Oakland mayor wants to charge neighboring cities an impact fee for serving their homeless

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—IT’S YOU, ALAMEDA COUNTY—Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao laid down the gauntlet in an interview on Tuesday that is not going to play well in the rest of Alameda County.

—In an interview with the San Francisco Examiner, Thao boasted that once she is able to find temporary housing for every homeless Oaklander, she will charge neighboring cities an impact fee if their residents take up camp in Oakland.

—The comment is abound to be view by neighboring cities with a hearty scoff, followed by anger. Not only for Thao’s cocksure attitude for solving a problem that has long vexed Oakland and other big cities, but also her tone deafness.

—“Once we get everybody into a temporary shelter, we can triage and figure out where people are coming from. And if new tents or new people are coming, we can figure out what city they're coming from,” Thao said.

—“From that point, I am very open about calling out the cities and saying, ‘You need to do more for your unhoused residents. Otherwise, you can pay me, you can pay this city, the city of Oakland an impact fee because you're impacting our city. And we could take it on. However, we can't serve everyone.’

—“This is about getting Oaklanders off the streets and every single city has to do their part. That's why it's important to be an example for other cities. So they have a model. So they know where to start. It gives them an opportunity to stand something similar up in their city. But outside of that, I'm not interested in welcoming others to come to the city of Oakland when we have very minimal resources.”

—Cities all over Alameda County are also experiencing a homelessness crisis and, conversely, privately blame Oakland for either exacerbating the problem or failing to take care of their backyard.

—Adding a bit of perspective: Oakland city government is very unpopular among every other city government in Alameda County. These comments will certainly upset many elected officials, especially since they largely refrain from publicly blaming Oakland for a perception the city exports crime, homelessness, and mayhem to their cities.

—In addition, the oversized amount of state and federal funds sent to help Oakland combat its chronic homelessness problem greatly dwarfs allocations to other Alameda County cities, especially places like Fremont, the county’s second-largest city and one also facing a growing homelessness crisis.

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