A Tiny Plot: "The Barricade" EP 1

Summary

Snap Judgment: "A Tiny Plot: The Barricade" (Ep. 1, August 21, 2025)

Overview

In the debut chapter of A Tiny Plot, Snap Judgment’s Shayna Shealy brings listeners deep inside the tragic, triumphant, and tumultuous creation of a homeless encampment community in Oakland—Union Point Park. Against the backdrop of California’s homelessness crisis, Shealy traces the rise of a collective effort by unhoused residents to claim public land, create their own governance, and push back when threatened with eviction. The episode introduces the park’s key figures, follows their struggles to create a functioning community, and climaxes with a high-stakes standoff and the birth of an unprecedented “co-governance” experiment.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Union Point Park: An Unlikely Community Roots

[02:52–05:55]

• Eddie (a.k.a. Papa Eddie), a homeless older man, finds a derelict waterfront park and imagines its potential as a livable space. He begins to clean it up bit by bit, eventually inviting friends and watching the community grow:
  • “It was one of the less bad places to sleep in Oakland. A fixer-upper… smelled like garbage with a hint of sulfur.” — Eddie (03:45)
  • Despite physical limitations after a stroke, he creates art from found objects and builds a beach with others.
• Homeless people join Eddie, drawn by the potential for relative safety and autonomy.

2. Building a Home and a Family in Crisis

[05:55–14:10]

• As tents multiply, the area transforms into a home for 30–50 people with complex makeshift structures.
• Residents like Mustache Mike and Deanna Riley (“Mama Dee”) share stories of camaraderie and self-organization amid adversity:
  • “It was very cool… almost like picnicking. Good thing.” — Mustache Mike [12:23]
  • “What I love about Union Point… just seeing all the different types of people. Black, white, Mexican, whatever. And everyone got along.” — Eddie (16:34)
• The pandemic forces new arrivals like Matt (ex-DJ, former student body president) to Union Point, deepening bonds:
  • “We became kinda like family—and we fight like family, too.” — Matt (16:22)
• Residents create hygiene systems, security patrols, a communal call-and-response (“Marco! Polo!”) for emergencies, and fight infestations and violence with remarkable resilience and creativity.

3. Endemic Challenges and City Response

[17:31–26:44]

• Despite its sense of belonging, the park faces rats, trash, drug abuse, and escalating violence. There are over 215 violent incidents in three years—including murders and assaults.
  • “They was not rats. They was like… like little mini Chihuahuas.” — Mama Dee (17:39)
  • “It's been the source of constant complaints about filth and crime.” — Mama Dee (24:55)
• The city and conservation agencies respond to community and environmental complaints with increasing pressure—installing portapotties, organizing periodic cleanups, and red-tagging areas for clearance.
• Eventually, regulatory agencies demand a total shutdown, threatening $6,000 daily fines if encampments persist on bayfront land.

4. The Barricade: Resistance and Coalition

[28:35–38:52]

• Facing imminent eviction in early 2021, the Union Point residents, led by President Matt and Mama Dee, realize their leverage—a city desperate to resolve the crisis without financial penalty.
• They rally as a community, organizing activist support, building makeshift barricades with heavy objects to stymie city crews, and preparing for direct resistance:
  • “To stay, fight, and negotiate.” — Mama Dee (29:32)
  • “That was crazy. They were not prepared for that level of resistance.” — Matt (35:19)
  • “We had shields. … Just having that power… made us a little bit more stronger.” — Mama Dee (36:23, 36:47)
• Activists flock in with supplies; the encampment adopts self-governance with elections and community meetings.

5. Breakthrough: Co-Governance Experiment

[39:09–43:44]

• Homelessness administrator Dariel Dunston, recognizing the community’s leadership and organization, offers an innovative solution: city-supported, resident-led “co-governance."
  • “Matt had all of the makings of being an effective leader. You need a person like that if you’re trying to create a village.” — Dariel (40:16)
• Negotiations take place amid the barricade. The city agrees to pause eviction, store residents’ belongings, and provide motels, while searching for a new parcel of land for a pilot community with autonomy and basic amenities:
  • “That handshake was, the city is going to continue to work with you and this community to identify a parcel of land that you all can remain in community and possibly implement a co-governed encampment.” — Dariel (43:05)
  • “We could really see ourselves doing this in Oakland, becoming the first, being able to have it done and succeed.” — Mama Dee (44:10)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Raccoons are fierce animals, man. They can tear you up… That’s why I decided to put up a tent.”
  — Eddie (04:01)
• “Everything happens for a reason in life. Don’t never be shy about coming out in your situation… Nobody knows what you’re going through.”
  — Mama Dee (20:08)
• “You want to think twice before coming to Union Point and messing with somebody… You’re gonna mess with everybody here.”
  — Mama Dee (35:06)
• “You guys aren’t coming in here today.”
  — Matt (38:12), as the barricade-defended community faces the city’s trucks.
• “It was an experiment that would test the commitments of this group and of city staff trying to figure out how to address the vast homelessness crisis here. This experiment started here—on a barricade made of trash.”
  — Shayna Shealy (44:23)
• “What you have is the power to be your own security, make sure your community stays clean, make sure you’re getting the resources… within your co-governency. It was like, man, we did something. We accomplished something. Now let's see how much further we could go.”
  — Mama Dee (44:43)

---

Timeline & Timestamps

• [02:52] Eddie arrives at Union Point, begins cleaning and building community
• [11:25] Mustache Mike, Matt, and others join, camp population swells
• [17:31] Park faces rats, trash, violence; Mama Dee takes on leadership
• [24:59] City, residents, and regulatory agencies clash; park deemed “unusable”
• [27:22] Conservation order gives city a $6,000/day ultimatum
• [28:35] Community realizes leverage, rallies to resist eviction
• [29:35] Residents organize, hold elections, and create a plan
• [35:34] Final eviction notices arrive; volunteers bolster resistance
• [37:02] Plan for heavy-object barricade forms
• [39:09] Dariel Dunston recognizes community organization, offers experimental “co-governance”
• [41:49] Matt and Dariel negotiate from atop the barricade
• [43:05] City agrees to seek parcel and support for a new resident-led village
• [44:43] Community reflects on victory and hope for the future

---

Tone and Style

• Authentic, raw, and direct stories from Union Point’s residents, blending hardship and humor.
• Narration artfully mixes vivid scenes (“barricade made of trash”), first-person memories, and thematic reflection.
• Dialogue and sound design evoke both cinematic action and intimate, human-scale drama.

---

Summary

“A Tiny Plot: The Barricade” traces the emergence of a homeless community in Oakland as it becomes a rare example of collective action and negotiation in the face of municipal and environmental pressure. With infectious self-reliance and solidarity, residents—led by figures like Papa Eddie, Mama Dee, and Matt—turn the existential threat of eviction into an opportunity to pilot an alternative, self-governed, city-supported housing solution. The story, brought vividly to life by Shayna Shealy’s reporting and the residents’ own voices, sets the stage for what could become a new vision for homelessness solutions, rooted in dignity, autonomy, and mutual aid.

The series will continue, promising deeper dives into the aftermath and implications of this radical experiment.

Transcript

[Snap Studios Host]

Snap Studios did you know there's an online cannabis company that ships federally legal THC right to your door? I'm talking about Mood.com's incredible line of functional gummies. You can get 20% off your first [e-mail] with promo code Snap. Best of all, not only is every Mood product backed by a 100 day satisfaction guarantee, but as I mentioned, listeners get 20% off their first order with code SNAP. So head to Mood.com, find the functional gummy that matches exactly what you're looking for and let Mood help you discover your perfect mood. And don't forget to use promo code Snap when you check out to save 20% on your first order, explore so.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Many ways to save for Back to School at Whole Foods Market. Find yellow low price signs on no antibiotics ever sliced deli meats and and organic lunchbox favorites from their 365 brand. We're talking granola bars, bagged apples and even condiments. Save on dinner with 365 brand wild caught fish sticks and organic salad kits. Want low prices and the best quality.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

For Back to school?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Look for $3.65 by Whole Foods Market.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

From KQED's Snap Studios. This is a tiny plot.

[Snap Studios Host]

Snap nation I cannot wait for you to hear this epic journey SNAP producer Shayna Shealy has been on. Shayna has followed a small group of homeless people in Oakland as they fight for an extraordinary new idea and they speak for themselves. It's an epic story we'll be releasing over the next few weeks in a series of five installments from KQD's Snap Studios. Welcome to a tiny plot, chapter one the barricade though this episode contains strong language and graphic imagery, sensitive listeners, please be advised, Sheena Shealy takes us back to where it all started.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Years ago, a man with sharp blue eyes and a sea of long wavy hair came upon a park along an estuary called Union Point.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

A little bit of serenity, I guess.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

His name was Eddie. He walked around alone, mostly barefoot, surveying the land.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

It was like a park. Little kids park with a marina.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

There were two empty parking lots, grassy lawns, benches and bathrooms, sailboats off in the distance, waves from the bay lapping up onto a little sandy shore.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

It was full of rocks and rusted metal and corroding metal and stuff and broken glass and just garbage. Garbage everywhere.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

This park seemed to him like one of the less bad places to sleep in Oakland. He saw it as a fixer upper. Lots of potential for someone with a vision.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

It smelled like Garbage with a hint of sulfur.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

He started sleeping there at first, just out in the open. Were you scared ever to be there alone?

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

Yeah, because of the raccoons. Raccoons are fierce animals, man. They can tear you up if they wanted to.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Really?

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

That's why I decided to put up a tent.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Once his tent was up, Eddie built out his space. He found an old wood stove and built fires in the empty parking lot.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

At night, I like to watch the moon. Wherever I was at whatever I was doing, you know, I could just glance over, keep my eye on him, watch him.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

One day, he found a rusted over ship anchor half buried in the ground, nearly as tall as him. He cleaned it and painted it red, white and blue. He'd always been an artist working with his hands. And when he was in his 60s, he had a stroke in his tent, and he never got back the full use of his hands.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

I can't hold onto things. They fall out of my hands. It's pretty frustrating.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

But he still made these walking sticks out of tree roots from around the park that he carved and finished. Sometimes he painted them gold. And he really fixed up Union Point Park. In the beginning, he was all alone.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

Then other people started showing up. I ran into some friends of mine and I told them about the park, and they came down and it just got bigger and bigger and bigger, you know?

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

And what kind of people came to Union Point?

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

Homeless people.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Homeless people. They came to the park with tents and blankets and cars. A lot of them wanted to work with Eddie to make things better. Eddie would wake up in the afternoon, and together they'd walk down to the shoreline, which was full of trash every day, every day.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

And little bit by little bit, we pulled it all up out of there to make a beach on that. On that stretch of stretch of land over there. Pretty nice beach.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Eddie and others were sharing that beach with more and more people. More tents popped up in the parking lot near Eddie's. They spilled into the second lot and then out to the side of the park along the railroad tracks. To the parents who dropped their kids off at the school nearby and the boat owners with sailboats docked just yards away, this was a problem. And it was a sign of a bigger crisis of over 100,000 people sleeping in the middle of sidewalks and underpasses and public parks all across the state of California. A humanitarian emergency. About one third of our country's homeless population is here in California. Before I met Eddie, before I even knew about Union Point Park, I'd heard homelessness here in California. Described as this big ship that's been on course for decades, and anyone who has any sort of power is trying everything they can think of to turn the ship around. But the ship is too big. It's been at sail for too long, picking up speed and runaway polarization of wealth, systemic racism and policies preventing new housing from being built. There are now close to 6,000 people on the streets each night in Oakland alone. An audit in the city of Oakland found that the city is not prepared to deal with the homeless crisis. Shortly after Eddie's arrival at the park, the city of Oakland would directly and indirectly spend over $120 million per year trying to, one, make life less awful for homeless people, and two, get them to stop setting up tents on sidewalks and in parks. The city spent this money on all types of efforts, like putting porta potties and hand washing stations outdoors, delivering meals and hygiene kits, and also on clearing encampments and moving people to temporary shelters. And still, the number of people in their cars on the streets and intent encampments like the one at union point would grow. Over this past decade, the number of homeless people in Oakland has more than doubled. What Eddie didn't know back when he arrived at union point park barefoot was that one day he and his neighbors, people with everything they owned packed into a car or a tent, would come together and come up with a better way to get themselves out of tent encampments off of sidewalks. Together, they had this idea that if they had their own piece of land where they could set their own rules, they could manage themselves without city workers calling the shots. It could save the city money and headaches, and it could give the residents of union point park something that people with homes have the power to make their own decisions about how they'd live. It was an experiment, something the city had never tried. And if it worked, the folks at union point believed they'd set an example, a model that would help other homeless people across the state. When I heard about this small group of homeless people so adamant on being, you know, captains of their own ship, I wanted to know who they were. So I started to hang around. Over the course of a year, I'd see them fight for this radical experiment.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

So we was holding these shields, like, go ahead, try to come through, because we're not letting you in.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

They were not prepared for that level of resistance.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

I'd see them win.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

And then all of a sudden, all the public works people started leaving. By the grace of God, we did it.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

There was someone who came to us with A model for something that we were already asking for. I was very much elated.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

And I'd see them build one opportunity.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

The city has given us. And if we make this little community here work, then they're going to expand it.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

It's an incredible parcel of land. And that fight over how that land would be used really galvanized this movement. Public land for public good.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

What if it was made to fail?

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

We're dealing with trauma of transitioning from survival mode on the streets. And then we gotta layer on top of this. This, like, weird political football, you know, it's like throwing a grenade in a pile of wood.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

I cannot speak. What's gonna happen?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

It's not gonna stop here.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

This is just the beginning. From KQED's Snap Studios. Hi, I'm Shayna Shealy. This is a tiny plot. Chapter one, the barricade. Before this fight for something better, before the characters in this story knew each other at all, there was Eddie at the park. And when more and more homeless people joined him there, they gave him the title of Founding Father and started calling him Papa Eddie. And then those people brought more people. Friends and girlfriends, husbands and kids.

[Mustache Mike]

People were staying, like, everywhere.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Mustache Mike is a skinny white guy, wiry. He wears a Star of David necklace. He came to the park with his girlfriend Rachel. After their group house got condemned. They set up their tent behind a bush near the bathroom. People had all sorts of tents here at the park.

[Mustache Mike]

Full size tents where you can walk inside. Small ones where you can just barely crawl inside and just sleep, too. We built our own structures.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

I mean, Mustache Mike built out his tent from materials he found around the park.

[Mustache Mike]

I mean, I used a tarp, a sail from a boat, and a rubber mat from, like, a rubber pool liner. And that stayed dry all winter. Because if your sleeping area gets wet, you're through. You know, you gotta have a dry sleeping area. Cause cold is okay, but cold and wet, no good. You get sick, you know, real quick.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

At night, Mustache Mike would share cans of sauce and vegetables he'd found with other people sleeping at the park.

[Mustache Mike]

It was very cool, you know, it was almost like picnicking or stuff like that. But because everybody knew each other, so that was a big deal, you know. Good thing.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

When people described Union Point park to me, it didn't always sound like they were talking about a tent encampment.

[Mustache Mike]

Sometimes at night, when the sun's setting in the summer, forget where you were. You think you're in paradise almost, you.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Know, the people camping here would hear the clink of sailboats as they bobbed up and down with the tide.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

It's beautiful right by like, right by the water. It's like, oh my God. So beautiful. It's so beautiful. I liked it there. That's one thing I like is sunset.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

Oh my gosh. You're at the spot on the bay where you're across the waterway from Alameda. And if you look down down the.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Waterway there were so many people I talked to who lived at the park. I got to know a few of them pretty well. Like this guy Matt. He has orange hair and freckles and he's in his late 30s. Years ago he was actually student body president of Berkeley City College and then he was a dj. And then the pandemic happened and DJ gigs stopped and so he couldn't casually crash on friends couches anymore. And then all of a sudden he had nowhere to go. After the break we'll hear how more people landed at Union Point park and started calling it home. I'm your host Shayna Shealy. Stay tuned.

[Snap Studios Host]

I chose Function because it's the only health platform that accesses the kind of data most people never see and the insights to actually take action. I'm learning that our moods are not always random and it's not always about stress. Sometimes your genes are pulling the strings that this gene, mthfr that helps your body process folate, a nutrition essential for making DNA. And this gene can actually disrupt how your brain makes the neurotransmitters that keep you steady and clear headed. But the good news is you can measure it, you can do something about it. Function gives you access to genetic testing available as an add on to see if you carry MTHFR mutations. And if you do, it doesn't mean you're broken. It means that the right inputs like methylated B vitamins and folate rich foods might help your brain work better. Your mood isn't random. Your genes are talking. Function helps you listen and act. Learn more and join using my link visit functionhealth.com snap.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Welcome back to a tiny plot chapter one the barricade when we left off, Matt had just arrived at the park. It was during the start of the COVID pandemic and he found himself with nowhere else to go.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

I sort of showed up there with my tent one day and just kind of like poking around, just kind of. And I just sort of started setting it up. It was a mess, I would say like ramshackled dwelling places. And I bought these foam panels and I built myself like a little tiny house out of foam. The other people in my neighbors would say, like, go. Said I had the mansion on the block.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

He always invited neighbors into his styrofoam mansion during storms. And in return, his neighbors helped him stay sober and focused. They tried to keep him away from an ex who they saw as a bad influence.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

And so, you know, real quick, we became kind of like family, and we fight like family, too.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

This was what a lot of people kept telling me about their stays at the park.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

There is a lot of love in the community. There is, really. It's like a unity thing, you know? It's like having a family. You know what I'm saying? And being away from your family for so long and you miss the family feeling. Oh, what I love about Union Point, oh, my God. It was the. It was just seeing all the different types of people. Black, white, Mexican, whatever. And everyone got along.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

What started as one tent became dozens of makeshift homes. There were tarps and trucks and styrofoam huts. Probably over 30 people, some said as many as 50, all living together at Union Point Park.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

Two and a half years into the park, that's when the rats started coming.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

With more and more people. Trash was piling up.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

One time I was sleeping, I'm like this. And my hand. I felt a paw on me. That's too little. Oh, God, a rat. Yeah, it was a rat in my tent. They was not rats. They was like. Like little mini Chihuahuas.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Enter Deanna Riley. She's 45 years old, a white lad with blonde hair and lots of tattoos. Stars all the way up her arm in memory of her grandma Betty. A heart on her ankle for her stepdad. Tinkerbell on her back because she likes Tinkerbell. When she first came to the park to see her sister, she thought it would be for a short visit. It was at the height of the rat infestation.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

It was nothing but rats. Rats everywhere. Them rats was on top of their fucking brains. Roof of the tent. I'm like, they're coming in, guys. They are coming in. I gotta go.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

But Deanna didn't really have anywhere else to go. When her husband died, she and her kids lost their Section 8 voucher. She didn't have the money to pay rent, so she started living in her car. And then she ended up parking at Union Point. One night, after hanging out with her sisters who already lived there, she cuddled her dogs to sleep in the backseat, and she woke up in the lot morning after morning until she started to call the place home.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I got a tent Somebody just gave it to me really burgundy and beige.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

She took me there to show me where she set up her tents at the park.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I had a tent here.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

I had a tent right here, all six of them.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Then we had a tent right here. The one tent escalated into many tents. I had to have one for my bathtub.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Your bathtub had its own tent?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Yeah.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

And how'd you get hot water in it.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Boil it?

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

You had like a little stove, like propane.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I had one of those and I used to just put big pots of water on.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

How often did you take a bath?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Every other day if I wanted or every day. I just didn't wash my hair every day because it's not good for our hair.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

What were your other tents for? You had six. One for your bathtub, one for your.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Clothes, one for just a girl spot if we wanted to go ahead and just be girls. Because I had a lot of nieces out there too, so I would make sure that there was having fun. And instead of being bored or just sitting in a tent looking like man or too embarrassed to come out, I said, hey, everything happens for a reason in life. Don't never be shy about coming out in your situation because nobody knows your situation. Nobody knows what you're going through.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Deanna's son and daughter, Hazel and Dupree eventually joined her at the park. And then her son Kendrick, he brought his kid with him. Deanna babysat her own grandkids and took care of others too.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I have one daughter biologically and hundreds of daughters. Whoever I come in contact with, I'm always mom to them.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

When Deanna learned that rats don't like the smell of mint, she went out and bought strong smelling plants, spearmint and peppermint. If Eddie was the founding father of Union Point Park, Deanna was the mother. Grown adults at the park actually started to call her mom or Momma Dee. And Mama Dee was a force.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I cleaned the bathrooms morning and night. When my sisters would go to work in the morning, they would have a clean bathroom to get up to, brush their teeth and go use the bathroom, get dressed and head out to work. When they come home, clean bathrooms. So they could go in there, change their clothes, put the their jammers on, and we could sit down and have a conversation for a minute and then they go to sleep.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

People who know her told me she cleaned constantly and commanded others to clean up too. After Mama G surrounded tents with peppermint, she picked up needles and scrubbed the walls of the park's public bathroom stalls.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

The graffiti is what really pissed me off. So I went and spent my own money to buy paint. Just touch up the paint with the graffiti off the walls and put some little whale creature, whatever it was, from the dollar store, but it was stickers on the wall to make it look appropriate.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

This core group of people, Mama Dee, Papa Eddie, Matt, they built systems to try to keep themselves healthy and safe.

[Mustache Mike]

We actually had people, our own people going around and doing security, riding around on bikes at night, just checking everything out, make sure everything's cool, you know, no weirdos are around.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

One time, in the middle of the night, a woman ran up to Mama Dee's tent.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Hey, there's a girl getting beaten up in the bathroom. We need to help her. I said, oh, you couldn't have told a guy? Come on, Deanna. And the man is literally beating a woman. I said, okay, as a cardi. Come on, get him.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Momma Dee let her dog Cardi loose that man.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I ain't seen somebody just so fast into their car.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

After that, they developed a safety call.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

We had a calling to where if somebody's being harmed and whoever sees it, they yell out marco. And then whoever hears it would have to yell polo. And if they hear that Polo, they know somebody's coming to help whoever made the call. And our call would say something else and let them know we're coming. So that made a lot of this.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Stuff stop happening, but not all the stuff. Some people living in the park were using drugs and drinking and they were exposed. Living in a public park, anyone who wanted could walk through their home.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

John coming in with prostitutes and beating them up in the bathroom because they didn't do their job right or something.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

All of this cleaning and planting mint to get rid of rats and Momma Dee's Marco Polo system was useful, but it wasn't enough. The problems were overwhelming. The park was not a safe place. In the first three years Momma Dee was at the park, boat owners using the marina and park goers and Residents reported over 215 violent incidents at Union Point Park. The first one Momma Dee remembers was when a man was injured in a hatchet attack. A month later, a public bathroom stall was set on fire. Another man was beaten with a baseball bat. There were four separate murders in the parking lot in just one year.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

It's been the source of constant complaints about filth and crime.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

People in Oakland were talking about what a disaster the park was becoming. Even Oakland Parks and Recreation gave their own park a score of F. Completely unusable. It was the only park in the city to get that score?

[Snap Studios Host]

Well, several boat owners are calling an.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

East Bay marina a lawless harbor where.

[Snap Studios Host]

Homeless people are threatening boaters and breaking into their bathrooms. Now they're calling on the city of.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Oakland to do something about it. Certain areas of the Bay Area shoreline are protected by a government conservation group. It's called the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. And this agency started to get complaints about all these homeless people living at the park by the water. This conservation agency told the city of Oakland to clear them out. Garbage trucks moved in on the mattresses, the mounds of garbage at Union Point.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Park along the Embarcadero in Oakland.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

So the city did start cleaning Union Point Park. It was mostly an annoyance for Mama Dee and Papa Eddie and everyone else, but it was not a serious threat to their community.

[Mustache Mike]

The yellow tag meant move your stuff and then come back to your spot after they cleaned. Red tag had to get out of there. A green means they just looked at your stuff and it's okay. And then they start coming around more often.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Could this be the beginning of a turning point?

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Many people certainly hope so. Some people did leave, but they often came back. This went on for two years. It appears to be a problem that has neither any solution, resolution nor. Or endgame. I don't think we have either in this town or any other town any real idea of how to handle it at this point.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Yeah, ongoing issue. All right, Tom.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

And then all of a sudden, this back and forth between the city and the people of Union Point park came to an end. The conservation agency in charge of the bay shoreline gave the city a dire ultimatum, a cease and desist order. We got a copy of. Ordered the city to close the encampment for good in order to protect the shoreline, to make it more usable for the rest of the public. Or the city would have to pay a fine of $6,000 per day each day that people stayed there indefinitely.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

Well, let's put it this way, $6,000 a day. That's a lot of money.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

That was October of 2020. The already squeezed for money city of Oakland, whose budget deficit was already in the hundreds of millions, had just a few months and a very expensive problem. A problem that would involve the fates of lots of people. More after the break. Keep listening for a very unexpected turn of events. Welcome back to A Tiny Plot. You're listening to Chapter one, the Barricade. I'm your host, Shayna Shealy. When we left off, the city of Oakland had a very expensive problem and a very short time to resolve it.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

So we had him by the balls, kind of.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Matt, the former dj, the guy who had been student body president in college. He surveyed the situation. $6,000 a night for each night they stayed at Union point. That's over $2 million a year. And Matt realized that he and his community had leverage. With so much money at stake, the city would need them to leave the park and might just be desperate enough to offer them some kind of compensation, some kind of deal. So when Matt saw final cleanup notices posted all over the park, he didn't see threats to disperse and disband. Instead, he saw a reason to rally. Matt gathered everyone under a pop up tent and they made a plan together.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

To stay, fight and negotiate.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

To negotiate for some kind of offer from the city on their own terms. This idea would plant the seed for the experiment again. An experiment with potential to change the future for these homeless people and others in the city too.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

We was a family, we was a community that wouldn't let nobody come in and take that from us.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Days before the eviction deadline, Momma Dee collected cardboard to make signs. Matt strung these multicolored string lights in his pop up tent and turned it into a center of operations. Activists swarmed the park to help organize residents to resist. Some came with steaming boxes of pizzas. Others brought bottled water.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

And some days we would have like three different people show up and there would be like way too much food. So that was great.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The group began building their own system of governance. First, they held elections.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

We had put Matt to be our president.

[Mustache Mike]

Matt, he knows how to talk to the police and all that, you know, and the legal things to say and whatnot. He used to do a lot of underground parties, like rave parties and stuff.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Student body president Matt was now Union Point president. Matt and when the homelessness administrator of Oakland showed up at the park the week of the eviction, Matt decided to try and talk to him. Dariel Dunston. He had been working on homelessness for the city of Oakland for a few years. When Dariel first got there, he saw what everyone sees on the surface.

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

Piles of trash, human feces, inoperable vehicles, makeshift structures.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

But Dariel quickly realized what was going on beyond the trash piles.

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

They seem to already have identified who the leaders in the groups were. They seemed to have a certain level of respect for one another. So big picture, I am thinking of solutions that could help. Understanding that I can't wave a magic wand and just fix it, but wanting to just help.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The city has this policy that they must offer some sort of shelter to people when they clear them from an encampment. So Dariel made the standard offer to president Matt and the folks at Union Point Park. He said the city could move them into their community cabins. It's the city's flagship temporary homelessness site. They wouldn't live in tents anymore. Instead, they'd live in nine by 12 foot sheds, two people per shed. But it seemed like a lot of people were wary of this offer, including activists who were there at the park. I'm an organizer with the united front against Displacement. Right now we are at Union Point park right outside of the encampment. But one thing about the tuff sheds is that a lot of folks don't like it. Like it is not. It's not dignified housing. There was no running water at the sites, no real place to cook. They might have to bunk up with strangers, too. To a shed. Plus, according to a performance audit on the city's homelessness services, nearly half of the people who move there end up back on the street, not in permanent housing. The heart of the issue, though, there's.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

All these rules, and that just runs counter to a lot of people's like, strong desire to have a certain degree of freedom in their life.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

There can be strict policies around visitors and when you can come and when you can go. President Matt told Dariel no his styrofoam hut was better than losing his autonomy to live in a shed. The residents at Union Point park refused the community cabin's offer. They refused the city's standard treatment of homeless people. This move, rejecting their offer, that wasn't what set the Union Point group apart from the 500 or so homeless encampments that the city of Oakland had dispersed over these past two years. Other groups rejected similar offers because most wanted something better. There were two things that set this situation apart from other tent encampments being swept up. One, the city was under the pressure of a $6,000 daily fine if the group didn't leave the park. And two, in this moment, the group at Union Point was organized. They had dozens of activists and volunteers backing them up. And in the evenings, the group would gather at the illuminated pop up tent and talk about the kind of housing they actually wanted to live in.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

Running water, showers and a bathroom, a.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Parcel for three to five years, weekly trash pickup.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

A tiny house, community of our own.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

And we don't want to go without each other.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

Most importantly, a certain level of autonomy.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The group wanted to write their own rules, decide who could visit their community, what amenities they'd have, how security would work, and they Were ready to fight for it.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Everybody came together as one community. You want to think twice before coming to Union Point and messing with somebody because you're not going to only mess with that one person. You're gonna mess with everybody here.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

That was crazy. They were not prepared for that level of resistance.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The city's final cleanup notice, it said they'd start evicting people from Union Point on February 9, 2021.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

And they were like, okay, now we have four days. Now's the push time.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

A big group of volunteers arrived to the point.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

They was teaching us how to defend ourselves with the armor gear and hold our positions.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Armored gear?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Like how they have their, their, their shields and stuff.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

When did you actually have shields?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Yeah, we had shields. Huh.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

What, do they give them to you?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

No, we know how to make them though, now. Huh? You get some thick, thick wood that, that you can't bust. Cuz if you hit a thin piece of wood, you're just going to go straight through it. But you get some thick wood, you get some leather straps like, or whatever kind of straps you want.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The idea was to shield what was left of the encampment from the city.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Cleanup crews so that way we can be able to stop them from coming in.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

They trained with two people per shield.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

So we was holding these shields, like, go ahead, try to come through, because we're not letting you in. Just having that power with that shield kind of made us a little bit more stronger to be able to do what we have to do, do to. Because they see we're not going to back down. The shields was awesome. It was just a bunch of people.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The day before the scheduled cleanup, President Matt took out his laptop and looked up California's OSHA standards. He told me he found a guideline warning employees at the Department of Public Works about lifting Items more than 50 pounds. And he came up with an idea.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

It was definitely my idea.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

A barricade around the encampment built with items heavier than 50 pounds.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

There was just a couple of us who went around and collected stuff, Anything we could find in the area, and we just piled it up in a big heap.

[Mustache Mike]

Garbage bags full of garbage.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

Dishwasher that someone had thrown out, piles of dirt, a refrigerator, a mattress, seats.

[Mustache Mike]

Anything to slow down their progress.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

Bed frames and lions, tigers, and bears.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The residents stayed up through the night building the barricade. By the next morning, outsiders had arrived. Activists, volunteers, journalists.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

So can you tell me who you are and where we are?

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

I'm Deanna Riley. We're at Union Point park they're trying to put us out with nowhere else to go. No reprieve zone.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The first public works truck rolled in early in the morning. There were cop cars, too. Some residents left the park because they were worried about a confrontation. Others left for housing offered by the city and never came back. But a bunch of them stayed to fight.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

Good, good.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

We're ready.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

We're ready.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

You guys aren't coming in here today.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Volunteers handed out coffee and donuts. One guy sat at a broken down piano that had become part of the barricade and played. Others stood with the residents around the barricade shouting, hell no, we won't go.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

When I say we had people there supporting us. We had people honking. We had people with signs, we need adequate housing.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Mama Dee told me that the city of Oakland was now faced with a heavy wall of junk and they were running out of time. Soon they'd have to start paying a lot of money every day.

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

Given the action that the other state agency was taking against the city, our hands were tied and we had to do something.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Days into the standoff, the city homelessness administrator, Dariel, showed up with a couple city employees and a single garbage truck.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Dariel was in a black sweatsuit with a hoodie, you know, covered up.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

The mound of things piled up was over five feet tall.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

And I walked over and sat on the barricade.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Matt sat down on a mattress balanced on top of the barricade. Dariel had been quietly observing Matt and the others for a few days, and he had an idea. There was this homelessness intervention model called co governance that had been floating around. Some students at UC Berkeley had written a paper about it, and Dariel had been talking about it with other city employees for months. He'd even studied how it was implemented in other cities, Seattle and Eugene. The key features of co governance are these resident led agreements, agreements about how homeless people will live together in community, like how they'll pick their leaders and make their own rules. And Dariel thought that this group might be the perfect one to pilot this co governance idea in Oakland because they were already organized, they already had leaders.

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

Matt had all of the makings of being an effective leader. He could build things from, you know, wood and piping. You need a person like that if you're trying to create a village.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

And then Dariel made a move that surprised everyone. He walked from the truck towards the barricade, looked up at President Matt, and climbed the pile of junk to the top. He sat down next to Matt, and.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

The two chatted when it came to a head with me and Dariel on the barricade is when, like, he basically made the concession. He cited this. The CO governed model, which sort of addressed the. The concerns that we had had.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Dariel told Matt that under CO governance, city officials would work with the Union Point group to create a kind of village where residents wouldn't be told what their rules and rights were, but they would decide on them together with the city. Dariel presented the model as an experiment, one that could potentially help homeless people across Oakland. President Matt liked the sound of that.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

I was very much elated. There was someone who came to us with a model for something that we were already asking for. So it really seemed very positive, like there was a light at the end.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Of the tunnel and right there on a busted mattress on top of a barricade. President Matt accepted the idea under certain terms. He wanted a parcel of land for three to five years. Toilets, regular trash pickup, water hookups, electrical hookups, and autonomy for the group to make their own choices.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

When Matt and Dariel shook hands, we could tell. I was like, yes, something is about to happen for us.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

No one really knew what was going on until Matt announced to the protesters that the city was ready to negotiate.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

There was, like, so much energy and emotion swept up into it. It was a charged moment, but basically we liked what he had to offer.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Dariel told Matt that if this group agreed to leave Union Point park, he'd advocate for the city to work with them to build this community he was asking for. He'd pause the eviction until the group had time to pack their things into storage containers. And while they worked out the details of this new communal home, the city would pay for residents to stay in motel rooms.

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

That handshake was, the city is going to continue to work with you and this community to identify a parcel of land that you all can remain in community and possibly implement a CO governed encampment.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

It was an offer made under duress. The city didn't want to pay $6,000 a night to the Shoreline Protection Agency.

[Dariel Dunston (City Homelessness Administrator)]

That wasn't a handshake to say that this deal is done. It was a handshake to say that the city will continue to work with you all in good faith.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Dariel made his way down the barricade and waved off the dump truck, and the work crews backed away.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

Then all of a sudden, all the public works people started leaving. By the grace of God, we did it.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Finally, after over two years of struggle between the city and park residents, a deal had been reached that all sides seemed pleased with.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

We could really see ourselves doing this in Oakland, becoming the first, being able to have it done and succeed.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

This was day one, an experiment in co governance. It was an experiment that would test the commitments of this group and of city staff trying to figure out how to address the vast homelessness crisis here. This experiment started here on a barricade made of trash.

[Deanna Riley (Mama Dee)]

What you have is the power to be your own security, make sure your community stays clean, make sure you're getting the resources that you need to build or whatever it is that you want to accomplish within your co governency. It was like, man, we did something. We accomplished something. Now let's see how much further we could go.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

You just heard the very first episode of A Tiny Plot. There's more. Five chapters total. Over the next few weeks, we'll be releasing episodes on the Snap Judgment feed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Chapter two is dropping in just a few days here in the Snap Judgment feed. You don't want to miss it.

[Matt (Union Point President)]

It was crazy. I think it was traumatic for a lot of people.

[Eddie (Papa Eddie)]

They had two of them. You know, the little things that munch everything and rips it to shreds and stuffs it in the back of the garbage truck.

[Narrator / Shayna Shealy]

Foreign I'm your host, Shayna Shealy and I really want to thank everyone who worked on this show. First, the entire cast from Union Point Park. Thank you for letting me into your world. And second, the whole team at SNAP Studios, thank you. The series was edited by Anna Sussman and Mark Ristich. Original music by Renzo Gorio. Extra special thanks to Jen Chen, Catherine Winter, the City of Oakland Sweetie at the Travel Inn, Ryan Finnegan, Will Craft, JP Dobrin, Thomas Browns, Suki Lewis, Alistair Boone and the Street Spirit. And KQED legal engineering by Pat Mesiti Miller. Our director of production is Marissa Dodge and our executive producers are Glenn Washington and Mark Ristich.

[Snap Studios Host]

Thank you for listening to a tiny plot here on Snap Judgment. Big thanks as well to everyone on the program. We appreciate, you know, SNAP Studios content may be used for training, testing or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. On Team Snap, the union represented producers, artists, editors and engineers are members of the national association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communications workers of America, AFL CIO Local 51. And this is not the news. No way is this the news. Because this is a tiny plot. A brand new epic series from KQED's Snap Studios. The story has just begun. And of course, this is prx.