OPEN THE LAND: Create Sanctuary Sites for Oakland's Unhoused
The Issue
Petition to the Oakland City Council, Mayor and City Administration, and Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Oakland is sweeping unhoused people from the streets, but thousands of people have nowhere else to go.
We demand that the City of Oakland and Alameda County immediately open suitable vacant and underutilized public land as voluntary sanctuary sites for unhoused Oakland residents.
These sites would give people living in tents, cars, vans, RVs and other survival dwellings somewhere safe and legal to go while they wait for transitional shelters or permanent housing.
PEOPLE NEED SOMEWHERE TO GO
Oakland has dramatically intensified encampment enforcement.
Under Oakland's new Encampment Abatement Policy, the city can close encampments even when shelter or alternative housing is unavailable. Vehicles are excluded from the definition of an encampment and can be cited and towed under state and local vehicle laws, even when that vehicle is someone's home. People are literally being left on the street with nothing to survive.
Oakland does not have enough shelter, safe parking, cabins or deeply affordable housing for everyone who needs it.
Oakland's 2024 Homelessness Strategic Action Plan reported 5,485 people experiencing homelessness, including 3,659 people living unsheltered. The County’'s 2026 Point-in-Time Count reported 4,410 people are unhoused; but a Point-in-Time Count is only a snapshot and does not represent every person who experiences homelessness during the year.
Fewer than 1,300 shelter beds, safe-parking spaces, and cabins currently exist in Oakland, and additional programs are scheduled to close between October and December 2026.
At the same time, encampment sweeps continue. Since November 2025, sweeps and tows have increased by 91%.
Where are people supposed to go?
SWEEPS CAUSE TRAUMA AND DEATH WHEN THERE IS NO WHERE ELSE TO GO
Destroying someone's tent does not solve homelessness. Towing the vehicle someone sleeps in does not solve homelessness. Taking someone's blankets, identification, medicine or survival belongings does not solve homelessness. Moving someone from one block to another does not solve homelessness.
It simply moves homelessness somewhere else and causes deeper trauma, multiplies crisis and causes death.
When people have nowhere safe to relocate, they are pushed from one neighborhood to another until they are swept again. During a sweep, people can lose vehicles, tents, blankets, clothes, shoes, medicine, wheel chairs, prosthetic limbs, identification, legal immigration paperwork, medical paperwork, birth certificates, phones, mobility devices and documents they need to obtain benefits, employment and housing.
When someone's vehicle is also their home, towing it can simultaneously take away their housing, transportation and possessions.
Forced displacement can also separate people from the healthcare workers, housing navigators, outreach workers, substance-use counselors and community organizations supporting them. People miss medical appointments. Housing workers lose contact with clients. Important paperwork disappears. Housing applications stall. People who were finally moving toward stability can be forced to start all over again.
This is not a pathway out of homelessness. It is a cycle of displacement and trauma.
THERE IS AN IMMEDIATE ALTERNATIVE: OPEN THE LAND
Oakland and Alameda County own public land. The City has already identified more than 40 parcels that could potentially be used for homeless interventions, including five identified for possible shelter and safe-parking uses. Yet people continue to be displaced while public land sits unused or underutilized.
We are not claiming that sanctuary sites are permanent housing. They are an emergency harm-reduction solution while more transitional shelters and permanent housing is created.
Public sanctuary sites would give people somewhere safe and stable to voluntarily relocate instead of being pushed from block to block. They could allow residents to remain with their partners, pets, vehicles and essential possessions while staying connected to healthcare providers, housing navigators, family and community support. They would also allow service providers to find people consistently instead of searching for clients after every sweep.Most importantly, they would provide something that repeated sweeps uproot: STABILITY.
WE DEMAND THAT OAKLAND AND ALAMEDA COUNTY:
1. OPEN PUBLIC LAND NOW.
Within 30 days, publicly announce which suitable vacant and underutilized City- and County-owned parcels can be opened to provide immediate sanctuary for unhoused Oakland residents, including people living in vehicles and RVs.
2. CREATE VOLUNTARY SANCTUARY SITES.
Establish multiple sites throughout Oakland where people can voluntarily relocate without losing their tents, vehicles, survival possessions, pets, partners or community connections.
3. PROVIDE BASIC HUMAN NEEDS.
Provide toilets, potable water, handwashing facilities, garbage collection, sanitation, fire-safety equipment and storage, with access to showers, electricity/charging and transportation wherever feasible.
4. BRING SERVICES TO THE PEOPLE.
Provide regular on-site access to housing navigation, healthcare, behavioral healthcare, substance-use treatment, benefits enrollment, identification replacement, employment assistance and legal services. Services must be voluntary and cannot become a condition for basic sanctuary.
5. SEAT UNHOUSED PEOPLE AT THE DECISION-MAKING TABLE.
People currently and formerly experiencing homelessness must have meaningful decision-making roles in designing and governing these sites, not just token gestures or extractive listening sessions.
6. CREATE A PATH TO PERMANENT HOUSING.
Every sanctuary site must be connected to adequately funded and trained housing navigation whose goal is permanent housing—not indefinitely warehousing people on public land or cycling them in and out of shelters.
7. REQUIRE PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY WHEN SWEEPS & TOWS HAPPEN.
Regularly report the number of encampment closures, people displaced, inhabited vehicles towed, shelter placements offered and accepted, length of stay in the shelter, quality of service and condition of the shelter, people permanently housed, sanctuary spaces available, property complaints and claims, and the public cost of enforcement compared with shelter, sanctuary and housing interventions.
If the government is going to tell people where they cannot be, the government has a responsibility to create somewhere they can safely be.
Until Oakland has enough permanent housing and shelter for everyone who needs it, suitable unused public land should be used to protect human life and provide a bridge to housing.
SIGN THIS PETITION AND DEMAND ACTION FROM THE CITY OF OAKLAND AND ALAMEDA COUNTY.
240
The Issue
Petition to the Oakland City Council, Mayor and City Administration, and Alameda County Board of Supervisors
Oakland is sweeping unhoused people from the streets, but thousands of people have nowhere else to go.
We demand that the City of Oakland and Alameda County immediately open suitable vacant and underutilized public land as voluntary sanctuary sites for unhoused Oakland residents.
These sites would give people living in tents, cars, vans, RVs and other survival dwellings somewhere safe and legal to go while they wait for transitional shelters or permanent housing.
PEOPLE NEED SOMEWHERE TO GO
Oakland has dramatically intensified encampment enforcement.
Under Oakland's new Encampment Abatement Policy, the city can close encampments even when shelter or alternative housing is unavailable. Vehicles are excluded from the definition of an encampment and can be cited and towed under state and local vehicle laws, even when that vehicle is someone's home. People are literally being left on the street with nothing to survive.
Oakland does not have enough shelter, safe parking, cabins or deeply affordable housing for everyone who needs it.
Oakland's 2024 Homelessness Strategic Action Plan reported 5,485 people experiencing homelessness, including 3,659 people living unsheltered. The County’'s 2026 Point-in-Time Count reported 4,410 people are unhoused; but a Point-in-Time Count is only a snapshot and does not represent every person who experiences homelessness during the year.
Fewer than 1,300 shelter beds, safe-parking spaces, and cabins currently exist in Oakland, and additional programs are scheduled to close between October and December 2026.
At the same time, encampment sweeps continue. Since November 2025, sweeps and tows have increased by 91%.
Where are people supposed to go?
SWEEPS CAUSE TRAUMA AND DEATH WHEN THERE IS NO WHERE ELSE TO GO
Destroying someone's tent does not solve homelessness. Towing the vehicle someone sleeps in does not solve homelessness. Taking someone's blankets, identification, medicine or survival belongings does not solve homelessness. Moving someone from one block to another does not solve homelessness.
It simply moves homelessness somewhere else and causes deeper trauma, multiplies crisis and causes death.
When people have nowhere safe to relocate, they are pushed from one neighborhood to another until they are swept again. During a sweep, people can lose vehicles, tents, blankets, clothes, shoes, medicine, wheel chairs, prosthetic limbs, identification, legal immigration paperwork, medical paperwork, birth certificates, phones, mobility devices and documents they need to obtain benefits, employment and housing.
When someone's vehicle is also their home, towing it can simultaneously take away their housing, transportation and possessions.
Forced displacement can also separate people from the healthcare workers, housing navigators, outreach workers, substance-use counselors and community organizations supporting them. People miss medical appointments. Housing workers lose contact with clients. Important paperwork disappears. Housing applications stall. People who were finally moving toward stability can be forced to start all over again.
This is not a pathway out of homelessness. It is a cycle of displacement and trauma.
THERE IS AN IMMEDIATE ALTERNATIVE: OPEN THE LAND
Oakland and Alameda County own public land. The City has already identified more than 40 parcels that could potentially be used for homeless interventions, including five identified for possible shelter and safe-parking uses. Yet people continue to be displaced while public land sits unused or underutilized.
We are not claiming that sanctuary sites are permanent housing. They are an emergency harm-reduction solution while more transitional shelters and permanent housing is created.
Public sanctuary sites would give people somewhere safe and stable to voluntarily relocate instead of being pushed from block to block. They could allow residents to remain with their partners, pets, vehicles and essential possessions while staying connected to healthcare providers, housing navigators, family and community support. They would also allow service providers to find people consistently instead of searching for clients after every sweep.Most importantly, they would provide something that repeated sweeps uproot: STABILITY.
WE DEMAND THAT OAKLAND AND ALAMEDA COUNTY:
1. OPEN PUBLIC LAND NOW.
Within 30 days, publicly announce which suitable vacant and underutilized City- and County-owned parcels can be opened to provide immediate sanctuary for unhoused Oakland residents, including people living in vehicles and RVs.
2. CREATE VOLUNTARY SANCTUARY SITES.
Establish multiple sites throughout Oakland where people can voluntarily relocate without losing their tents, vehicles, survival possessions, pets, partners or community connections.
3. PROVIDE BASIC HUMAN NEEDS.
Provide toilets, potable water, handwashing facilities, garbage collection, sanitation, fire-safety equipment and storage, with access to showers, electricity/charging and transportation wherever feasible.
4. BRING SERVICES TO THE PEOPLE.
Provide regular on-site access to housing navigation, healthcare, behavioral healthcare, substance-use treatment, benefits enrollment, identification replacement, employment assistance and legal services. Services must be voluntary and cannot become a condition for basic sanctuary.
5. SEAT UNHOUSED PEOPLE AT THE DECISION-MAKING TABLE.
People currently and formerly experiencing homelessness must have meaningful decision-making roles in designing and governing these sites, not just token gestures or extractive listening sessions.
6. CREATE A PATH TO PERMANENT HOUSING.
Every sanctuary site must be connected to adequately funded and trained housing navigation whose goal is permanent housing—not indefinitely warehousing people on public land or cycling them in and out of shelters.
7. REQUIRE PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY WHEN SWEEPS & TOWS HAPPEN.
Regularly report the number of encampment closures, people displaced, inhabited vehicles towed, shelter placements offered and accepted, length of stay in the shelter, quality of service and condition of the shelter, people permanently housed, sanctuary spaces available, property complaints and claims, and the public cost of enforcement compared with shelter, sanctuary and housing interventions.
If the government is going to tell people where they cannot be, the government has a responsibility to create somewhere they can safely be.
Until Oakland has enough permanent housing and shelter for everyone who needs it, suitable unused public land should be used to protect human life and provide a bridge to housing.
SIGN THIS PETITION AND DEMAND ACTION FROM THE CITY OF OAKLAND AND ALAMEDA COUNTY.
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Petition created on October 7, 2026