On the morning of April 11, 85th Avenue next to the DMV office at the Oakland Coliseum was lined with cars on both sides of the street. More cars poured into the DMV parking lot to wait for further instruction from the Oakland Black Housing Union (BHU). It was Day 27 of the shelter-in-place order in Alameda County, and the patience of many community members has worn thin.

Their goal is to save as many unsheltered people from exposure to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, as possible. But how are housing and homeless advocacy groups achieving that during a global pandemic, especially after the county extended the stay at home order by another month? Given the emergency, BHU decided to try something new. Organizers are calling the series of protest actions, which kicked off on Saturday, a “mobile-march sound action.”

“We’re protesting the lack of urgency and response to COVID-19 in our homeless population here in Oakland,” said Dominique Walker, co-founder of Moms4Housing and organizer with ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment). “We have to fight back and save our people because we know that Black folks are dying at a higher rate and we want to protest that.”.

Read More: Oakland Black Housing Union Organizes Mobile March to Demand Housing for Homeless | Event Announcement

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