An Open Letter from Health Care Practitioners

This letter was sent today to the CEO of Wedgewood, the real estate company who should sell the Magnolia street house to Oakland Community Land Trust:

Dear Mr. Greg Geiser,

I’m writing on behalf of physicians, nurses and other health workers who are committed to addressing the upstream causes of the challenging diseases we address on a daily basis in the hospitals and clinics where we see all patients who come through our doors. We are deeply troubled by the sharp rise in homelessness in the Bay Area which greatly impacts the health as well as the quality of life of thousands of people where we work and live. We are acutely troubled by the data that states there are 100,000 vacant units in the Bay Area and only several thousand unhoused people (Graff, SFGate, March 17, 2019). This reality demonstrates that our housing “crisis” is not so much an issue of housing availability. It is a crisis of distribution, much like the so-called famine in Ethiopia, where countless lives were lost not because of crop failure but precisely because of the lack of imagination our current economic system cultivates in the face of human need.

We are writing to urge you to sell the Magnolia Street property to the Oakland Community Land Trust so that the struggling families who are currently occupying the house in Oakland can stay. This house was scooped up from the Black community in the downturn and has been sitting empty while Black families have been put out in the streets. As you may know, the risk of rape, assault, and death as a direct consequence of homelessness made the action of these mothers a deeply desperate one. Remaining in their historically Black neighborhood is critical, because community ties there offer the only safety net for families at risk, serving as surrogates to the economic opportunity that exists in White circles. It is inappropriate to ask the families to vacate a home that is providing them critical shelter in the middle of winter. We understand your company keeps mentioning the legality of what is happening. Please remember that in this country, slavery was legal and murdering indigenous people was legal. Our laws must change to reflect our growing awareness and humanity as a society. Legality is not a reasonable moral argument in the face of a real threat to human health and safety.

Evicting families is a threat to that health and safety. We ask that you and your team meet with these mothers and their advocates to move forward with this solution that can serve as a model for resolving the housing crisis not just here but throughout our state.

Thank you for your consideration. Members of our healthcare team would be happy to accompany any community meeting to ensure the lens of health and human safety remains at the center of all considerations.

Respectfully,

Rupa Marya, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Faculty Director, Do No Harm Coalition
Commissioner, Healthy California for All Commission
UCSF

Also signing:
Mordecai Cohen Ettinger, Founding Director, Health Justice Commons, and Faculty, California Institute of Integral Studies
Benjamin Jones, M.D. Candidate, UCSF School of Medicine
Anjana Sharma, MD MAS, Assistant Professor UCSF
Marvette Critney, Broker Opulence Real Estate Group
Abhi Kole, MD/PhD, UCSF Department of Hospital Medicine
Alice LoCicero, Ph.D., President Elect, Alameda County Psychological Association
Cristina Graham, Teacher, Oakland Resident
Adrià Jiménez Bacardí, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor UCSF
Montida Fleming, MD, UCSF
Bradley Monash, MD
Tammy Nicastro, MS, UCSF Research Scientist, National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health
Adrienne Fong, Retired RN - California Pacific Medical Center
Elizabeth Milos, Medical Interpreter, tank & file member of UPTE-CWA 9119
Cindy Fenton, MD , Professor of Medicine, UCSF
Kari Hennigan, PhD
Chris Walker, MD, UCSF
Yakira Teitel, MD, MPH
Olga Smith RN, CCRN, MS Health Policy
Katherine Brooks MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine San Francisco General Hospital
Molly Armstrong, SFSU nursing student
Sarah Michelle Wartman, MD, Vascular Surgeon, Washington Hospital, Fremont, CA
Martha Camacho Rodriguez, Educators/Director SEE-LA (Social Eco Education-Los Angeles)
Cristian Rodriguez, BioMed student/Charles Drew University
Erik Rodriguez, Student Verbum Dei High School
Teresa Palmer M.D.
Brit Nilsen, MD
Juan Carlos Cuellar, Educator
Carolyn Kraus, Fourth Year UCSF Medical Student
Nanda Rao
Katherine Schaff, DrPH, MPH
Jackie Clark, student nurse, San Francisco state university
Xiaoxuan Chen, MS1, UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Medical Program
Jonathan Burk
Esther Lee-Jones, recent nurse grad, UPenn School of Nursing
Rachel Joseph, MPH, FNP, Oakland resident
Elicia Fox Chaney, NP, UCSF/SFGH
Erin S Cicero, LCSW
Ethan Cicero, PhD, RN. UCSF School of Nursing
Daniela De Spain
Malini ,Iyengar
Mary Fakunle, MD, UCSF
Elizabeth Cureton MD
Cam Winter, PA-C, Retired
Suzanna Reiss-koncar, MPH, CHI. UCSF
Nathan Kim, Medical Trainee, UCSF School of Medicine
Ingrid Bauer, MD, MS, former Oakland resident
Lauren Sir, RN, SFDPH
Carmen Cobb, MD Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine & Pediatrics, UCSF
Michael Lyon, MS, UCSF
Sonaz Safari, FNP, UCSF Alumni
Tia Paneet, RN, SFDPH
Jamie Lowe, PT, DPT
Sarah Schear, Medical Student, UCSF School of Medicine
Kamran Abri, Medical Student, UC Berkeley/UCSF Joint Medical Program
Eira Kien
Jacob McPherson, EMT
Rhianna Mercier
Hasmik Geghamyan, Community Violence Prevention Educator, College of Alameda
Debbie Lei, student, George Washington University Health Informatics
Sharon Powell
J.Phoenix Smith, MSW Director Office of HIV Care, Alameda County Public Health Department
Brenna Cain, DNP, FNP-C
Adnan Ahmed, MD, Psychiatrist Minneapolis Minnesota
Stephanie Sherman, PhD, artist and educator
Briton Lee, Medical Student, UCSF
Nicole Boyd, UCSF School of Medicine
Joey Lew, Medical Student, University of California, San Francisco
Elizabeth De Young, human being, mother, outraged citizen.
Ariana Thompson-Lastad, Postdoctoral Fellow [health care researcher], UCSF School of Medicine
Rachel Schenkel, Do No Harm Coalition member and UCSF Medical Student Member and UCSF
Katherine Gladwin, NP
Katherine Semler, Nursing student
Juliana E. Morris, MD, EdM, UCSF
Paul Marano, Chief Medical Resident, Department of Medicine, UCSF
Ben Lintschinger, MSW - GLIDE Foundation and Private Practice Therapist
Kate Vander Tuig, Program Manager, Futures Without Violence
Anthony Bell, Medical Student, UCSF School of Medicine Class of 2021
Moya Gotham, GLIDE
Sonia Rab Alam, PhD, Oakland resident
Jennifer Fish, MD, HPEACE, Santa Rosa Community Health
Franny Yep, MD
Heather Quinlan, Community Health Worker, Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center
Andrea Zengion, ND, CNM, RN, WHNP-BC
Deborah Cohan, MD, MPH, Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, UCSF
Revery Barnes, MD, Family Medicine Specialist, Ambulatory Care Network LA County DHS
Matthew Musselman, 4th year medical student, Touro University California, Vallejo, CA
Irma Hernandez MD
Arlen Levy, Supporter
Aryn Maitland
Marisa, Student
Laura Kirk, MSPAS, PA-C, Senior PA Supervisor, UCSF
Kelli Kennedy, Single Mother who sits on the edge of homelessness, too.
Malaika H Kambon, Owner, People’s Eye Photography
Erin Brightwell, MS CCC-SLP, Speech Pathologist, UCSF
Toni Casal, retired Nurse, Concerned Parent/Grandparent
Walden Simper, business owner, Walden Graphics
Ana Delgado, CNM, Clinical Professor, UCSF
Naomi Stotland MD
Nancy Maldonado Oakland Resudent
Gurjot S. Gill, Health Researcher
Nicholas Rubashkin, MD Associate Professor Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCSF and director Human Rights in Childbirth
Andrew Lai, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Medicine
Julie M. French, MPA, UCSF
S. Ray, LVN
Mary C. Magee, R.N.
Erin Lee Sears
Kobi Naseck, Sunrise Bay Area Solidarity Team Lead, Sunrise Movement
Hannah Epstein, RN, CNM; Sutter Health-CPMC, Mission Bernal
E Lonstein CNM
Lina Khoeur, 3rd year Medical Student at UCSF, Do No Harm Coalition
Leslie Cragin, CNM
Rachel Latta, CNM, CPMC Mission Bernal
Laura Todaro, Certified Nurse-Midwife, Highland Hospital
Lisa Davis, MSN, CNM, RN - NuBirth Midwifery and Consulting
Nina Carbone, IBCLC
Kim Abrams, RN
Signy Toquinto, CNM, WHNP, Marin Community Clinics/MarinHealth Medical Center
Annie Le, MD, MPH, Resident Physician, UCSF
Jyesha Wren, Nurse Midwife, Alameda Health System - Highland Hospital
ANGELA DENISE SULLIVAN HOUSEKEEPER KAISER PERMANENTE
Deborah Yip, Medical student, University of California - San Francisco
Lily Barnard, MD Candidate 2020, UCSF
Maria Martínez
Leigh Kimberg, MD Professor of Medicine and Program Director of PRIME-US, UCSF (for ID purposes)
Catherine Alvarez
Deborah Gallegos, RN
Guadalupe Tovar, Public Health Nurse
Catherine Nelson, MD, MPH, Pediatrician
Jakada Imani
Brian J. Lane, fellow human
Asmara Gebre, CNM, UCSF faculty
Ele Lozares-Lewis, MD, AAHIVS. VIDA Clinician Lead Santa Rosa Community Health. AETC Faculty
Ankhasanamen Sow, RN, FNP, MSN
Angela Shannon, MS, RN, CNS
Rolando Tringale MD
Danny Kim, MD
Elizabeth Torkington, RN Program Manager, Tiburcio Vasquez Street Health Outreach
Anne Montgomery, MD, Chief Resident, Internal Medicine, UCSF

Three Councilmembers Stand with Moms4Housing

From Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan's Chief of Staff Bobbi Lopez today:

"As this corporation has decided to hire a high powered PR guy to go on the attack, let me clarify-Two city council members sent a letter asking the owner to sit down with a third party and mediate. The third party is the Oakland community land trust. The response of the corporation was to say “We don’t meet with criminals.” So that was an unambiguous response from the corporation about their desire to resolve this amicably. Yes-they likely have a right to sell to the mothers or not. But to be clear-the mothers are offering to buy it at market rate. What the moms are doing isn’t about bringing on a movement of squatters to take over properties but raising the issue of what we do with multi million dollar corporations that form LLCs and leave these properties vacant for years-many, like this house, taken in foreclosure. The judge actually talked about the possible need for government intervention and his move to postone his decision to me signals an acknowledgement of our housing crisis and that if we continue to allow the market and corporations to do as they wish, homelessness will only grow. From the state to the city, we need to rethink our policies profoundly around housing because it isn’t working when we have thousands in the streets. The trickle down of a few million a year from the county and the state isn’t helping Oakland resolve this crisis. If you read the Path report from our Oakland city staff, it’s actually a list of great ideas to resolve homelessness that we can’t afford as the city. We need real help at all levels of government. We also need to think about how easy it is for people to label Black working mothers as “criminals” and yet not talk about Wedgewood’s sordid history in the foreclosure crisis."

Thank you Councilmembers Nikki Fortunado Bas, Rebecca Kaplan, and Dan Kalb for standing with the community instead of the corporations.