Town Bizness

10/02/2026

*PLEASE SHARE WIDELY*
We need help, and we make this fun and rewarding!

09/30/2026

HELP! This one time we *don't* got this.
As we posted the other day, we need double the wishlist items this time so our amazing bagger can take a vacation-- and then we won't ask for another *two months*. We got a great response and about half that list was quickly purchased-- THANK YOU DONORS! 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

But there's still about $1500 worth of food and warmth and hygiene sitting on the list, and it must all be ordered in TWO DAYS so we have relief bags while our bagger is away. 🎒

These bags are survival, but also our connection to folks. And how can people work on anything if they're hungry, dehydrated, filthy, or cold?

Even one item helps!
LINK: 👇🏻
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/MUZFUKWBCKYR?ref_=wl_share

Photo: Beth's house post bagging the other day. Kudos to her! It's a lot.

09/28/2026

What we served this Saturday:
Chicken casserole 😋, garlic bread, and home made strawberry shortcake with whipped cream! 🍰

Thank you, donors!

09/27/2026

Ironically, sweeps are one of the biggest barriers to getting housed. Read that again.

This is Latrisa trying to reason with the person placing concrete blocks where her RV had been. She was begging for time to move her belongings before the blocks made that impossible.
Her RV had been there for quite a while. Then Oakland decided it had to go, and this was the deadline.

Latrisa had been in the housing queue, but we just discovered she was dropped because they lost contact with her. That happens far too often. Staying reachable while living outside is hard enough. Being forced to move makes it harder.

Our team member Rikki Edelman got Latrisa’s housing intake done while the sweep was happening and stood by her through it. Rikki tried to get her something to eat, too, but Latrisa’s stomach was in knots. So Rikki just stood there with her as long as she could.
We have some incredible people on this team.

Fierce local advocate Jaz (who isn't pictured) helped Latrisa relocate, with support from us. But even with people showing up for Latrisa, there was no way to move everything in time.

How was she supposed to pull that off? And how is any of this helping her get housed?

House people. Until then, let them stay where they are and provide trash service, porta potties, and running water.

Every sweep takes something: belongings, sometimes IDs, medication, or wheelchairs. It also takes stability and strength. Repeated sweeps are making people sick. We’re watching a woman we’ve served for years begin talking to people who aren’t there and lose her grip on reality. She was doing well when we first met her. Now we’re watching her become irretrievable in real time.

People need that strength to survive and to make it through the long road to housing. Stop taking it from them.

Stop the sweeps.

YOU CAN HELP
We need wishlist items for 144 food and hygiene relief bags urgently. These bags all go to folks we know by name and are helping with housing.
Buy something if you can.
LINK 👇🏻
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/MUZFUKWBCKYR?ref_=wl_share

09/27/2026

We have a volunteer gig at my chef's house.
Hard work, but a good time too. You will learn a lot about cooking and catering if that interests you!
We will accept every other Saturday if it suits you better. We pay mileage.
Text Signe: 707-349-6005.

09/26/2026

We've kept you in suspense long enough. Here's our BIG news! ❤️

Our dearest Kelley has been MATCHED FOR HOUSING! She's seen the apartment, accepted the match, and all her documents are uploaded. There are still a few hurdles, but we're feeling damn good!

Kelley approached our Founder near a camp one day, visibly ill, her head down, begging for help. Imagine surviving on the streets of a city as a woman in your 60s, with chronic, debilitating illnesses, without medical care or even a safe place to rest. Life out there is especially brutal for women, and Kelley was exhausted. She'd been unhoused for well over 15 years, trying to get housed and getting nowhere. We were already stretched thin, but there was no way we were walking away from her.

When we looked into her housing history, we discovered something heartbreaking: she'd signed up TEN YEARS earlier but had never actually entered the housing queue because her initial interview wasn't completed properly (folks often under-disclose in those intakes). All those years she thought she was waiting for housing, she wasn't even in line.

A seriously ill woman in her 60s, lost in a system she had every reason to believe should be working for her, but was mysteriously passing her by.

And Kelley isn't unusual. So much chronic homelessness is rooted in misunderstanding, mismanagement, and broken communication. People lose their phones, miss appointments they never knew existed, and fall through cracks so wide they can swallow decades. Of course they lose trust.

But Kelley had seen us help folks and believed we could straighten it all out. And she didn't give up.

Take a victory lap: you helped supply us enough to build a reputation out here that engenders trust. And you helped keep her alive long enough to get here. You funded months of motel relief when her health was failing. You helped keep her in fresh meals and relief bags, connected by phone, funded us getting her IDs, gathering her documents, and staying connected and ready for the moment an opportunity came. 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻

Our Housing Gurus stayed on it, keeping communication moving between Kelley and the housing organizations so nothing slipped through the cracks. And much love to our Love and Ladles team for the nutritious and humanizing meals that help keep our people going. ❤️

We've learned so much about where this system breaks down and how to navigate it. Our mission has never been clearer: keep people alive, build trust, stay connected, and bring them home.
None of that happens without you.

Now, one more ask! Much of the trust and need out here hinges on our relief bags.
Our wonderful bagger is heading on vacation, so she's preparing 144 relief bags at once. That's DOUBLE our usual batch, which means we need DOUBLE the wishlist items this time!

We're asking everyone who can to buy two items instead of one. Even a $3 item helps, and we'll be skipping the next wishlist push.
Let's fill these bags, fam. Housing takes time. Survival can't wait.
Wishlist link: 👇🏻
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/MUZFUKWBCKYR?ref_=wl_share

Feed people. Build trust. Bring them home.

09/23/2026

Can you help us keep something important going in East Oakland?

We’ve posted before about Matt Berg and the work he’s doing there. Right now, Matt is feeding people in his community out of his own pocket — spending roughly $200–$300 every week.
That kind of commitment is extraordinary, but he shouldn’t have to carry it alone.

Matt is angry and hungry for justice in the same way we were when we started Town Bizness — and still are. He’s the real thing. He also happens to be practically family, so we know him, trust him, and believe deeply in what he’s building.

He’s creating relationships and trust in East Oakland, an area that’s difficult for Town Bizness to reach consistently right now. Our hope is that, as that trust grows, we can eventually collaborate more closely around housing and connect people there to the same kind of support and navigation we’re building elsewhere.

But first, people have to eat.

Anything you can contribute will help Matt keep showing up, feeding people, building trust, and strengthening this community effort.
We really want to keep him going.
Donate here:

There is an encampment on E 12th and 23rd Avenue in East Oakland, direct… Matt Berg needs your support for Help Provide Essentials for East Oakland's Homeless

09/21/2026

After our last route the team came upon these puppies, so with mild panic-- (are they vaxxed? Do they have what they need? What about spay and neuter?)-- we forwarded it to Human and Pet Initiative.

"We just saw them yesterday."
*phew!*
And here's the thing: we knew they would already be on it. We were just checking.

Not only does HAPI take a load of our dog-inexpert hands, but they are reducing disease outbreaks in *all* of Oakland (and beyond), because parvo and leptospirosis etc etc don't stop at some imaginary boundary between housed and unhoused people. (And in fact, nothing does, but we will stick with the pets for the sake of this post).

We are proud to partner with HAPI. Please remember to support their work. 🐾 🐾
Donate: https://www.every.org/hapi