SF Chronicle: Oakland City Council Candidates Grapple with Surging Homelessness
Photo: Photos by Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle
Oakland is in the midst of the worst homeless crisis the city has ever experienced. Five races in the November election could change the makeup of the Oakland City Council — 20 people, including four incumbents, are running and one of the top issues is how to help the rising homeless population. The candidates are proposing new, innovative ideas, though some appear challenging to achieve…
District Three is home to one of the largest tent clusters in the city — the Wood Street encampment near the intersection of West Grand Avenue.
“What we have and what we’ve been doing is not working,” said Carroll Fife, a candidate for District Three. “Anyone can see that. People are desperate, and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t do something drastically different. It impacts everybody.”
Fife, a community activist, is running to unseat City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney and is best known for organizing Moms 4 Housing, a collective that began when homeless mothers took over a speculator-owned house on Magnolia Street.
Fife wants to develop housing for those who have no income and require developers to include at least 20% of affordable housing in all projects — without the option of a fee to opt out. She also wants to rehabilitate vacant homes and empty city-owned properties to serve as housing and use city land for modular units for the homeless.