Pro Arts

We need $30,000 to build 7 Emergency Tiny Homes in Oakland for our Houseless Community Members. If you’re able, donate today. Every little bit helps. We can’t do this without you.

Introduction

According to ACHH (Alameda County Healthcare for the Homeless), there are currently at least 10,000 unhoused people in Oakland. This number is projected to rise 30% if the issue of affordable and free housing isn’t addressed. When the shelter in place began in early 2020, the City of Oakland closed the doors to their social services offices, leaving many without access to essential programs during this global health crisis. 

We're Artists Building Communities, or ABC, a coalition of artists, activists, and unhoused people working together to create emergency housing for members of our community. Our solution is simple: to build secure and warm locking structures for as many unhoused people as possible.


No matter the community, the economic and health impact of COVID-19 is widespread and palpable. Businesses have closed around us, evictions have soared and the number of unhoused community members have grown. With very little outside support, community members have contributed in whatever way they can to help their neighbors. ABC started in 2020 to support its own community in Oakland survive the pandemic and emerge stronger than before. 

We need your help to continue building emergency housing that will provide safety, shelter, and dignity to those that need it. We cannot wait for a solution from the city, state, or federal government. 

Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve built 7 emergency tiny houses. We need your help to build 7 more. 


We can reach this goal with $30K which will cover all building and financial costs for the 7 houses. Getting to this goal is as simple as 300 donations of only $100 to provide emergency housing for our neighbors.

Be part of the community. Be part of the solution.

What about the government’s approach to this issue?

The City of Oakland gets between 20 and 100 million dollars from the federal government per year to address the affordable housing issue, but they have very little to show for it. Sanitation stations are few and those that are in place are left unserviced. The number of tents grows daily and violence in unhoused communities is often ignored.

Instead of utilizing its funds to defeat the current health and housing crisis, the city spends its budget on research, administrative fees, and expensive deals to build new developments that won’t open for years. 

With unspent money in Oakland’s budget, we ask when they will act to protect this community? 

ABC’s Solution

We believe in a Housing First Approach that allows for the safety and dignity of the unhoused community in the present. We have already constructed 7 tiny houses in Oakland, restoring hope to 7 families. Each tiny home owner was nominated by a fellow unhoused community member. The recipients upgrade from living in a tent or car to a 10' x 12' tiny home. 


Be a part of our extensive network of volunteers, builders and unhoused folks and help us continue this needed work. 

Together we can raise $30K and build 7 more homes. If we beat this goal we can build even more.

Be part of the solution. Share this video and donate today.

Thanks to Saint Francis Homeless Challenge, Essential Food and Medicine, Living Earth Structures, United Front Against Displacement, Tenants and Neighborhood Council, Where Do We Go Berkeley, and Lifelong Medical Center. 

Sources

"At least 10,000 unhoused people in Oakland."

sfbayview.com/2020/05/covid-19-further-burdens-oaklands-black-homeless-populations-quest-to-survive/

ALL FUNDS RAISED OVER OUR STATED GOAL will pay for work being done on our behalf by Safer DIY Spaces to pave the way for an affordable housing developer to purchase the building and secure the long-term stability of the Vulcan community.

The historic Vulcan Lofts in Oakland, CA are up for sale and nearly 200 working-class Bay Area artists are at risk of losing our homes. 
In order to save the Vulcan, we’ve founded a tenant’s union, hired several attorneys, and petitioned the City of Oakland to put the building under rent control. Our hearing with the rent board is coming up very soon and we need to raise $50k in the next month to cover legal costs. Please support us by donating to our cause and sharing our crowdfunding campaign with your network. We love you.

The Vulcan Lofts have been an integral part of the Oakland arts community for over 30 years. Housed within a former steel foundry, the Vulcan is a central residential hub for nearly 200 low-income, working class artists and their communities. Full of visual artists, musicians, circus performers, and creatives of all stripes, the work produced at the Vulcan enriches the cultural fabric of the Bay Area and beyond on a daily basis, creating works of joy and beauty in the most rapidly gentrifying corner of America.

Now, the oldest, largest, and most visible live-work community in Oakland is under threat.

In late 2018, the Vulcan was put up for sale for $16M by its current owner. Following the tragedy of the Ghost Ship fire, the city of Oakland has increased its oversight on live-work spaces, putting new pressures on landlords and increasing the requirements involved when these buildings change hands. As a result, the new owner will have to spend millions of dollars on upgrades and repairs to the building.

If the building is sold to a commercial developer, this expense will be passed on to its residents in the form of a staggering rent increase, putting its nearly 200 low-income artist residents at risk of mass displacement amidst California’s housing crisis.

In an effort to save their home, the Vulcan’s residents have undertaken an unprecedented organizing effort to found the Vulcan Tenants Union (VTU) and secured legal representation to petition the city to place the building under rent control. But the current owner claims the building is not subject to rent control, although the place was used for residential purposes prior to laws allowing landlords to claim an exemption to rent control regulations.

The VTU is fighting to officially put the building under rent control in order to avoid mass displacement, prevent the owner’s latest attempt to increase our rent, and stabilize a historic bastion of Oakland’s cultural heritage. A successful verdict may also open the door for an affordable housing developer to purchase the building, ensuring its long-term status as affordable artist housing. As the first major case of its kind following the Ghost Ship tragedy, the Vulcan will be a seminal case for other live/work spaces, creating a ripple effect that could affect hundreds of similar spaces in the city of Oakland and beyond.

We are in the process of rewriting live/work history. In their fight for rent control, the VTU has enlisted the help of tenant’s rights attorneys, community organizers, and activists. DIY Safer Spaces, a local organization which arose after Ghost Ship to protect the city’s live-work residents from eviction and displacement, has generously offered a stipend to support the case. Now, the money has run out.

An urgent situation has become an emergency. We need help if we are to save our homes, our community, and our way of life.

In order to properly pay for the legal and paralegal fees, private investigators, inspectors, and costs of service of subpoenas, witness fees and other cost related to our rent control case, the Vulcan needs to raise $50k by March 22nd. This figure also includes funds to reduce the burden for an affordable housing developer to manage the paperwork and inspections necessary to formally evaluate the purchase of the building.

This isn’t just about the Vulcan - this is about the folding of numerous artist residences and DIY spaces in Oakland, in the Bay Area, and across the nation. If we win this case, we set an example for other live/work spaces, arming them with the legal strategy they need to ensure safe and habitable conditions while continuing to not just live, but thrive. We are asking our community at large for their support to help us save the vibrant Vulcan community that contributes so much to the cultural fabric of this city. With the support of many, we are ready to fight against the displacement of its low-income and vulnerable tenants.

HOW MUCH MONEY NEEDS TO BE RAISED? $50,000

WHAT DOES THE MONEY GO TOWARDS? This $50,000 pays for the two lawyers, two paralegals, and a licensed private investigator. The scope of the work includes case preparation, briefs, subpoenas, witnesses preparation for hearing, research, investigator costs and, likely lengthy hearing procedures.

Thanks to our nonprofit partnership with ProArts, your donation to our Save The Vulcan crowdfunding campaign is also completely tax-deductible!