Organizers of the First Annual Housing Oakland Now! Fundraiser’s Public Statement on The New Parish Former Owner’s Abuse of Homeless Residents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 15, 2018

Organizers of the First Annual Housing Oakland Now! Fundraiser’s
Public Statement on The New Parish Former Owner’s Abuse of Homeless Residents

Oakland, CA -- On June 24, 2018, 3-9 PM, The Village, The East Oakland Collective, Dellums Institute for Social Justice, Gina Madrid and Equipto will be hosting a star studded benefit concert as the first annual fundraiser for grassroots organizations The Village and The East Oakland Collective’s on the ground and in the trenches work. Both these organizations tirelessly advocate and serve on behalf of Oakland’s unhoused brothers and sisters to provide housing, address hunger, bring dignity and implement immediate and long term permanent solutions to Oakland’s housing and homelessness crisis. The event will be hosted at the popular venue, The New Parish.

Recent news stories and media have brought to light disturbing allegations against Jason Perkins, a former partner of Parish Entertainment Group, who controls The New Parish. The allegations against Jason Perkins are for the gross mistreatment of unhoused persons in San Francisco and Oakland -- allegations that we demand be fully investigated by the proper authorities. These allegations are contrary to the work of The Village, The East Oakland Collective and Dellums Institute for Social Justice are doing to change the narrative on homelessness-- efforts to share the many lived experiences of our unhoused brothers and sisters, eradicate the stereotypes on who is homeless and why people are unhoused, and ultimately decriminalize homelessness and frame it as a human rights crisis.

From the actions of Henry Sintay “Jogger Joe” at Lake Merritt to the allegations of Jason Perkins in San Francisco, now more than ever, is the time for community members to join us in changing the narrative on homelessness and unite against the mistreatment, stereotypes and criminalization of our unhoused brothers and sisters. After investigating and learning that Perkins is no longer with the New Parish, we decided not to move the first annual fundraiser from The New Parish venue, but instead ask the community to support this cause, join our efforts and most importantly, unite with us to change the narrative! We will pack the venue with our unhoused brothers and sisters, advocates, activists and community members-- bringing our collective energy and demands to The New Parish.

For inquiries, contact us at [email protected] or 510-394-2903.

Housing Oakland Now! is the kick off campaign and first annual fundraiser for the collaboration between The Village and The East Oakland Collective. We organize housed and unhoused residents in Oakland to come together for the goal of  implementing immediate emergency and long term permanent solutions to the housing and homeless crisis in Oakland. We overstand that that the agenda of gentrification has wrongfully used Oakland’s public resources to create the housing and homeless state of emergency and massive human rights violations. This agenda needs to end and public resources such as land, funds and labor must be used to house Oakland’s displaced Black and Brown poor and working class communities.
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