Klown Wit Da Nuclear Code

That’s just what Walker and a group of Black, homeless and housing-insecure mothers and children did in November, moving into the unoccupied “Magnolia Street House” to shelter themselves as they called attention to the blatant injustices of Oakland’s overwhelming housing crisis. 

Wedgewood Properties, the owner of the house and flipper of dozens of other properties in the area, lost little time in fighting to evict the families. In an early January ruling, Moms 4 Housing lost their case to Wedgewood, which claimed the moral high ground in the situation. Shortly thereafter, the Moms were forced from the home just before 6 am by officers of the sheriff's department armed with riot gear and AR-15 rifles. 

In the wake of the Moms’ eviction, and in celebration of their recognition by the Oakland City Council as Black History Month honorees, we checked in with Walker to talk about what’s happened and what’s to come for the Moms.

You’ve gotten a really militant response. Does the scale of that reaction surprise you?

Not the scale of reaction, I don’t think that surprised us, but the support has been outstanding. And we appreciate all of our supporters, it just lets us know we are on the right side of history, we’re doing the right thing, and I think this resonates with everyone, because all of our basic needs are being commodified. Housing is a basic human need, and I think folks are starting to realize that capitalism is playing a part in that not being a reality. And it should be. 

It’s been an intentional act of civil disobedience. You’re a lifelong activist. Is that true of the other moms?

Yes, I’ve been a community organizer since the age of 14. All of the other moms have been organizing in their communities, and we’ve seen the change that gentrification has had, we’ve seen our community be victims of the foreclosure crisis, and we’ve seen our folks be displaced either out into the street or to any outside place, to Vallejo, Fresno, Madesto, places like that. 

What’s it like seeing so much support for your mission? 

The support has been great, folks are realizing that this is their fight, too, and I think some of the opposition—we’re really clear on the overall message, because we were never about, like, “Oh, so they can just come and take my house.” It was never about that. We wanted to bring awareness to speculation in our community. Corporations that buy hundreds of homes a month and horde them for profit when there’s actually folks that need housing.

There’s no scarcity of housing. There’s a profiteering crisis. There’s a moral crisis that lets this happen in a city with four vacant houses for every one homeless person. 

Wedgewood stated the court’s ruling wasn’t only legally correct, but ethically and morally right. I can almost understand playing the devil’s advocate to argue that it’s not ethically ideal, but to say it’s morally okay to have so many homeless people and people pushed out of their homes is truly insane.

We’re all on stolen land. This is indigenous land, so when we talk about “stealing,” this country was stolen, and the corporation does not need this home. They’re composed of five different companies that all play a part in displacing folks. 

In their CEO’s office there’s a big Monopoly board. They’re doing this on a mass scale, and I’ve heard that they have properties all over the world. I was very shocked by the overwhelming support, but it just lets me know that everybody is having this issue.

There’s a lot of issues especially with the homelessness in Oakland. It’s been a 47 percent increase since 2017 in homelessness. That is absolutely alarming. It should be an emergency. Until we brought awareness, national attention to this, our mayor wasn’t acting on it, our governor had declared a state of emergency, but the community, our supporters, Moms 4 Housing and other organizations put pressure on these people to actually act. So it just let me know the power of the people. When we organize, we can win.

What have been some of the greatest successes of the movement so far?

Having shelter for those 58 days for myself and my children. We know the facts about homeless children and brain development, but I actually got to see that. I got to see my son take his first steps in that house on Magnolia Street, and say his first words, which were “Thank you.” And my daughter being able to be free and have some security. 

It’s so important for our children to have shelter and I think a lot of us don’t even think about what it’s like for children to be homeless and not even have space to develop. That’s been the most rewarding thing to see personally.

Also movement-wise, to see that this is still Oakland. Even though Oakland is rapidly changing, there’s still that history of resistance here, and we’re going to continue to resist, and we’re going to continue to organize, and we saw the power of the people in this whole situation. Our community continues to show up for us.

What’s been the most unexpected challenge?

Just dealing with a company that hired a PR firm and just dealing with someone who tried to smear the overall objective of the movement, which is for folks to have housing. That has always been the forefront of our struggle. We’re fighting for everyone, not only ourselves.

Dealing with the militarization of the eviction, that was very unexpected. I was actually on Democracy Now! Doing an interview when I heard from Amy that they were coming into the house, so we got over there, and it looked like a scene out of a war zone. They sent robots into the house, they had drones flying over the neighborhood, there were tanks, there was riot gear, military fatigues, police with AR 15, everything. I’ve never seen anything like that in a residential neighborhood to evict mothers and children at five o’clock in the morning.

And they had no idea that our children were not in the house, but luckily we prepared and had our children away and in a safe space, but they didn’t know that. That was a challenge and right now we are holding the Alameda County Sheriffs accountable for this. They have to be held accountable for the way they came in to evict mothers and babies. 

What’s the long term goal?

We’re working on a lot of things right now, and our overall goal is to end homelessness. To make sure that folks that want shelter have shelter. And to recognize that housing is a human right. So we’re always going to fight towards that. We also want to be a resource for other homeless mothers and homeless people, and we want to work on policy change, legislation, and come up with real solutions. We just want to work towards real solutions with grassroots organizing.

We have to take care of ourselves, because some of our elected officials are not, unless we put pressure on them. We’re going to continue to put pressure on them, hold the sheriffs accountable, and keep the movement going.

What are the kids’ reactions and what do you hope they take away from this?

Well my daughter, she asks, we’re not at mom’s house right now, and I’m like, we’re not, we might go back, we’re in negotiations. She’s 5 and she’s very intelligent, so there are some things I can explain to her.

Overall, I think it’s been a good experience for our children because they’ve bonded, all our children love each other, it’s like a sense of community has been created, they see us speaking and they see us taking a stand and putting our bodies on the line for others, and I think that’s the best example you can give to your children, is to be on the right side of history and to be working to make the world a better place for them. I think that when they get older they will really appreciate this moment and the courageousness of their mothers in bringing awareness to this issue.