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What’s next for Moms 4 Housing? Founder Misty Cross says the organization will mobilize concerned residents and protesters to the ballot box this election year and focus their attention on gubernatorial and local races central to California’s affordable housing crisis.
Moments before the group held a barbecue outside the so-called Mom House in West Oakland — where Cross was evicted and arrested Tuesday — she specifically called out Gov. Gavin Newsom, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and District 3 City Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney, who oversees the West Oakland neighborhood where the moms squatted inside a home for 58 days before a court-ordered eviction led to four arrests.
“Now we’re outside, we can make more noise,” she said, surrounded by reporters and protesters following her release from jail Tuesday. “For all of those who don’t stand by us, these representatives who we voted into office, I think the next action will be there.”
Cross hinted the group’s next action could be at the offices of Schaaf and McElhaney, adding that Gov. Gavin Newsom could also be targeted during campaign stops to the area this election year.
“If Gov. Newsom is not a visit to Mom’s House when he comes through here to do his tour, there is a problem with this city,” Cross said. “When this has hit national news, it’s a problem.”
Earlier that day, Schaaf addressed her concerns about the 58-day squatting protest that started at the West Oakland home Nov. 18: “My heart goes out to those mothers,” she said, speaking at an unrelated news conference in Oakland, “and I was pretty shocked to see the tactics that were used to take them out of the home in the early dawn hours this morning.”
Moms 4 Housing members, who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless, hoped to call attention to Oakland’s homelessness crisis when they moved into the empty, investor-owned house without the owner’s permission.
Wedgewood, a real estate investment company listed as the owner of the home, served the squatters with an eviction notice, which they then fought in court. An Alameda County judge ruled Jan. 10 that the women had no right to the home, then ordered the sheriff’s office to evict them within five days.
Following the eviction, the sheriff’s office acknowledged the unusual nature of the eviction, which it estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars. The sheriff’s office told reporters it is considering sending a bill to Wedgewood next.
