Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

See Jaeson Ma This is a touching account by Ma and has a great video at the site as well: “This past weekend after Christmas, I went with my sister to West Oakland to pass out food, clothes and prayers to the homeless. We went to Wal-mart the day before and bought a bunch of warm sleeping bags, got warm clothes from Goodwill and loaded up our car to do what we could the next morning. When I got out to the streets, my heart was shocked and broken at the same time. People were lined up waiting for us to give them any kind of help they could get. As I opened up my bag full of clothes the homeless swarmed quickly to take what was best for themselves. All the clothes disappeared in a matter of minutes. I was sad, because I wish I had more clothes to give but I only had so much.”

I got an email from a friend who's homeless and reports that a man by the name of "ED" decided to end his life by walking in front of a train one morning at 711 Harrison St, near where she sleeps in her car. She reports that this happens a lot. My fear is that the cities of Oakland and Berkeley are doing nothing to curb the real source of new homeless people: landlord activity in those cities. Just look at the California Hotel matter, which the City of Oakland seems to be a partner in with Oakland Community Housing. It's an outrage.