like you do.
Forever making excuses and refusing to be responsible for the decisions and choices you make. The gov't will do nothing and 3 months from now the dysfunctional "homeless" will have destroyed everything.

 

[MetalMan]

"You'll own nothing but you will be happy"

 

[ShadowMan]

Here's the thing folks. When I was running a Veteran college prep program in Colorado, twice a year all the various local humanitarian services got together and held a "Homeless Assistance Weekend". The homeless would get a free meal, free new sleeping bag, socks, underwear, medical exam, dental work, job search......and such. I would help vets apply for VA Education benefits, VA disability, and such things.

There are basically several types of homeless.

Those that are:

• Down on their luck and trying to get back on their feet, more than willing to get any help to get back to normal.
• Have serious issues and shouldn't be on their own; medical, mental, drugs, whatever.
• Don't want to work for a living, don't want a job, boss, responsibilities, etc.

There are a group of homeless that just don't care, they don't want limits, rules, anything. They've got everything figured out: where to get whatever they want and need: food, medicine, drugs, shelter, etc., etc., they don't want is to be accountable to ANYONE!! And the last thing they want is to have to conform to anything.

So we can take care of two-thirds of the homeless....but a third will not comply.

 

[Meemur]

There are basically several types of homeless.

- There are also bipolar ones who are cooperative about half of the time, until something sets them off, and then they get mean.

- There are also criminals on the run, hiding out, pretending to be homeless and sometimes mentally ill so people leave them alone.

I worked with the homeless for a brief time as part of a "welfare to work" grant program. I will never do anything like that, again. That's a position for former marines with good shooting skills and a 6' 5" husky, battle-conditioned body. While about 1/3 are docile, it's not a good idea to turn your back on the rest, ever.

 

[vestige]

- There are also bipolar ones who are cooperative about half of the time, until something sets them off, and then they get mean.

- There are also criminals on the run, hiding out, pretending to be homeless and sometimes mentally ill so people leave them alone.

I worked with the homeless for a brief time as part of a "welfare to work" grant program. I will never do anything like that, again. That's a position for former marines with good shooting skills and a 6' 5" husky, battle-conditioned body. While about 1/3 are docile, it's not a good idea to turn your back on the rest, ever.

Good thinking

 

[dioptase]

I agree with ShadowMan - the very first thought that I had was the overpass coming down in a big earthquake. I guess they gotta build wherever they can (and land in this part of CA is priced by the square foot, as one realtor told us), but still....

Interesting info from those of you who have worked with the homeless. What do you do with the 1/3 that don't want to integrate with society?

 

[Meemur]

What do you do with the 1/3 that don't want to integrate with society?

-- put them on a bus at midnight and send them away so they are someone else's problem
-- bribe them to cooperate
-- ignore them as much as possible
-- get them arrested (if they have drugs they might get sent away for a long time)
-- foist them off on an intern or a church missionary
-- scare the crap out of them so that they stay away from you

There are some other hard-core solutions but I'm not posting those.

 

[TerryK]

The homeles are regular people just like you all.
Except I am not a drug addict, or mentally ill, or an alcoholic so F/<** ed up I live under a road like you do.
Forever making excuses and refusing to be responsible for the decisions and choices you make. The gov't will do nothing and 3 months from now the dysfunctional "homeless" will have destroyed everything.

DD is correct.
Projects like these have been tried over and over in many places and they only work if outside people constantly maintain order, discipline and sanitation. Whenever they tried to turn such projects over to the homeless they always fall apart.
Half the people who are homeless are not homeless just because they fell on hard times. They are homeless because they are mentally ill in addition to having drug and/ or alcohol problems.
Unless you can keep out the mentally sick, drug and alcohol dependent half of the homeless population, projects such as these are a waste of money and doomed to fail.

Whoever said that society used to take care of such people many years ago, was right. They were called mental institutions! Liberals who thought they only needed something like cob city, managed to convince the gov to close those mental institutions. The results we have today speak for themselves.
Take off your rose colored glasses and face the reality of society and life.

 

[TerryK]

-- put them on a bus at midnight and send them away so they are someone else's problem
-- bribe them to cooperate
-- ignore them as much as possible
-- get them arrested (if they have drugs they might get sent away for a long time)
-- foist them off on an intern or a church missionary

No, you re- open mental institutions.

 

[Meemur]

No, you re- open mental institutions.

If I had been given the power to do so, I would have!

 

[vestige]

What is cob city?

 

[Millwright]

If they don't have to get building permits, better make it hard for them to be sued if/when someone has a slip and fall or something similar. All it is going to take is one "resident" to find a lawyer.

Who would they sue?

It's city property, I don't think anybody really "owns" the improvements.

Can't get anything from a homeless person.

Lawyers don't usually pick up cases without some chance of a payday. Cities are a tough nut to crack on that one.

 

[Matt]

Junkie vermin will have it destroyed in under 60 days....thieves, liars, and destroyers of all that is good and decent.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

...isn't this just communism, though?

 

[Countrymouse]

...isn't this just communism, though?

Not if the "giving" was done voluntarily

In Communissm they TAKE from "each according to his means"......

 

[Doomer Doug]

The basic reason we have the homeless problem dates back to 1947 and a movie called "The Snake Pit," about a mental institution, or at least the Hollyweird version of one. The result was the "push" to liberate mental inmates was one.

At which point several things happened. The first was the big state run institutions began to close decade by decade, until, again Hollyweird, put out the 1975 movie version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, with Jack Nicholson that began the second phase of "dealing" with the mentally ill people, A whole series of things started to happened, court decisions that meant loitering laws were illegal, and the list goes on and on.

The final result was the liberals lied, like they always do. Now the "deal" made was to close the big state "warehouse" type institutions, and send all the people in them to smaller, community based mental health treatment half way type houses, with the money saved, Well guess what, the money never was allocated, or whatever, so the whole shitload of them just ended up on the street. The money was spent on the social workers, and the Ngos, etc

The situation is now that people make a fortune off of the homeless without actually helping them since that isn't the point anymore. they "manage" them and spend BILLIONS on programs that don't deal with their pathologies at all.

For example, I see homeless types all around me everywhere I look in downtown Portland, aside from antifa/blm
One guy is a heroin addict or whatever, and they spend several hundred thousand dollars dealing with him WITHOUT CHANGING THE BEHAVIOR HE ENGAGES IN WHICH IS THE NEW MODEL NOW.

He gets hauled into the hospital every two or three weeks, has a pile of money spent on him and then they put him back out with no changes.
And that is the way they like it because what I call the homeless cult makes a fortune off of them.

Now what will eventually happen is they will just die off year by year. the fact they will destroy our cities is no big deal to the homeless cult.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

Not if the "giving" was done voluntarily

In Communissm they TAKE from "each according to his means"......

Fair enough, I suppose. Just looks awful communal.

 

[zeker]

This is extremely cool. Hope it works out.

love the style of the bldgs

wanted to see the front of the pizza oven

i made bread in mine, cpl weeks back

 

[Kathy in FL]

Who would they sue?

It's city property, I don't think anybody really "owns" the improvements.

Can't get anything from a homeless person.

Lawyers don't usually pick up cases without some chance of a payday. Cities are a tough nut to crack on that one.

If the city allows it then the city will be the one on the hook. We saw the bigpay out for Floyd.

 

[DazedandConfused]

Slowly transitioning back to mud huts next step is wearing animal skins for clothes and learning to make fire.

Liberalism quickly giving Darwin a run for the money !

 

[Melodi]

I worked with the homeless enough in the early 1990s to know that even in "normal" times there is usually about one-third to one-half of the population that could be housed and live decently in this way. Some would need help from real (not fake) sponsors to handle their money and some might do best simply prescribed their drugs under a doctor's supervision (if that could be made legal) and others quietly allowed to drink themselves to death if they refuse to take up any offers of help.

But most of that 30 to 50 percent are not naturally violent, they commit most of the crimes they do out of desperation for drugs/booze/food (although food kitchens help with that last one) and most are only mildly mentally ill, some are totally sane and just really down on their luck (especially the older men and women with physical health problems).

So variations on this theme (which sadly will probably be shut down for zoning violations now that it has gone public) sponsored by anyone from churches to local, State, and Federal governments could probably solve about 1/2 or more of the current problem. That's because a lot of the currently homeless are newly homeless and not there by choice but because they and sometimes their families have fallen between the cracks.

The other 50 percent or so, the ones with serious mental health issues, the hardened criminals, the violent losers, etc would then be left. Part of their solution is probably a return to something like the big mental hospitals of the past. Provided they do not repeat the mistakes of the past.

I am just old enough to have visited and nearly took a job at more than one of those horrors, and those places needed to close and be replaced. But instead of being replaced by modern and humane institutions, the patients were thrown out on the street to fantasy "community care" that did not exist and which communities were simply never going to pay for.

Sorry, this post is a bit long, but this is a complex situation - but if the "harsh" suggestions by one poster simply don't work, they simply move the problem population for a few weeks. That's why during the Great Depression eventually the governments broke down and built homeless camps along the lines of this village (only the 1930s version and not as pretty).

I suspect that will eventually have to happen here and/or things will simply fall apart to the point where people will start building their own shanty towns and slums and there will be neither the political will nor the money to keep tearing them down - welcome to the slums....

 

[ioujc]

Yes, since the State Hospitals closed, the people who lived there have been allowed to run a muck. They are not "there" and so don't take their medications, or they don't like how the meds make them feel and there is no one to insist that they take them so that they do not hurt themselves or others. Instead they breed and increase the problem!

They have become a blight on our country and it could be so easily solved!!

 

[Cardinal]

Love it.... Cardinal? would you come spend the rest of your life with me in one of those?

How bout I come visit you there.....

 

[Grouchy Granny]

Found out this week that the college 3 blocks away (Regis, for those of you familiar with CO) is setting up an SOS (Safe Outdoor Space) in their underutilized parking lot. It will house 60 or so people from June 1 through Dec 31 with 6 month extensions thereafter.

A lot of the neighborhood is up in arms over the whole idea. Me, I'm reserving judgement until I see how it plays out. Supposedly the residents are all vetted and no drugs allowed (but they can go out the gate onto Federal or 50th to partake). I do see a rise in panhandling going on which will really set the local businesses off.

But, we already have a number of homeless camped on easements outside of businesses in the area, not to mention the encampments down along the river 2 blocks away.

The funny thing about the underutilized parking lot is that its underutilized because they charge the students to park there. So, rather than paying the parking fees the students park all over the neighborhood taking up the residential parking. Some days you can't get down the streets due to the number of student cars on both sides.

As I said, I'm reserving judgement until I see how it goes (and how much the crime rate goes up).

 

[Samuel Adams]

Were the “government”, to step back and allow good, old-fashioned ranches, work camps, logging crews, agricultural labor.....at an affordable wage, food and housing, as was once commonplace and quite sustainable here in America, a great many of these who simply cannot function independently in a very demanding, taxing and tyrannical society.....would be mopped up and put to very constructive and even honorable pursuit.

This nationwide homeless situation is a direct result of having abandoned
our roots, and fractionalizing family and labor force.

A regularly decreasing number of people can hold up under the demands currently placed upon them, long before “Covid” came along, as “good and upstanding taxpayer/citizens” (read, those dumb enough to be the last dozen trying to hold a crushing mountain above their heads)

I don’t see a solution, save chaos for a season.

 

[Satanta]

The homeles are regular people just like you all.
Except I am not a drug addict, or mentally ill, or an alcoholic so F/<** ed up I live under a road like you do.
Forever making excuses and refusing to be responsible for the decisions and choices you make. The gov't will do nothing and 3 months from now the dysfunctional "homeless" will have destroyed everything.

You ever been Homeless? Lived or worked amongst the Homeless?

I have. '95 to '98.

About 70% fall into that Category so, a majority, but not all. If you drip a handful of Diamonds into a dirty litter box are you going to figure out how to retrieve the Diamonds or toss it all?

If they've built a self-contained community that seems to be doing good where is the issue?