The Oakland, California Homeless Problem is Beyond Belief
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Published 2021-11-07
Oakland California sure does have a homeless problem. Driving around town, there’s homeless encampments all over the place. They’re on the side of the roads in dirt lots. There’s long stretches of them on sidewalks. Some of em are tents, some are RVs, some are actual encampments with makeshift structures where hundreds of people gather in communities.
It’s estimated there’s around 5,000 homeless individuals throughout the city of Oakland, but no one really knows the exact number. And the number of people on the streets in Oakland has nearly doubled in the last two years alone.
A lot of that has to do with the high cost of living in the Bay Area. Apartments that were once $1,000 a month now cost closer to $3,000 a month. A lot of the homeless are addicts. But there’s no real one reason homelessness is so high in Oakland. You ask 10 homeless people why they live on the streets and you’ll get 10 different answers.
Look at this one in West Oakland. This one is sort of sanctioned by the city - meaning they don’t run them off. Sometimes, it’s easier to keep them in one place so they can monitor them and provide support. But this problem is impacting the community in a big way.
Local businesses complain about losing customers. I mean would you want to park near here to shop? Residents complain about homeless people stealing from them. Neighbors complain about loud noise and trash. Some say helping the homeless is backfiring.
And the Oakland police are already stretched thin because of low numbers. There’s many reasons for that - you know, vaccine mandates, early retirements and being defunded.
I spent two days driving around Oakland, looking at how run down this once proud city has become. And along the way, I recorded all the homeless camps I saw. But there was one particular homeless camp that I stumbled onto which put into perspective the state of homelessness here in Oakland, and actually changed my perspective on the homeless problem in general.
#california #moving
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All Comments (21)
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It is incredible that there is no money to make houses for these people, but for the war there are billions😢
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Housing isn't affordable. Healthcare isn't affordable. Food isn't affordable. Fuel isn't affordable. Educations aren't affordable. What more do you expect?
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What an awesome person Ohio is! He opened my eyes to the homeless. I lived in California in the 70’s and was just scraping by with a good job. I was forced to move back to the Midwest because of the high cost of living in the Bay Area. It’s been almost fifty years since I left and it’s sad to see how bad things have gotten.
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Wow! If you asked me 20 years ago; I never would have thought homelessness scenes like these were possible in America. Times are definitely changing, and they're changing fast.
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These homeless people speak better than most of our politicians in the D.C!!
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It's not just Oakland. Small to mid sized cities are seeing a huge influx of homelessness. The U.S. is turning into a third world country astonishingly fast.
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Thank you for taking this educational video. Homelessness is becoming such a huge problem all over the place.. including Canada where I live. The cost to live is becoming out of reach for so many of us. My heart goes out to everyone dealing with this issue.
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Bro this is by far the best doco and footage ive seen on this topic,well done ✔️ 👏
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When I was a kid back in the '70s people used to talk about Mexicans living in cardboard boxes down in Tijuana. I've been all over Mexico since then and never saw anyone living in a cardboard box but I sure have seen it in California!
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Thank you for your presentation and your human interest in this sad situation.
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Thank you again Nick. I am so glad so many people are reading your Commentaries here.
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Few people understand that being homeless consumes a huge amount of time. It's like camping, but changing campsites every day and never having a reservation at the next site, rarely knowing where you can rest... and feeding yourself without money... and having to locate a bathroom every time you need to go to the bathroom. When you wake up, typically the first thing we all do is to pee. When I was homeless my days started searching frantically for somewhere to legally pee. Being homeless consumes so much time that it's just not feasible to also hold down a job. Not to mention, how do you apply for work and set up interviews without a phone number, without an actual address, without an internet connection? Employment is possible when housing is resolved. Housing must come first to really be able to hold down a job.
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Not one politician deserves a pay check while there’s a single homeless veteran!
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Thank you for interviewing people on the streets for real info
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The articulate gentleman at the start knows what he is talking about and those in power should be employing people like him who know exactly how had things really are on the street and have the experience and the knowledge on how to start fixing it.
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$3k for a studio apartment that’s just outright insane greediness.
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I spent 2 years being homeless after losing a 6 figure job! I had lost both parents, 3 friends and my fiancee in a short time period and grief and loss sent me over the edge and I slowly lost everything. It can happen to ANYONE ANY TIME!
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Thank you so much for sharing.
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I'm a 49rs fan and I'm telling you, it all started as a Oakland Raiders tailgate party. On everything.
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This dude is right. Ive been homeless sleepn in my car for YEARS and back then it was impossible to get work in that situation. No showers, no internet access, no phone, people tryn to kill me in the middle of the night, no where to really park at night to sleep... you name it! Life was VERY hard! Not a joke. How did i end up homeless like that to begin with!? coming from a broken home where the step parent didnt want anything to do with me no matter what!? and threw me out on the street at 18 years of age. And i was a high school grade with no police record. Out on the street! Thats how it started and it stayed that way for years... terrible. Its very hard to get out of this situation
