A Tiny Plot: "The Fence" EP 3

Summary

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Snap Judgment Presents: A Tiny Plot – "The Fence" (Chapter 3)

Podcast: Snap Judgment
Host: Shayna Shealy
Date: August 28, 2025

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Episode Overview

In Chapter 3 of A Tiny Plot, titled "The Fence," Shayna Shealy continues following the Union Point group as they prepare to move from the Travel Inn Motel into a new, city-sanctioned tiny home encampment at East 12th—an experiment in homeless community self-governance in Oakland, California. But the move is fraught with emotional stakes and controversy, especially due to racial tensions and systemic inequities exposed by a simple chain-link fence that divides Union Point’s self-governed site from the neighboring, city-run Lakeview Village. Decisions about belonging, trauma, and justice hang in the balance.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Momma Dee’s Decisive Choice

• Union Point’s move hinges on whether Momma Dee, whose son was murdered across from the new site, can bring herself and the group to accept the land. The group refuses to go forward without her.
• Momma Dee reflects on her grief and decision-making:
  • “It says Shining Paradise. ... Max is my nephew. He was murdered two years prior to Kendrick's. ... Miguel is from Union Point. He was murdered across the street.” (03:49)
  • She ultimately feels a push—possibly spiritual—from her son Kendrick, telling her:
    “You have to go there. You can't fight it. Just go. ... I know my son wanted [this project] to succeed too.” (05:02–06:18)
• Memorable Moment: Momma Dee steps out of her motel room and leads the group toward their new home at East 12th (06:18).

2. Building a Co-Governed Community

• With Momma Dee’s okay, Union Point begins to physically build their new site:
  • Construction, logistics, and collective labor ensue (07:07–07:31).
  • They assemble shower stalls, prepare for plumbing, and paint sheds.
• Adam, a resident, tells the group:
  “You guys have the privilege and the responsibility to build your own space out how you want it.” (07:31)

3. Pallet Shelters: Quick Solutions, Limited Voice

• The city provides tiny “Pallet” shelters—prefab, rapid-erect shelters for crisis housing, skipping many usual building codes due to Oakland’s formal “shelter crisis” (08:22–09:37).
• Architect Naran Kadri Begovic explains it typically takes years to build permanent housing, but Pallet shelters are up in months:
  • “I've seen homes like pallet shelters go up in three months and he [Kadri] considers them an important part of the solution to the housing crisis.” (10:28)
• The group gets limited say over their actual homes, evoking feelings of both gratitude and powerlessness.

4. A Divided Land: The Fence & Racial Controversy

• The East 12th parcel is split. Union Point enjoys co-governance; adjacent Lakeview Village does not. Lakeview receives more shelters but lacks self-determination (12:50–13:00).
• Racial tension emerges: Union Point is majority white, Lakeview is majority Black and Asian (21:12).
• Homeless activists Nino Parker and Ms. Asada accuse the city of segregation through the fence:
  • Nino Parker (to Shayna):
    “This issue is the issue of segregation. Bottom line, it's basically illegal in America to have 99% white on one side and a mixed crowd on the other.” (21:12)
  • Nino protests daily, using a bullhorn, signs, and, eventually, threats of noise complaints and escalation (32:01).
  • Debate centers on who should have priority access, who decides the rules, and whether co-governance is just or perpetuating inequity.

5. Residents’ Perspectives: Agency and Frustration

• Union Point and Lakeview Village residents each feel misrepresented and manipulated by city decisions.
• Tim, a Union Point resident:
  • “The argument with them is that they're homeless people here in this community [Lakeview] should have been here instead of us. ... We didn’t ask to be put in this location. ... We had no say so where we're going.” (32:41)
• The Union Point group works hard because it feels like their only shot at stability:
  • “This is all you got? This is your one opportunity?” - Shayna
    “One opportunity the city ... has given us. And if we make this ... work, then they're gonna expand it. ... I want to see this actually work for the city.” (33:39–34:11)

6. Rebuffed Outreach: Walls and Barriers

• Shayna struggles to speak with Lakeview Village residents—site management denies her entry, further underscoring separation and tension (34:22).
• Nita B, a housing activist, defends the diversity and intentions of the Union Point group:
  • “Union Point community is a very diverse group of people. ... What's being said is total misinformation. ... First point in negotiation was housing all the black mothers and their children.” (34:50–35:22)

7. Climax: The Fence as Battleground

• Confrontations escalate, culminating in Nino Parker appearing with a neck brace, claiming he was assaulted by Adam (36:14).
• Nino’s protest persists:
  “I just hate that fence. ... The general public will help us solve this situation because ... it's going to be so damn loud here 24/7. You will not be able to be here.” (32:01)
• The fence remains a potent symbol of the unresolved racial and systemic issues embedded in homelessness policy.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Momma Dee, on her decision:
  “I had to come up with fighting myself. Deanna, you can do this. ... I felt like it was coming from Kendrick or something. ... 'Just, Mom, I'm just scared for you.'” (05:02–06:18)

• Adam, on co-governance:
  “You guys have the privilege and the responsibility to build your own space out how you want it.” (07:31)

• Nino Parker, on the fence:
  “There's not really a lot to discuss about this issue. This issue is the issue of segregation.” (21:12)
  “Take down the goddamn fence. We're not going to have no separation going on on this side of Oakland.” (27:49, 29:14)

• Tim, Union Point resident, on being pawns:
  “We had no say so where we're going.” (32:41)
  “This is your one opportunity.” (33:48)

• Nita B, housing activist:
  “Union Point community is a very diverse group of people. ... They organized to make sure [all the black mothers and their children] got housing immediately.” (34:50–35:22)

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|---------| | 03:35–06:18 | Momma Dee’s grief and ultimate decision to lead the group to East 12th | | 07:07–08:22 | Community mobilizes, construction, and co-governance discussions | | 08:22–10:32 | Pallet shelter explanation and housing policy critique | | 12:50–13:04 | Introduction of Lakeview Village and the fence’s symbolic power | | 16:32–19:41 | First clash with Nino Parker, accusations of segregation | | 21:12–23:21 | Nino Parker’s perspective on race and resource allocation | | 27:49–29:40 | Nino’s bullhorn protest and public confrontation at the fence | | 32:01–34:11 | Tim’s reflection on being pawns and the limited agency residents feel | | 34:50–35:22 | Nita B defends Union Point's diversity and negotiation history | | 36:08–36:43 | Nino reports alleged assault and continues his protest |

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Summary: Themes and Takeaways

This episode vividly illustrates the intersection of trauma, hope, and systemic injustice that shapes the lives of unsheltered people. The physical fence at East 12th is both a literal and metaphorical boundary—between opportunity and exclusion, governance and paternalism, white and black, “deserving” and “undeserving.” While Union Point’s residents strive for agency, they’re caught in a web of city decisions, racialized policies, and historical inequities that make every gain feel fraught.

Chapter 3 leaves listeners with no easy resolution—just a container (a fence) for the ambitions, grief, and contested visions of justice that mark Oakland’s ongoing housing crisis.

Transcript

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From KQED's Snap Studios. This is a Tiny Plot this episode contains strong language and graphic imagery. Sensitive listeners, please take care. Welcome to A Tiny Plot, a story told in five parts. This is Chapter three. When we left off, the group from Union Point had finally gotten a piece of land for their revolutionary experiment. But that land is right across from where Momma Dee's son was murdered, Papa Eddie and President Matt. And the group said if Mama Dee won't go there, they won't either.

[B]

And that just made me see the love that they have for me as family. Not friendship, but family.

[C]

So now Momma Dee sees that the future of the experiment is up to her and what she lead the group to the plot of land offered by the city. Hope and pray for a magical new plot or disband the group. Dissolve the experiment. It's all up in the air. From KQED's Snap Studios, I'm Shayna Shealy. This is a Tiny Plot. Chapter three, the Fence this episode contains strong language and graphic imagery. Sensitive listeners, please be advised. Hello. I've been spending a lot of time at the Travel Inn Motel, at meetings, in people's rooms. And suddenly it's mid October. At this point, the whole crew has been living here for eight months, their rooms paid for by the city this whole time. One day I show up at Mamadi's door and she's working on an art project. Carving names into a flat piece of wood.

[B]

Just like this with the sandpaper. But I engraved it, painted it.

[C]

It's a plaque covered in sort of curly handwriting. Names burned into wood.

[B]

It says Shining Paradise. Shit. Shit. Kendrick, Max. Uncle Gary Savage. Max is my nephew. He was murdered two years prior to Kendrick's. Helen is one of the ladies they found non coherent in her tent. So I guess she died of a heat stroke. Miguel is from Union Point. He was murdered across the street.

[C]

While Mama Dee sits in limbo with her decision, she shows me all these names of people she's loved.

[B]

Tracy, I guess she was encampment Hopper. I don't know. They found her body at Lake Chabot. Chuan was at the Union Point park with us as well. He was involved.

[C]

And she's always thinking about her son Kendrick and what he would have wanted for her.

[B]

He don't want to see me miserable and crying.

[C]

You had a real big decision to make.

[B]

Yeah, and I had to come up with fighting myself. Deanna, you can do this. You can't. I'm not gonna do this. I don't wanna see my. I don't wanna relive this every day. I think maybe two weeks I went by and I was sitting there and I don't know, something, premonition, something came to me and it was just like, mom, you have to go there. You can't fight it. Just go. I felt like it was coming from Kendrick or something. Like, I don't want to see you out there. You know, mom, you don't need to go in no tent again. Just, Mom, I'm just scared for you. And I'm like, okay, I have to do this. But it's hard. That's why I've been telling everybody else, look, we may not want this, but we're all in the same boat. We was homeless, but now we have a place. That's all I want. That's all I want to do now. I want this project to succeed. And I know if my son was here, he is here. I know my son wanted it to succeed too.

[C]

So after weeks of indecision, to everyone's relief, Momma Dee unlocked her motel room door. She walked out into the brisk air to the second floor balcony. She looked down at tents and RVs along the sidewalk. And she made a choice to lead the group towards a home at East 12th.

[D]

We know where to.

[C]

With Mama Dee's. Okay. This whole hypothetical idea of a co governed site, it all becomes very real. Like very suddenly. People Ride city bikes and scooters and walk to the empty slice of fenced in land at East 12th.

[B]

Well, I dug some trenching. I helped.

[C]

Within days, the East 12th site becomes a construction zone. And together the group starts building their communal home.

[B]

It's going good. I'm doing the corners. It looks like I'm working.

[C]

Adam manages this huge list of to dos for the group. The Home Depot shopping trips and all the construction logistics.

[D]

You guys have the privilege and the responsibility to build your own space out how you want it.

[C]

So now's the time to show up on Adam's list. Assemble and mark off space for shower stalls.

[E]

Right now, I'm using wall paint as a marking paint.

[C]

Get the space ready for plumbing and electric. Insulate and paint the walls of the extra sheds from the city where UnionPoint will run their own security, which by the way, is a big deal. Running their own security means they'll say who comes and who goes, and they'll even get paid for it. This is co governance in practice. That is real innovation right right there.

[D]

MacGyver moves.

[C]

While the group is making a lot of their own decisions about their little slice of land, they actually have no say in one of the most important aspects of a new home, their actual houses. They don't get to consider things like layout or ventilation or safety. Because around this time, the city of Oakland started buying shelters from a startup that mass produces tiny homes. The company is called Pallet. We are facing a national housing emergency. People experiencing homelessness need a shelter that is better than a sidewalk and faster than the permanent solutions. That's why we created Pallet, a rapid shelter solution to address homelessness at the speed and scale. Pallet makes these prefabricated tiny homes, and cities all over the US From Denver to Tampa, are purchasing them to provide shelter to homeless people. Pallet shelters can go up fast without having to meet the same kind of safety requirements you'd need to build permanent housing here in Oakland.

[D]

If we were going to get permits, we would be waiting six months to a year. There's no way you could do permits and get anything done in less than six months in Oakland. One of the many reasons why housing doesn't get built.

[C]

One reason that temporary houses like pallet shelters can go up so quickly is because almost a decade ago, the city of Oakland declared a shelter crisis. There simply were way more people living here than shelters. So city council members authorized an emergency ordinance which allows the city to build emergency homes like these pallet shelters without a lot of the confines of state and local building regulations. I spoke to an architect, Naran Kadri Begovic, at a California firm focused on design for social cause called Cadre. He works on both permanent and temporary builds, including pallet shelters, and he told me that the regulations on permanent housing make it really hard to get things built here. He said it usually takes him five or six years to get a regular building project underway, but he's seen homes like pallet shelters go up in three months and he considers them an important part of the solution to the housing crisis.

[D]

But these are all movable. Oh, the modular or the movable?

[C]

Anyway, after just a few weeks of Adam and the residents prepping the East 12th parcel, I show up to the site one morning and I'm stunned. There are 16 brand new pallet shelters lined up in a semicircle. These sheds are bright white, shiny. Each One is about 8 by 8ft, about the size of an ADA bathroom stall. They each have a foldable bed and a lockable door, windows that can slide up and down, electrical outlets and a smoke alarm and a fire extinguisher. Seeing these pallet shelters makes this long fought for idea feel so real. Beyond Union Point's fenced off slice of land, there's another temporary housing site sharing the East 12th parcel, Lakeview Village. On the other side of a fence, Lakeview has even more shelters, rows and rows of these same sheds, about 50 of them. As the Union Point folks shovel and hammer and paint and talk about the succulent gardens they hope to plant, people actually start moving into the homes next door across the fence. These people moving into Lakeview Village arrive without knowing who they'll live next to, what their amenities are, who's watching over them. They don't run their own security or have meetings to discuss showers and toilets. In other words, they don't have the same co governance elements the Union Point site has. And while everyone from Union Point was focused on what color to paint the security shed, they didn't seem to notice that underneath these two side by side camps there were some major problems. A fault line of sorts. Stay tuned, you're listening to a tiny plot.

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[C]

Welcome back to A Tiny Plot. I'm your host, Shayna Shealy. When we left off, the residents were building their very own site.

[D]

Okay, we have to tell Shana the story. So we were going to get donated lumber from Econo Lumber. They were going to come deliver it between 12 and 1.

[C]

Just the other day, when Adam and Mama Dee showed up to work on the East 12th site, there was a gray van parked in front of the entrance.

[D]

Nino Parker and Ms. Asada were there, and it seemed like it was connected to them.

[C]

Nino Parker identifies himself as a black homeless advocate. I'd seen him around the lake. He often wears a leather fedora and sleeps in a van near the East 12th site. He's been spending a lot of time outside the Union Point site, sometimes with signs, other times with a bullhorn.

[D]

So we went and asked, what's up with this car? We need access to deliver this materials. And then of screaming ensued.

[B]

The lady was hollering at Adam for no reason, though.

[C]

What was she saying?

[B]

That we're racist.

[D]

She was screaming white privilege. She was calling me a segregationist. I've asked them nicely, what do you want? And they say, take down the fence.

[C]

The chain link fence on the East 12th site that separates Union Point from.

[B]

Lakeview Village, like, or I'm gonna take down the fence. Because we're two different.

[D]

It's two different programs.

[C]

Nino Parker sees that the majority of folks in the Union Point group are white.

[D]

What do you think, Mama D on that situation?

[C]

Which one?

[D]

The controversy that's building.

[B]

Oh, you know what? Oh, well, let them say what they want because they don't know the truth. We all know that there is African American people in our group. My old man and my children.

[C]

In Mama Dee's eyes, this controversy is personal. Instead of speaking to the criticism of how this experiment has gone down, she says over and over again, well, I.

[B]

Don'T see color, period. I don't know no color. All I know is everybody being human, but that's how I feel.

[D]

There's also this, this narrative that's building about, you know, we're this hoity toity, whites only country club of homeless encampments or homeless interventions. And right next door, this other community, they don't have their own rule. They don't get as many perks to run their own space. And it's going to be mostly black folks. I actually don't feel so nervous about that because I happen to be black. I've thought a lot about race and I feel very comfortable talking about race.

[C]

And he has no qualms about defending this project against what he calls the controversy. He sees it as just another complication.

[D]

It's hard enough to do what we're doing. We're dealing with the layers of people, dealing with the trauma of transitioning from survival mode on the streets. We're dealing with just the general drama of people trying to live together. We're dealing with trying to set up this new thing, and then we gotta layer on Top of this, this like weird political football that these two people that just don't have anything else to do and want attention have to throw in our face. And it's like throwing a grenade, you know, in a, in a, in a pile of wood. They are literally looking for a screaming match.

[B]

Well, we're not gonna give it to them no more. We just have to ignore them, that's all.

[D]

Yeah, I think that's the right strategy.

[C]

Because every time Nino Parker got in the way, Adam would advise the group to simply ignore him.

[D]

We could talk about Nino all day. And I advise we don't. Let's keep going around the circle. We got Tim, old man Tim looking cool.

[C]

Adam's strategy, as always, is to keep people moving forward, keep building. But Nino Parker was not backing down. He kept showing up outside Union Point site day after day. Protesting the fence separating the mostly white people from Union Point from the mostly people of color at Lakeview Village. Two projects side by side on the same public owned land with the same public funding. One side making their own rules, and the other side with rules imposed by the city. After all this time following Union Point, I wanted to talk with Nino directly. But day after day, he sort of refused to speak with me. Hi, Nino. We met one day. For some reason, he finally rolled down the driver's seat window of his van parked right outside the East 12th site. Is now a good time for an interview or I angle my microphone inside.

[F]

There's not really a lot to discuss about this issue. This issue is the issue of segregation. Bottom line, it's basically illegal in America to have 99% white on one side and a mixed crowd on the other side.

[C]

I did mention James Leroy, Tim Wedo and Dupree, the people of color at Union Point. Union Point was actually closer to 70% white. And Lakeview Village was mostly black and Asian, only 11% white.

[F]

Don't. Don't. Please don't. To me, that just says, like you're trying to give it the okay. You give it the okay. I don't care if they got three. I started this encampment. They're telling us we can't be on the sidewalk. They're telling us they're going to get a restraining order for us protesting.

[C]

Tell me again what your. The goal is for this battle with this specific site.

[F]

I think I'll leave that on reserve. But my goal in general out here in Oakland is to help homeless people. Especially the fact that there's 75 to 80% black homeless people that actually need the heat. That's my goal. It's about protecting black people.

[C]

According to a City of Oakland survey, around 70% of homeless people here in Oakland are black, while black people make up only 23% of the population. Overall, that imbalance has continued to grow. Nino doesn't want Union Point folks to be kicked back to the streets. He just knows that what he's seeing looks like a continuation of the structural racism he's seen his whole life. One group of people whiter than the other, getting more rights in a government encampment. Do you see any potential in this project helping other homeless people? Specifically black homeless people?

[F]

How do white people help homeless black. How do white people taking dollars that would go to black homeless people help black people? Black homeless people.

[C]

So I think Matt is really excited about training other encampments to resist eviction and get these contractors.

[F]

I've been doing that for years. Why is Matt. Why is a guy from San Jose that's been here two years all of a sudden the new czar of a homeless. No.

[E]

Because he's white.

[F]

No.

[C]

Sorry.

[F]

No. This is a pilot saying, we accept systemic racism. We accept in the homeless world now what's been happening in the house world now we accept it here in the homeless world. It's not going to.

[C]

This is a tiny plot. Stay tuned. You won't want to miss what happens next.

[A]

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[C]

Welcome back to A Tiny Plot. Hi, I'm your host, Shayna Shealy. When we left off, the group was working hard to get their site ready for move in. Things are progressing at the East 12th site. It's December, 10 months since the negotiations on the barricade of trash at Union Point Park. And every day, almost everyone in the Union Point group has been out here raking and trenching.

[D]

Swap those screws out. And then, yeah, I Guess.

[C]

Adam lets me in through the gate.

[D]

I believe strongly in the whole, you know, balance, work, life, balance. But this is a crucial sprint moment, so. Yeah. Feeling the pressure.

[C]

Through the chain link fence that separates these two villages, I see Lakeview Village's porta potties. They're neatly lined rows of tiny white houses. A security guard standing at the gate entrance like a bouncer at a club. On the Union Point side. The toilet and shower stalls are lined up. The security shed is painted and ready, and the tiny homes they're almost ready for move in. Adam waves over Mustache Mike and a guy named Tim to a tiny home on the edge of the plot, one that will eventually be Tim's.

[D]

So we got power connected.

[E]

Okay, so all the units got power.

[D]

Yeah, you can move in today, man.

[E]

Wow.

[D]

Yeah, you could. Let's see. I mean, I don't know if you.

[E]

Guys have any plug.

[C]

There's a single mattress, a fire extinguisher.

[D]

Let's see if it works.

[E]

There should be a switch on that line right there. Look right down there.

[D]

Oh, there we go. Look at that.

[C]

Their lights come on around the site. Things are happening. The poles for their dome are here. The inside of their security hut is drywalled and painted.

[E]

This is good enough for me.

[C]

Do you have a vision of how you want to set it up?

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Oh, I feel like I'll be all right by myself.

[C]

The residents are all smiles, flipping lights on and off.

[E]

Oh, yeah. I'm gonna set it up. I'm taking his bed. Our bed's gonna be up on top.

[D]

What, you're gonna loft it?

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

All right.

[E]

That's what they said they would do. So I can just move?

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

Smooth this up on top.

[C]

If you put the bed up there, you could even put, like, a table.

[D]

Look, this is Nino. He's doing a little political action.

[F]

No whites on one side, blacks on the other side. We ain't going to have it. Take down the goddamn fence. We're not going to have no separation going on on this side of Oakland. We don't do that here. Take down that goddamn fence over here. Protesting every day while you guys got to use all kinds of nonprofit status to fund yourselves and self govern yourselves while the black people have to be watched. Are you proud of that? Screw that. That's racism.

[C]

Adam doesn't even seem phased when he sees Nino drive by.

[D]

I mean, he's just looking for a thing to. To say. I mean, it's not. It's made up. That's Nino Parker.

[C]

Oh, him?

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, asshole. What's up, asshole. Nino's van is rolling up and down the street. A handful of residents walk towards the van and I follow. Nino gets out of the van and onto the pavement. On the roadside of the chain link fence. He's standing with a woman in her 70s. Mrs. Sada. Nino and Mississada. Matt and Mustache Mike and Tim. They're separated by a chain link fence. They face each other. Nino points to the fence that divides Lakeview Village from Union Point on the rise.

[F]

There's no way to say that you have white people on one side, especially when that race is allowed to advance themselves. They have a self governed encampment and we were told that for security they can hire each other for security so they can pay each other to watch each other. Whereas over here, everyone once watched over by the housing consortium of the. Of the East Bay and, and security people.

[E]

It's a whole different program. It's a whole different. It's a different.

[F]

That's the problem. Why should people on this side get more.

[E]

That one there is run.

[F]

I know who it's run by. Why did you guys get to have a kitchen? Why do you get to have all these make your own rules when they don't.

[E]

When. Okay.

[F]

Have any of that?

[E]

Well, it's like this, okay? Any, any. Any encampment out there doesn't have to leave. What we did was like this. When the city came to move us all out, we barricaded ourselves in there. We did not let them in there. So, so if you're. As a community. Because we don't like to call it encampments, we call them communities. Any community has to push. Has to push against the city to get what, you know to, to. To get what they want. Because it's against. So any community that's out there has the same rights as we did. Okay. We were supposed to get our own area. But the city councilwoman that, that's running that other side here, she had. Yeah. This is all of hers. Oh, okay. So that's why. But we were trying to. We were trying to get our own spot. So what she did was she gave us this much, this much space.

[F]

Unfairness.

[E]

The city is using this as a trial. And if we make it work, then they'll be able to do other ones all over the city.

[C]

Can I tell you the problem as I see it? You guys made a contractual arrangement to stay as a community co governance. And you were supposed to go to Calcutt and 11th as your site. Calcutt and 11th Street.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

And Mr. Gallo council member in 5th district said no.

[E]

Yeah, exactly. He said no.

[C]

What happened was this is intended for the Lake Merritt community.

[E]

Right.

[C]

So what you have done is taken space away from them for you.

[E]

Well, we didn't. They did. The city did decided that.

[C]

City staff told the group East 12th was where they would move. When I spoke with then council president Nikki Fortunato boss, she said she knew it might be tricky to have these different models side by side, but that ultimately Lakeview Village never asked for a co governance model. Tim sort of throws his hands in the air, turns around and walks back toward paint buckets.

[F]

I just hate that fence. And they know what's wrong. That's why they're walking away. You can't have a fence separating two communities. I've been here every morning blowing my horn, waking up all these people. Every one of these people, 300 people probably think about it. That are subject to my noise. The general public will help us solve this situation because they are going to complain and complain because you know what we're going to. We only did our horn. We're going to get whistles. It's going to be so Damn loud here 24 7. You will not be able to be here.

[C]

Matt goes back to drywalling. Tim is just pacing across the dusty rocks where the bathrooms are supposed to go up process. What just.

[E]

Huh?

[C]

What just happened?

[E]

The argument with them is that that they're homeless. People here in this community should have been here instead of us. Yeah, I could understand his point, but it's don't bring it to us. We had no say so where we're going.

[C]

You agree with some of the things they were saying.

[E]

Yeah, I agree with the point. Why would they bring outsiders here and it's area knowing there's people organized to come over here and protest against it. This whole area, this park was filled with homeless people. We didn't ask to be put in this location. It was all done already. When you know, they came to, they.

[C]

Well, how does that make you feel?

[E]

It made us feel like. Like we're like ponds in a way, but also benefiting us personally in a way because we've been still where we were there. So they agreed to do it. Let the city handle it then. Okay. The co governed title that they're using need to step up and grab one of us and put us in their meetings.

[C]

If you feel like pawns, why are y' all out here working so hard?

[E]

Because we got going right now. Yes, all we got going. I mean, what else are we gonna do? Be out there.

[C]

You're saying this is all you got? This is your one opportunity.

[E]

One opportunity the city. Yeah. Has given us. And if we make this. This little community here work, then they're gonna expand it. That's why they don't have my ass and other people's asses to make this work. And that's what we're here to do. I want to see this work. I want to see this actually work for the city.

[C]

I wanted to see if Lakeview Village residents had any thoughts about Union Point having a different set of rules. I went to try to speak with them a bunch of times. They said, no, I can't come in.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Really? Their manager always said I wasn't allowed on their site. I'm not allowed in here?

[E]

No.

[C]

So I check with Nita B. A housing activist who works with what she calls curbside communities all over the city. She's been following the UnionPoint experiment, going to their motel meetings from the start. Knowing what I know about the UnionPoint.

[B]

Community, being one of their advocates, I have to say this. The Union Point community is a very diverse group of people. Black folks, white folks, folks from Central America. There was many children there, like, under the age of eight.

[C]

It was a family space.

[B]

What's being said is total misinformation. They did the barricade standoff thing, and.

[C]

Then they started negotiating.

[B]

First point in negotiation was housing all the black mothers and their children. They organized to make sure those babies got housing immediately.

[C]

Before Mama Dee and President Matt and Papa Eddy moved to motel rooms, Nita B. And a former city employee told me the city placed families with young children in actual housing, not just spots in the cabin program. Momma Dee's daughters and her kids, they got spots in a building near Lake Merritt. A few days later, I go back to the East 12 site when I hoped the tension had died down a bit. When I get there, it's eerily quiet. The fence is locked. And I see Nino Parker on the sidewalk outside his van wearing a neck brace. How are you doing?

[F]

You can't see how I'm doing? Can you see how I'm doing? Does it look great?

[C]

Yeah, you don't look great.

[F]

Thanks to your wonderful Adam Garrett Clark assaulting me. I spent my birthday getting crutches. The crutches in the back here. That's why I'm sitting down and not out walking around.

[C]

Nino Parker is loading new, bright white posters into his van. He's holding onto them with his left hand while balancing on crutches with the other. Are you okay.

[F]

Are most people okay after they've been assaulted? What a silly question.

[C]

Do you need some help?

[F]

No. I need to do it myself.

[C]

With one hand, Nino gets the posters into his van on his own. He climbs into the front seat and shuts the door. And I walk home trying to think of what possibly could have happened that put Nino on crutches. You just listened to the third chapter of a tiny plot. There's more? 5 chapters total. Listen to all episodes here on the Snap Judgment feed. We'll be dropping them on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Next up on a Tiny Plot.

[B]

When you're, you know, you're counting on something to be a certain way for a whole year and you work towards that, and then all of a sudden, everything's rocked like that. Some people can't function like that. It's really hard for them.

[C]

A Tiny Plot is a production of kqed SNAP Studios Hosted and produced by Shayna Shealy Edited by Anna Sussman Original music by Renzo Gorio Made possible by the entire SNAP team and everyone who lived at Union Point Park. Thank you for sharing your stories. 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, Alastair Boone and the Street Spirit and KQED Legal engineering by Pat Mesiti Miller Director of Production, Marissa Dodge. Our executive producers are Glenn Washington and Mark Ristich. 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 Snap Judgment. Get your ears ready and keep your hearts open because this is prx.