Oakland City Council Ignores Business Owners Concerns About Jack London Square Homeless Shelter

Historic Jack London Square in Oakland soon will be home to 100 drug-addicted homeless vagrants.

“There goes the neighborhood (such as it is),” one resident posted on SFYimby.com.

Business owners and neighbors said the city has not done any outreach. It is obvious that the city wasn’t interested in any input from the businesses.

“Situated along the Oakland waterfront, Jack London Square is Oakland’s only publicly accessible mixed-use waterfront and marina area that has been a well-known landmark since the mid-1800s. As a lifestyle destination, Jack London Square offers visitors and local residents an authentic, vibrant hub of outdoor recreation, dining, special events, and entertainment opportunities,” the official Jack London Square website says. Jack London (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American author who spent much of his boyhood on the waterfront that is now Jack London Square. His youthful adventures on property, inspired many of his publications.”

And what could any beautiful, historic destination desire more than homeless drug addicts and mentally-ill staggering around tourists and visitors?

Turning the Jack London Square Inn into a homeless shelter is very concerning for business owners in the historic Oakland district. Business owners, who barely survived Gov. Gavin Newsom’s covid business lockdowns, say they are barely hanging on as it is. Moving in 100 homeless drug addicts to Jack London Square is a recipe for disaster.

“I’ve been in business in Jackson Square for 50 years and I’m very concerned about this homeless shelter they’re going to put at the entrance of Jack London Square,” said Raymond Gallagher, founder of Scott’s Seafood Grill and Bar told ABC 7. “We’re in the center of a dining and entertainment district, and this is not what we need. There’s plenty of other opportunities in Oakland to house the unhoused.”

Indeed. But tell that to the tone-deaf “homeless advocates:”

“It’s not okay to stigmatize people because they’re poor and to assume that they’re going to have a negative impact on your neighborhood simply because they’re poor,” said Jennifer Friedenback, executive director of Coalition on Homelessness. “We’ve got to come together and create solutions. And that means supporting important interventions that work.”

Friedenback conflates “the poor” with drug addicted homeless vagrants.

Notably, The Coalition on Homelessness‘s “organizing work is accomplished through two focused workgroups: Housing Justice and Human Rights.” (emphasis COH) “Our workgroups both have open meetings on a weekly basis, in which homeless people and their allies determine the policies we’ll pursue, and the strategies we’ll take to meet important goals aimed at ending homelessness, and protecting poor people while homelessness exists.”

So they meet weekly with drug-addicted homeless vagrants and let the homeless decide what they need?

Jack London Square is owned by the Port of Oakland, which is an independent city department. The port authority is led by seven port commissioners nominated by the Mayor of Oakland and appointed by the Oakland City Council.

Oakland is a hot mess.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is facing a recall election this November. Since being elected as Mayor in the closest Mayoral election in city history in 2022, violent crimes have skyrocketed. In 2023,  burglaries shot up by 23%, with vehicle thefts jumping up by 45% and robberies up 38%. The murder rate also remained high, staying above 100 in a single year for yet another year, the Globe recently reported.

Charlene Wang is a progressive candidate running for Oakland city council, her hometown, because of the crime. She was just robbed in Oakland, and the cops did not shown up.

But the Oakland City Council and Mayor, who voted unanimously to approve the $6.8 million homeless shelter, think putting a homeless shelter in Jack London Square is a priority. It’s as if they are deliberately trying to destroy what’s left of any decent area in Oakland.

“In May, the Oakland City Council awarded the Housing Consortium of the East Bay $6.8 million to lease the Jack London Inn and operate a similar shelter program there for the next year,” Oaklandside.org reported. The deal includes an option for the city to extend the agreement for a second year and another $6.8 million, depending on Oakland’s finances.”

The Housing Consortium of the East Bay is a non-profit which “creates inclusive communities for individuals with developmental disabilities or other special needs through quality affordable housing and unhoused interventions in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.”

Oaklandside.org continues: “The item was on the council’s ‘consent calendar,’ a package of legislation approved in one sweeping vote, without debate or discussion. The item also never came before one of the council’s issue-based committees, where legislation is workshopped before coming to the full council. City staff said urgent approval was needed so that the Housing Consortium of the East Bay could be in a strong position to lease the property and ensure that Lake Merritt Lodge residents have a place to move to.”

Why do cities continue to illegally operate behind closed doors? Where did this $6.8 million come from?

Oakland doesn’t have the best record when it comes to accountability for homeless spending.

This latest homeless funding follows a 2022 city audit report (under then-Mayor Libby Schaaf), which “covered a three-year period ending in 2021, a span in which Oakland spent nearly $70 million on programs aimed at helping unhoused people ultimately transition into permanent housing,” KQED reported. “The report also emphasizes the lack of a strategic plan, and outlines recommendations for adopting one.”

These are the homeless policies Gov. Gavin Newsom is aggressively pushing on California cities.

It’s all about spending as much money as possible… other people’s money.

CBS News Bay Area posted this report – and while they were filming, they witnessed a car break-in: