PHOTO/SARAH MENEFEE
Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, in a special report on the growing number of people made homeless in California and across the country, and the organized resistance springing up everywhere, focused on one independent tent community in East Oakland that is under attack and threat of removal by the city. She interviewing several of its residents. Below are parts of two of the questions answered by well-known organizer Anita ‘Needa Bee’ De Asis:
Amy Goodman: Do these encampments provide community? Do they provide safety?
Anita ‘Needa Bee’ De Asis: Absolutely. They provide community. They provide support. Homeless folks are some of the most resilient people, most resourceful people, most creative people you’ll ever meet. And the little stability and support and security that people have been able to build for themselves when there is nothing is amazing. And so when the city comes in and knocks these encampments down, they’re literally knocking people who are on like one leg up, down on both knees. I think what’s also interesting is with Trump just coming to California and making his big grandstanding about herding everyone and put them in government-run camps… but if you look at what they’re signing into law here, or actually doing, it’s the same exact thing that Trump is threatening to do!
Amy: Right now when it comes to San Francisco and Oakland, what do you think would be the most important thing to happen?
Anita: I think on an immediate level, releasing public lands where people can park their cars, or people can build homes—like safe homes, like those—to kind of weather this crisis and weather this storm, until, like I said, the permanent housing is actually built, which isn’t going to happen immediately.
This is a disaster. And if it was a fire, if it was an earthquake, the response would be so quick. But this is an economic disaster. This is a cultural disaster. This is a housing disaster. But they’re not treating it like all the other natural disasters, and they need to.
