Her Kids Needed a Home. So She Helped Start a Housing Revolution
In November 2019, two mothers who were homeless at the time took shelter in a foreclosed property in Oakland. Dominique Walker and Misty Cross eventually made a home for themselves and their children at 2928 Magnolia Street, which had been purchased by a house-flipping company called Wedgewood. They called themselves Moms 4 Housing, and others joined them. The group drew support for standing up to housing speculators in a city where empty homes and apartments are greater than the number of people experiencing homelessness.
In January, Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies dressed in military fatigues forcibly evicted them, arresting two moms and two supporters.
The moms’ story went viral, and the backlash against Mayor Libby Schaaf and Wedgewood led to a resolution for Oakland’s Community Land Trust to purchase the property for the moms. Schaaf vowed to create a community housing advisory board to be co-chaired by one of the moms. Walker, a lifelong activist and mother to two young children, spoke with me about Moms 4 Housing’s mission and what’s happened since their eviction.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Why did you move into the house on Magnolia Street?
When I moved my family from Mississippi back home to Oakland in April 2019, I was experiencing domestic violence. My plan was to do the dual master Ph.D program at the University of San Francisco to be a nurse practitioner. But this is a health crisis, too – people are dying on the street and need the basic human right of shelter. I was doing community outreach with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. I would have a canvassing paper and pages and pages of the address slot were empty. I was homeless myself, and folks I was talking to were like, “I’m homeless and I work, too.”
I started to see a new face of homelessness in the Bay Area – our teachers, our nurses, our minimum-wage workers. We had to do something about it, especially with the women and children. My son said his first words and took his first steps in the house on Magnolia Street — only when he had shelter and the freedom to move around.
How did you rally support, and find a community to help with security and safety?
When we started Moms 4 Housing, I was surprised with everybody being like, I'm down for that. It just spoke to the seriousness of the issue of housing being a human right. Folks started to realize that this is your fight too, even if you have a house, because you're only a paycheck or two away from being in the same position. I think that resonates with a lot of folks here, because they’re spending 80% and 90% of their income on rent.
What are the latest developments since Mayor Schaaf announced plans to create an advisory board?
The charges were dropped. We're working on setting up that board with our mayor and governor. We introduced the Moms 4 Housing ordinance, the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which would give tenants the first right of refusal when their landlord sells. We're still in negotiation with Wedgewood and doing [house] appraisals.
We mainly want to hold the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office accountable for the militarized eviction. It was a very traumatic experience for the entire neighborhood. City Council introduced a bill requiring the establishment of a community board to authorize any military force used by the Oakland Police Department. We support the intent of that bill, but feel it should also include the sheriff's office.
Misty, one of the moms arrested during the eviction, criticized the media for framing the moms as criminals. How can journalists do better?
The criminal act is actually living in such a place with so many resources and we have our folks sleeping on the street. This land that we're on right now is stolen from our Indigenous brothers and sisters. [Magnolia Street] was about the desperation of mothers finding shelters for their children, and getting speculators out of our community and land not being commodified. These [corporations] hoard houses during the housing crisis. That's criminal. We're not going to stop organizing until all folks going without shelter have shelter.
What should people know about organizing around homelessness and housing insecurity?
When you are organizing with marginalized folks, they should be at the center of the discussion of how to fix their own problems. I know a lot of people mean well, but please have those folks at the table with you making those decisions about their lives.
AJ+ journalist Julia Muldavin spoke with Moms4Housing members in September 2020, months after the above interview was conducted, to learn more about their advocacy and what they want to change.
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