From xxxxxx <[email protected]>
Subject Cob Structures House Kitchen, Clinic, Shower, in West Oakland Homeless Community
Date May 12, 2021 12:00 AM
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[A community of homeless residents lives near Cob on Wood,
surrounding the site. Advocates and some residents estimate the
population of that community to be about 100 people.]
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COB STRUCTURES HOUSE KITCHEN, CLINIC, SHOWER, IN WEST OAKLAND
HOMELESS COMMUNITY  
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Zack Haber
April 29, 2021
Post News Group
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_ A community of homeless residents lives near Cob on Wood,
surrounding the site. Advocates and some residents estimate the
population of that community to be about 100 people. _

A community kitchen, clinic, toilet and shower made out of cob and
wood sit under the 880 Freeway within a homeless community west of
Wood Street in West Oakland,

 

Members of three organizations – Artists Building Communities,
Essential Food and Medicine, and Living Earth Structures – have
built a kitchen, clinic, free store, stage, toilet, oven, and shower
with and for a homeless community near Wood Street in West Oakland.

Made out of wood covered in brown cob, the structures that house these
facilities seem almost as natural extensions of the earth upon which
they sit. Empty wine bottles serve as windows, and old discarded
clothes serve as insulation. Sculpted images of trees decorate the
structures’ surfaces and succulent plants sprout along the
perimeters of their roofs. 

 
Winding stone pathways connect the structures and are bordered by
little gardens of herbs, greens, and flowers. The kitchen has a stove,
sink with running water, shelving full of bread, and a refrigerator
full of food. Herbs and emergency medical supplies fill the clinic.
The shower’s water runs hot. 

The project is called Cob on Wood. It sits on land owned by, west of
Wood Street, and under the 880 freeway. 

A community of homeless residents lives near Cob on Wood, surrounding
the site. Advocates and some residents estimate the population of that
community to be about 100 people. The area west of Wood Street in West
Oakland that the community lives in does not receive regular
sanitation service from the City of Oakland, and much of it is densely
packed with abandoned vehicles and garbage. 

With regular maintenance by those living inside and outside of the
homeless community, the Cob on Wood site looks different from its
surroundings, like a rose that grows out of a crack in the concrete.

“This was built through relationships with the community and came
out of requests from the community,” said Xochitl Bernadette Moreno,
co-founder of Essential Food and Medicine (EFAM).

EFAM started building relationships with Wood Street residents early
in the COVID-19 pandemic by giving them juice, soups, and natural
medicines made from local produce. Artists Building Community (ABC)
also started early in the pandemic, when Annemarie Bustamante and some
of her neighbors living in The Vulcan Loft apartments in East Oakland
started building small wooden homes for homeless Oakland residents. 

ABC has expanded now to include volunteers throughout the area, and
they have built several of their homes in the Wood Street community.
But the structures at Cob on Wood-look different from ABC’s homes. 

ABC and EFAM came together to contract with Miguel Elliot of Living
Earth Structures to guide the building of Cob on Wood structures using
cob. The group benefited from Elliot’s experience of building cob
structures for over 25 years in a variety of settings and locations,
including parts of Central and South America, Africa, and Asia.

While the groups have followed Elliot’s construction guidance, they
also followed nearby homeless residents’ service requests, whose
first request was a kitchen. Elliot’s cob construction made the
kitchen safe from catching fire, as the cob is fireproof. 

Such precautions were necessary. Oakland’s fire
department responded to almost 1,000 fires
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homeless communities during fiscal years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

LeaJay Harper, who has lived in the Wood Street community for over
seven years, now restocks the kitchen every few days and also cooks
for herself and other residents.

“It’s been a challenge trying to keep food in the kitchen because
people are definitely using it,” said Harper. “It’s made it so
that folks who didn’t have the facilities at their own space to cook
can have hot food every single day. A lot of people are gaining
weight, which is a good thing.”

Harper works and meets closely with ABC and EFAM to plan food pickups.
Other homeless residents have taken on roles in the community as well.
A resident named Lydia, who lives in an RV near the community and is
knowledgeable about medicinal uses of herbs, is the community clinic
liaison. She helps spread information about ways residents can use the
clinic’s herbs. 

Raquel, a teenager who lives with her family in the Wood Street
community, helps with outreach to inform other residents about Cob on
Wood services and events. Another teenager, Sequoia, who used to live
on Wood Street, is also part of Cob on Wood’s outreach team.

“I think being part of [Cob on Wood] is really amazing,” Sequoia
said. “Most of my life I was homeless and being able to give back to
the community now that I’m not on the streets means a lot to me.”

The idea for the community started in September of last year, and
construction started in December. The project has been growing. These
days, Moreno says about 50 people meet online on Wednesdays to
formally plan and maintain the project. 

On Sundays, the group meets more informally on site for construction,
site maintenance, a pizza party, and an open mic. The vast majority of
people involved with the project still live outside of the Wood Street
community, but the word is spreading. 

Cob on Wood volunteers go into the Wood Street community and hand out
flyers about the project. On Sunday, April 18, they hosted an Earth
Day celebration called “What’s Your Medicine?” with food, DJs,
dance, and musical performances. 

At least 100 people showed up to the event. One Wood Street resident
who lives in a self-made home said he had never heard of Cob on Wood
before but followed the sound of the music and found it.

 Ashel Seasunz Eldridge, who co-founded EFAM, and performed at the
Earth Day celebration with his band, Dogon Lights, said that Cob on
Wood seeks to build on work that Wood St residents already are doing.
During the Earth Day celebration, when Cob on Wood had a Town Hall to
discuss how the project could sustain itself and better serve the
community, five Wood Street residents took the lead, speaking to each
other and the crowd through a PA system. 

Those residents have been meeting weekly in another part of the Wood
Street community.

“We were inspired by the meetings people were already having,”
said Eldridge. “We thought, why not bring that to the town hall.”

One topic Wood Street residents spoke about was defending themselves
and other people experiencing homelessness from displacement. It was
something Cob on Wood organizers found pertinent, as they worry that
the site, which sits on CalTrans owned land, could face displacement
from that state agency.

A recent article
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the San Francisco Chronicle cites CalTrans spokesperson RocQuel
Johnson as claiming the agency plans to clear “abandoned vehicles
and liter” from CalTrans land near Wood Street in May and June,
claiming similar actions were executed on April 12 and  April13. 

ABC founder Annmarie Bustamante was at the Wood Street homeless
community on those days and claims CalTrans forced people to move
themselves and their homes from the location they lived to an area
more out of sight of a nearby street. 

Abandoned vehicles, Bustamante claims, were not removed from the Wood
Street homeless community but were moved to a separate area still
within that community. She said the operation did not remove trash but
displaced people.

Although this reporter asked CalTrans about the April 12 and 13
operations, the agency did not respond. But Johnson told the SF
Chronicle that “[Cob on Wood] structures were placed on state right
of way without a permit or without safety inspections,” and added
that “CalTrans is currently evaluating the best course of action and
has no immediate plans to remove the structures.”

Cob on Wood organizers is unclear about whether CalTrans will remove
their structures. The state agency cleared homeless people off their
land in Oakland on Sept. 21
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year and late January this year
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During the January operation, a group of advocates, 10 of whom carried
colorful shields, defended the self-made home of two Oakland residents
living on the land bordering Mosswood Park and the 580 Freeway. 

While nearly 20 of their neighbors cleared themselves from the
CalTrans-owned land they were living on, the two residents never left
the area, and their home was not dismantled. 

Bustamante, who was at the January CalTrans operation supporting
eviction defense, is also prepared to defend Cob on Wood if necessary.
Defending space through direct action is a topic of steady
conversation among those involved with Cob on Wood.

“If CalTrans does try to displace us at Wood Street without allowing
for other adequate resources, there’s gonna be a fight,” said
Bustamante.

Cob on Wood wants to expand to include a sauna and small huts for
homeless residents. They are seeking funds to help their project, to
help pay for construction costs, materials and stipends for homeless
residents who help with the project.

Readers can donate to their gofundme campaign
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