Help Tena Recover and Rebuild Her Life

My name is Delphine. I am organizing this fundraiser for my friend Tena, a beloved disabled elder and displaced long-time unhoused resident of West Oakland’s Wood Street community. A few months ago, Tena was fortunate enough to find an apartment that accepted her Section 8 voucher. The week before last, however, just as she was getting settled in her new home, a series of traumatic events turned her life upside-down.

First her property manager forced her to relocate her moped, her only form of transportation, and through a series of unfortunate events, someone she knew left her moped, with her smart phone in it, unattended on Wood Street, just as Oakland was destroying what remained of the close-knit community in that area after declaring a “safe work zone” to demolish the remnants of the encampment in what the city termed a “hard closure”. Her moped and cell phone were either destroyed by a bulldozer or possibly stolen at some point before the site was razed.

Just on the heels of those losses, adding greatly to her trauma, a neighbor’s unattended off-leash dog viciously mauled Tena to within an inch of her life, and she sustained serious injuries and severe pain, which interfere with her daily activities. She was treated at the hospital, administered a TDAP vaccine and antibiotics. Although she has changed the dressings daily, with the help of her goddaughter, a fellow displaced Wood Street resident, who has been staying with her and caring for her as she recovers, Tena’s wounds have nevertheless started to become infected, and she has had to receive in-home visits from a nurse through Medi-Cal to clean, disinfect and change the dressings on the wounds and monitor the infections.

So I’m launching this GoFundMe campaign to pay for essentials as she recuperates from this ordeal:

Tena first became homeless about 11 years ago, and has survived intimate partner violence and sexual assault during that time. She lived on Wood St for eight years. Those fortunate enough to know her have been moved by her kindness, honesty, trustworthiness, and generosity. She has always been someone her neighbors turn to when in need of a helping hand, willing to share and give away anything she has if someone needs it. A rock of stability in a hardscrabble community bereft of many basics others take for granted, she has often put herself last to make sure others’ needs are met.

At her new home, Tena is grateful she has a lock on her door and can worry less about being assaulted again. She no longer has to worry about where she will be able to sleep or shower. Prior to the dog attack, she had made friends with her new neighbors and begun to enjoy a newfound degree of independence. She gets to decide what happens in her apartment.

At the same time, she has also been lonely living indoors, away from the larger Wood Street community. The four walls of her apartment make her feel isolated. She is grieving friends and chosen family from Wood Street who have died amidst the relentless two-year series of sweeps that destroyed the once-vibrant, self-managed unhoused community, which had grown to be the largest of its kind in the East Bay before the city displaced residents. She lost contact with other friends as they were scattered to the winds, seeking refuge wherever they could find an RV parking spot, a curbside area to pitch their tent, or a bed in a city-funded cabin-style shelter program nearby – a harsh, punitive environment which participants have likened to an internment camp.

With our help, Tena looks forward to recovering and reconnecting with her community. Please give as generously as you can, share this fundraiser with your contacts, and post in your social media profile and story, and like and comment on others’ reposts!