(rhythmic keyboard music)
- Welcome, everybody,
to the 77th Avenue Rangers micro-community
here in Oakland, California.
We are the only city-sanctioned,
self-governed tent encampment in Oakland.
What makes a city-sanctioned camp different than a shelter
or a non-sanctioned community
is that we have structure.
We have representatives that speak for us to the city.
I help organize the folks here,
I am the community relations officer,
so I talk with a lot of people.
(mellow digital music)
I used to work for the United States Department of Defense.
In 2007, I was forced into retirement
due to some medical issues.
February of 2008, my financial institution,
which held all my money, my retirement,
filed for bankruptcy.
Overnight, I lost over three million dollars.
Made it back here to San Francisco Bay area,
lived with my dad until he fell ill
with colon rectal cancer.
The court took his home to pay for all of his medical
after he had passed on a year and a half later,
and that's when I became homeless.
I was taking a more aggressive approach
to cleaning up the area and helping everybody.
After a couple of years,
the city sent some administrators down here,
had a talk with me,
told me that they liked what I was doing,
that they would give me a city-sanctioning.
We were just a loose group of individuals
who were all concerned for each other's safety,
and watching out for one another,
and we continue that today.
A majority of the folks
that live in the Rangers micro-community, we work,
and we have a lot of workers,
so we have a wide variety.
We have grandmothers here, we have young couples here,
so we fit the full gamut
of the life outside of this community.
It's the same life that's in your community.
- My name is Kymberli Wilson, and this is where I live.
I live with my husband, wanna come in?
Let's go.
This is our cooking area, storage area.
We have a shed, we keep our clothes and tools
and stuff in there.
The big burner for heat and cooking.
Well, we were livin' in my father's house,
and my father passed away.
A couple of years later, we were evicted,
and that's how we ended up out here.
It's 1,100, $1,200 for a studio.
That's pretty much why we're here.
Rent is too high.
- One of the side benefits of being a city-sanctioned,
self-governed encampment is that the city provides us
with porta-potties and a hand-washing station.
That minimizes the waste that goes into the streets,
down the sewers, and helps keep everybody a lot cleaner,
and healthier by properly disposing of human waste.
Another benefit that we have
is that we get organizations and churches close by
that bring us fresh food
and fresh vegetables on a regular basis.
Not all camps have this available to them.
This is a great benefit for most here in the camp,
especially when you don't have an income.
You have guaranteed, warm, fresh, hot food.
Well, this is our shower that we've created here,
the only shower in a homeless community in Oakland,
and how it works, we have our little power pack here,
there's a battery inside.
There's a pump and a filter,
and so we have the water pickup,
picks up water from the five gallon bucket,
we have a switch,
so makes a big difference.
People can clean, they can actually not be embarrassed
about how they look, how they smell,
and they have dignity when they go outside of this camp,
and they look like a normal person,
rather than a homeless person.
(rhythmic digital music)
Connie's position here is our compliance officer,
our community compliance officer,
so she goes up and down the street
to make sure that everybody's stayin' within a certain area
of the curb, and the city is happy that we're self-governed,
and that we take care of the things,
and the police don't have to, nor does the city.
- Everyone out here, we do our part
to take care of our block.
This is our block, this is what we have.
It's all we have, and I'm so sure no one is here
just because they wanna be.
There's no other opportunity, there's nowhere else to go.
Homelessness is a job.
Just like you clock in on a nine-to-five,
it's a job to be homeless.
- In 2022, I plan on running for the City of Oakland mayor,
and I've put forth a lot of new, creative ideas
to end homelessness here in Oakland.
We need to have the cities understand that stability
is at the heart of homelessness.
The City of Oakland, the City Council
actually saw that article from "Invisible People",
and learned more about our camp,
and they were so concerned with our camp
that they went out and got us
a brand new housing coordinator,
where we've had several folks with various forms of cancer,
and serious illnesses, and we were able to get 'em housed
through just Will, and the City of Oakland,
through this new cooperation.
- Every day, it's like the big hole gets bigger and bigger,
and more and more of us are falling in it, and why?
Because we can't afford a place to live.
Somewhere, some door has to open to help us.
We're not helpless out here.
Give us a house, give us a warehouse,
give us the materials.
I guarantee you that there's enough men out here,
some of the women, with the skills to bring it up to code
so that it can be habitable.
(gentle keyboard music)
It's not a lot, it's not a lot.
(gentle keyboard music)
- [Derrick] If you're in the United States,
you can go to InvisiblePeople.tv,
click on Get Involved, where you can email,
Facebook, Tweet, or call your legislators,
and demand that they make ending homelessness a priority.