Oakland mayoral candidates have ideas for alleviating crime and homelessness

With an election approaching, a local elected body contemplated taking out an official seeking re-election this fall

Oakland mayoral candidates Shen Thao, Loren Taylor, and Treva Reid.

ELECTION 2022

Days until Election Day: 83.

OAKLAND MAYOR

—TOWN TROUBLES—If last Monday’s intimate Oakland mayoral forum revealed anything it’s that the Big 3 candidates—Sheng Thao, Loren Taylor, and Treva Reid—have specific ideas for fixing The Town’s duo of chronic problems of crime and homelessness. Here’s a brief rundown of their plans and quotes from the forum held at the Regal Jack London Theatre:

—SOLUTIONS FOR HOMELESSNESS

TAYLOR: There is no unified city council plan for tackling homelessness, he said. As chair of the Life Enrichment Committee, he established the Permanent Access to Housing Framework and allocated $40 million annually for prevention, temporary and permanent housing.

REID: “I’ve been on council long enough to see what’s broken and short enough to have a hunger for change,” Reid said. She agreed with Taylor, there is no strategy for addressing the homelessness crisis in Oakland. The problem disproportionately affects Black residents, she added. Staffing is also a problem. Three are only four staffers in the homelessness department addressing 850 encampments. “That is an impossible way to address homelessness and the growing encampments on the streets, and as mayor I can deliver on how we budget and resource, and actually have staff to show up.” Reid said, as mayor, she will increase rental and mortgage assistance programs, and seek greater use of state’s Homekey program.

THAO: With a jab at Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Thao said, “I think we’re all very frustrated. Getting people into the Tuff Sheds and out the Tuff Sheds. Six months in, six months out. We’re tired of that. That is a Band-Aid fix. We need real solutions.” Thao would employ an Enhanced Infrastructure Funding District to help solve homelessness, if elected mayor. “That is not a new tax. It’s not a new tax on businesses or property owners. It’s paid back through tax increments. It’s kind of like redevelopment, but better.” Developers will have incentive to build affordable housing if greater amounts of matching funds are available, Thao said.

—COMBATING CRIME

REID: “I will champion public safety on Day One,” Reid said. Drawing on her work under state Sen. Nancy Skinner, Reid said she knows how to find state funding for public safety in Oakland. “I will work to double the violence prevention and intervention and healing trauma programs because we are still woefully short of what that budget ask was from [OPD]” that’s about $31 million short, she added. “As a mother who has lost her own son to gun violence, the pain that I feel at the loss of what we are facing, with the crippling weight of grief and trauma and pain and lawlessness that has been left unchecked in this city is frustrating and I’ve had enough just like you.”

THAO: She voted to fund two police academies this year and two next year because she believed with high dropout rates at previous academies that cost roughly $4 million each, funding more academies in the first year was cost-prohibitive, she said. “I knew we were hemorrhaging officers. They were leaving to different jurisdictions. I worked closely with the H.R. director and the chief again to create public safety incentives, which, guess what? Because of my work with other councilmembers, it passed unanimously on that day,” Thao said. “That’s the kind of leadership Oakland needs. Not someone who rushed to find something for the media to cover. It’s about effectiveness and making sure that we are spending your dollars right. Thao would work to ensure OPD increases its rank to the budgeted 752 officers.

TAYLOR: In the aftermath of the deaths of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor, Taylor said, “I didn’t just go along with the call to defund the police department by $25 million to $50 million. But, instead, architected and then co-chaired our reimagining public safety task force.” Taylor said the outreach helped lead to “historic” budget investments in violence prevention and the MACRO program. As mayor, Taylor pledges to double the crime-solve rate for violent crimes, reduce by one-half the number of outstanding 9-1-1 calls, and doubling investment in crime prevention technology.

—OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Loren Taylor prior to the beginning of Monday’s Oakland mayoral forum.

THAO wants to create a citywide audit upon becoming mayor. She will call it the “City Hall Report Card.” “I want to find what’s working, what’s not working. Where is the bottleneck?”... TAYLOR supports creating a controller’s office in order to ensure the mayor and city council is working with the same numbers and facts… REID said she has 180 first cousins… TAYLOR has a twin brother…