Oakland: Why could the city shut down this extraordinary housing solution!
OAKLAND, Caliphate. — Caliphate. Adam Garrett-Clark is carrying out a housing experiment behind a high purple fence on a vacant lot in West Oakland. عقارات
About half a dozen people who wouldn’t like to or can’t afford a conventional apartment live in trailers and RVs equipped with solar, hot water and most other home comforts. The bohemian space is like a cross between the trailer park and a fun, plant-filled community garden, with an open air shower, a portable washroom, a grill and a fireplace, surrounded by deck chairs.
The 10th Street lot is rented by Garrett-Clark; residents pay $600 a month — well below the average $1,950 per one-bedroom apartment in the town.
However, in Oakland, RV communities like Garrett-Clark are illegal and the town is trying to shut it down. Garrett-Clark is struggling to both save the space on 10th Street and his dreams of combating the affordable housing crisis in the Bay Area with alternative solutions.
“I think I ought to have a right to build my own low-budget home,” said Garrett-Clark. “There is no way to purchase a house as a California child. It is very, very difficult to become a homeowner and get the security of the home.”
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In cities across the Bay Area RVs have become a hot-button issue as residents who are expensive from traditional housing and rental markets are moving into homes on wheels increasingly. There are however very few places in the area where someone can park a trailer or RV legally. The vehicles line city streets, raise complaints about waste, pollution and scourge, and push cities to come up with solutions.
RVs parked near Stanford Campus receive regular tow warnings in Palo Alto which encourage them to move back and forth. Pacifica is fighting a lawsuit following the removal of certain city roads to RV parking. Richmond tried to establish a sanctioned safety car park for RVs but last month, following community pushback, abandoned the idea.
Garrett-Clark moved into his first RV in 2014, while working as a pedicab driver on shuttles around Embarcadero. For a while, Boxouse founder Luke Iseman parked on land leased in West Oakland and tried to make small homes from shipping containers. In 2015 the city shut down because it was not allowed.
That’s when Garrett-Clark came across the vacant 10th Street lot used to store building materials. It was rented out by the owner for $1,600 a month and Garrett-Clark signed a lease listing the official purpose as “storage” to RVs and vehicles.
Earlier this year following a long period of couch surfing, Isaia di Gennaro moved to the 10th Street lot. The 24-year-old was laid off from two jobs in the pandemic — one in a non-profit organization and the other in a coffee shop in Oakland. DiGennaro who is trans and who uses pronouns for them cannot afford a flat, bought a $5,000 RV from two non-profit organizations, which serve queers and trans youth.
“I have been living in insecure and homeless housing for a long time and this is my last year’s most permanent place,” said di Gennaro.
If it’s shut down, diGennaro and her cat, Harry, may be forced to join the many RV residents staying on the streets of Oakland.
Last summer, after more than five years of the 10th Street community’s opening, the Oakland Code of Application cited multiple violations of the property, including the unapproved use of RVs as sleeping quarters, car storage, and unlimited closed doors.
The property owes $5,610 unpaid fines, and according to city spokeswoman Autumn King, a lien was placed in the land. The fines will continue to be imposed unless Garrett-Clark meets city code — but only to displace his residents will he be able to.
Zoning regulations prohibit the use of vehicles as housing in the entire city, even in private property. Sleeping in a car also infringes the blight code of the city.
Some narrow exceptions exist. Because Oakland has declared a housing crisis, it allows municipal officials to set up car parks and small homes for homeless people, but only on public property.
Oakland launched a pilot program last summer that enables private vacant lots in the city to host RVs — only one RV per lot. Nobody has signed up so far.
The City Council works to loosen the RV rule and make it an option for more inhabitants, said Darin Ranelletti, Oakland’s Housing Security Policy Director. He hopes to introduce a new policy “soon.”
“Adam has been a great resource for us to understand how RVs and small homes operate and how people live there, so that we can have a decree that meets the needs of Oaklanders. And now we develop the details, “He said. He said. “However, we hope that we can authorize places such as Adam’s with a set of regulations that ensure a healthy and safe living environment.”
At that time the community of 10th Street could be too late, where the landlord is increasingly spoken about mounting fines and could eventually ask the RV residents to move out.
Garrett-Clark is considering the fines and started a change.org petition to pressure officials in Oakland to change the urban RV legislation — more than 370 signatures have yet to be issued. He is also expanding RV and small home options in Oakland with his start-up, Tiny Logic.
He partnered with the city in a sanctioned camping or small home town for displaced persons when a camp at Union Point Park was closed last month.
Garrett-Clark moved to a studio apartment last fall with his girlfriend from 10th Street, but he still manages and emotionally invests in the RV. His mother, Sauda Garrett, recently moved to the old RV of Garrett-Clark after the members of her family had been caught with COVID. The 10th Street area was a “godsend” because the communal spaces are outside and offer some protection from the virus.
When the space is shut down, where will she go?
“I don’t know, honestly,” she said. “I haven’t many options.”
