A group of Oakland residents developed a creative way to attack the city’s growing housing crisis. He built his “community center” in a homeless cantonment under a highway overpass.
Called Cob on wood, The working village includes basic household items, such as toilets, showers and kitchens, as well as a health clinic and small shop, San Jose Mercury News reported.
“It’s like a small oasis in the middle of nowhere that makes you feel like you’re back to normal again,” John Janosko, who lives in a trailer, told the paper that described the development Went “like something out of a fairy tale.”
A publication Describes an idyllic setting
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“Curved stone walkways connect the structures and are surrounded by small gardens of herbs, greens and flowers. The kitchen has a stove, sink with running water, a shelf full of bread and a refrigerator full of food. Herbal and emergency medical supplies fill the clinic. The shower water heats up. “
Facilities reportedly include a pizza oven, fire pit and open mic nights.
The village challenges local regulations, regional laws, health ordinances and safety issues.
Auckland City Auditor in April Issued a report It highlighted problems plaguing the city’s estimated 140 homeless communities, including: 1,599 interventions for “sanitation and garbage services” from 2018 to 2020, 1,458 police calls and 988 fires in the same period.
Cobb on the Wood advocates hope the village will alleviate many of those problems.
Zochitel Bernadette Moreno, co-founder and director of grassroots group Essential Food and Medicine, told Mercury News, “This place and what we’ve built is a model for other camps in Oakland, across the country and around the world Can work in. ” .
Her group helped create Cobb on the Wood with two other active organizations, Living Earth Structures and Artist Building Communities.
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