Open Letter from Health Care Practitioners in Support of Moms 4 Housing
This letter was sent January 6, 2020 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
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
