The Village in Oakland #feedthepeople

06/25/2026

"its really hard that we live in a city and a larger national government that literally makes sure groups of people are denied the basic things they need to just survive. thriving and the pursuit of happiness is a high bar impossible to reach when you literally have food, shelter, clean water, employment, health, safety and stability systemically withheld from you, for generations. keep doing what your are doing mom. and I hope more people stand up and join you. its gonna take a village to end this inhumanity."

^^^what joyous de sis who runs the Village mobile apothecary program said when she learned Sam Suet killed himself this morning.

We met Sam in 2016. he was a Cambodian refugee, unhoused in Funktown, dealing with a lot. he was very kind and soft spoken and looked out for people. he built his own home on e12 median in 2019. he had a car and he made a living as a handyman and mechanic.

May 12, 2025 the city of Oakland bulldozed the home he built with is own hands and threw away all his tools and towed his car. and said if he didn't move into Mandela House he would be arrested. so with no other choices he moved across town to Mandela House. he was promised mental health services, housing navigation, goal setting and support, job placement. he was promised a year in the hotel and that he would be exited from Mandela House into permanent housing.

all those promises were broken. what sam and dozens of residents of Mandela House received was neglect, extreme and constant verbal abuse and mental abuse, threats of violence, threats of being kicked out to the streets, uninhabitable living conditions, and an completely incompetent staff who literally DID NOTHING except collect a paycheck, steal residents mail, go into residents rooms and steal their property, and sell them drugs.
on May 29th 2026 Sam and dozens of residents were exited from Mandela House. very, very few got permanent housing. even fewer got job placement. many were down graded into tuff sheds that have no water or electricity or locks on their doors and smell like p**s, or into RVs that are falling apart, filty, uninhabitable on a site that smells like sewage. several were merely kicked to the streets with literally nothing to survive.

Sam was one of the folks kicked to the curb. the house he built no longer existed. the tools he need to make a living were never replaced. the car he could have lived in he was never able to get back. and the community that provide him with care, safety, and belonging had been demolished and scattered.

For the past two weeks Sam talked about giving up. He wasn't the same guy.

Surviving a war didn't break Sam. Being a refugee didn't break Sam. living on the streets for 20 years didn't break Sam. the city of Oakland and Housing Consortium of the East Bay - two entities that received MILLIONS of public dollars to shelter Sam for a year, promise him everything he needed to never return to homelessness - broke him. and they have refused to take an accountability for the harm they cause not just Sam but everyone else that was supposed to be in that hotel but got left on the streets; everyone who was in that hotel who was mistreated and lied to; everyone who didn't get the biggest promises of all: to never return to homelessness.

The city of Oakland and Housing Consortium of the East Bay have blood on their hands - again. this isn't the first time this kind of injustice and inhumanity has happened. ya'll have heard The Village for ten years now speak on the corruption, the mismanagement, the failure, the inhumanity imbedded in Oakland's homeless industrial complex. Sam was the latest causality of this wicked system and the people who fail to do their six figure jobs.

The Village is going to go even harder with the memory of Sam to fuel our fire for justice.

Rest in peace Sam Suet. Gone, but not forgotten. We will get justice for you. On citas.

06/16/2026

Earlier this month The Village Executive Director Needa Bee was voted onto the Leadership Board of the Alameda County's EveryOne Home - "a collective impact initiative and Alameda County’s Continuum of Care that unites the efforts of city and county government partners, nonprofit service providers, individuals with lived experience, community members, and more. EveryOne Home brings everyone together, using the power of people to end homelessness in Alameda County."

"The Leadership Board provides overall leadership for our collective impact initiative and serves as the compass for the homelessness response system in Alameda County. It sets the
vision, strategic direction and collective goals for the entire homelessness response system and ensures accountability from all subcommittees and workgroups. The Leadership Board
ensures that racial equity is at the center of our work to end homelessness and that people with lived experience are represented in decision-making roles throughout the system. The Leadership Board also holds the formal designation as the Continuum of Care (CoC) Board, as required by HUD."

to learn more about everyone home check out their website https://everyonehome.org.

06/04/2026

In regards to homelessness, the poor, the marginalized, the youth, we are in an era where the elected and bueroctrats are in a race to see who can be the most cruel, fastest.

Here in Oakland, high ranking administrators in charge of the city's approach to homelessness showed their level of cruelty in those text messages that were made public.

The people involved with those text messages are no longer there. But others who share in their disdain of the unhoused are still in their positions of power. And the systems they operate in are working quite well to make sure there is no solution to homeless in Oakland, and that now even less support exists.

The city of Oakland's solution to homelessness is 100% make em disappear.

And the public isn't really pushing back.

I piece of Oakland's soul has died. What's happening is not okay. But the general public seems to have given up on fighting for a call so prominent ten years ago HOUSING FOR ALL and END THE SWEEPS cuz SWEEPS KILL.

We live in an era of our (The Town's) collective trauma to the housing crisis and all the s**t that came with it where It's easier to hate on the victim's most impacted by the crisis than to hold the politicians responsible for the accountable.

and politicians only listen to people who vote. And most of The Town doesn't vote.and.specifically, most unhoused people don't vote.

So they won't listen to most of us.

And in the same breath, they absolutely don't represent most of us.

Quite a predicament.

05/18/2026

Public records reveal how Jestin Johnson and other officials were pressured to close encampments by developers, and in at least one case, the governor.

05/18/2026

Warning - for unhoused folks, folks who were unhoused during the time this group of anti-unhoused beurocrats ran Oakland's homeless response, and folks who care about unhoused folks - the contents of this article are triggering.

We are not surprised, having witnessed the city hall administrators named in this article treat unhoused residents in real time. But to have what we have been saying confirmed is a relief, a finally. We hope there is justice for all those impacted by this bigotry, inhumanity, abuse of power, and hate. We hope there is massive transformative change systemically and socially. and we hope a mirror held to all who joined the anti-homeless bandwagon while claiming compassion, humanity and dignity - both the public and those inside city hall.

https://oaklandside.org/2026/05/18/grants-pass-oakland-text-messages-marshawn-lynch/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_The_Oaklandside&fbclid=IwdGRjcAR4WCFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6-OShwWanydngpFIC7VB5RBmlYhMPdFG6FBmZplxzE8LNrWQfNAcimZ4bbnA_aem_M7A7-vrW6IuZVDEW0S-SZg

Public records reveal how Jestin Johnson and other officials were pressured to close encampments by developers, and in at least one case, the governor.

05/13/2026

The Village has had run two Adult Leadership Academies. And this summer, we will be kicking off its first youth Leadership Academy for unhoused youth. Applications for the 6-month paid internship coming soon. DM us if you have an unhoused youth (ages 12-17) you want to link to the program. Enrollment limited to twelve participants.

05/07/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 6, 2026
Contact: Needa Bee, 510-355-7010, [email protected]

Oakland Street Vendors Raided, Property Destroyed; Looming Threats to Raid 510Day Mother’s Day Marketplace

Multi-Agency Task Force Crushed Vendors' Livelihoods - Community Demands It Stop, Leave 510Day Protest Alone

OAKLAND, CA - On May 1st, a multi-jurisdiction task force swept through Fruitvale and Downtown Oakland without warning, confiscating and destroying the property of dozens of street vendors. Canopies, grills, ice chests, hot dog carts, pounds of food, and cash were seized and fed into an Oakland Department of Public Works trash compactor. No itemized receipts were provided. No notice was given. Immigrant vendors lost everything. Watch the video here.

Unconfirmed rumors from federal employees state the raids were coordinated through the Mayor's Office, and the enforcement posture is now being directed at the 11th Annual 510Day Marketplace at Lake Merritt - scheduled for this Sunday for Mother's Day, May 10th.

510Day is not a permitted event. It is a protest. Since 2016, it has been a declaration of Oakland's right to exist on its own terms — built by and for the Black, Brown, and working-class communities who make this city what it is. Street vendors are a major part of the gathering, and protecting their cultural and economic relevance to our communities is highlighted in 510Day Demand #10:

“Support - not criminalize - grassroots street vendors and informal economy workers: lower barriers to permits; assist marketplaces with no or sliding-scale vendor fees; and redirect funds spent on criminalization into small business incubation and community investment programs."

To understand why Oakland now treats its street vendors this way, we have to talk about gentrification. To understand the gatekeeping of street vending in Oakland, you have to look at how public space itself has been managed - and increasingly, controlled.

As wealthier residents and new businesses move into historically working-class neighborhoods, informal economies - especially those rooted in communities of color - are often reframed as “disorder,” “nuisance,” or “public safety concerns.” Before gentrification, no one was breaking laws street vending, because there were no laws in place to break.

Street vending becomes a target not because it is harmful, but because it is visible.

What happened on May 1st was not routine enforcement. It was a constitutional violation. The warrantless destruction of vendors' property with no notice, no process, and no accountability implicates Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment violations. It is a breach of federal civil rights law (42 U.S.C. § 1983) and California's Safe Sidewalk Vending Act (SB 946). If a multi-jurisdiction raid is executed on 510Day vendors who gather in protest, it will also be a 1st Amendment infringement.

Oakland has a choice. It can stand with the working-class vendors who have sustained its culture for generations, or it can keep feeding their livelihoods into a trash compactor to make room for a version of this city that was never built for us.

We are calling on the Mayor, City Council, the County, the State, the Feds and all relevant agencies to immediately stand down from any planned enforcement action at 510 Day, and instead work with Oakland’s street vendors.

1.Simplify and subsidize the permitting process. Eliminate unnecessary requirements that disproportionately impact low-income vendors. If the process requires legal assistance to navigate, it is already too complicated.
2. Redirect Enforcement Funds into Opportunity. Every dollar spent policing vendors should be redirected into small business grants, equipment subsidies, and technical assistance programs.
3. Create Free or Sliding-Scale Public Marketplaces
4. Support, Don’t Displace, Cultural Spaces
Recognize vending at Lake Merritt, The Fruitvale and Downtown Oakland as cultural heritage, not a problem to solve.
5. Include long-time informal vendors in decision-making. Treat legacy vendors not as participants, but as leaders and culture keepers

Street vending is not just about food or commerce. It is about dignity. It is about who gets to exist in public space. It is about whether Oakland remains a city where working-class families - especially those from the flatlands - can survive, build, and thrive. For many families, vending has been the difference between poverty and stability. It has paid rent, fed children, and sustained entire communities. To criminalize or over-regulate this ecosystem is not just bad policy - it is a betrayal of Oakland’s identity. Oakland doesn't need to control its street vendors. It needs to stand with them.

Full Policy Brief:
Stop Criminalizing Oakland's Street Vendors — They Are The Town's Soul

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dsn_kql2ewkl7BcZmSnO26cD0xTg7u97UDVX9mwDX_U/edit?usp=sharing

510Day is an annual community protest against gentrification held at Lake Merritt, Oakland. Now in its 11th year, this celebratory act of resistance was co-founded in 2016 as a grassroots declaration of Oakland’s identity, self-determination, and right to exist in public spaces without being criminalized. To learn more visit 510Day.org

05/07/2026

Three more days till the 11th Annual 510Day. Ready to celebrate oaklands history, oaklands culture, and Oakland's mothers. Even as they erase our history, criminalize our culture, and displace our mothers

05/06/2026

Here's some of the fliers for some of the stages, zones and activities at the 11th Annual 510Day this Sunday. More to come! Visit this link to see fliers of other zones and areas as they are uploaded. https://510day.org/program

04/16/2026

SAVE THE DATE!!!
Sunday • 5/10!
Lake Merritt

11th Annual 510Day celebration and PROTEST!

A decade of community-powered resistance. This year we’re bringing an expanded kids zone, because the babies deserve to know what their city looks like when it belongs to them.

Bring your mamas, your tías, your grandmothers, your whole family. Come out and celebrate the women who held The Town together through everything.

Free. Community-led. Unsanctioned. Ours.

For more information visit 510day.org