Homeless women ordered by a California judge last week to leave a vacant house they illegally occupied in Oakland for two months. The women were evicted before dawn Tuesday by sheriff’s deputies in a case that highlighted the state’s severe housing shortage and growing numbers of homeless people.
Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, some dressed in military-style fatigues, escorted the women from the home and bound their hands with plastic ties as dozens of community activists on the sidewalk chanted “Let the moms go! Let the moms go!” and recorded the chaotic scene with their cell phones.
The video showed one deputy slamming a battering ram against the house’s front door.
“They came in like an army for mothers and babies,” said Dominique Walker, one of the mothers who was not arrested. “We have the right to housing. This is just the beginning.”
How permanently the women have changed the conversation around what is an intractable — and statewide — problem remains to be seen. Federal officials said last month that an uptick in the U.S. homeless population was driven entirely by a 16% increase in California, where the median sales price of a home is $500,000 and is even higher in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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