(This is a guest post by Will Beal, Cortney Glen and Paula Beal, our beloved friends. Paula has been organizing and advocating to expand access to healthy food, livable housing, and healthcare in Oakland for over 45 years. In other words, Paula Beal is an elder for Planting Justice.)

Planting Justice would be grateful if you donated to the Beal family’s housing/survival fund.

April 2014

We saw mold in the bathroom when we first walked through the apartment on 76th Ave, but the landlord told us he would have it taken care of before we moved in. At that time, the average Oakland housing unit rented for $2,428/month, and we had to house ourselves plus three children on a combined income of less than $30,000/year. We took the apartment.

We moved our 1 year old baby Isaiah, our 2 year old daughter Soriah, and our 8 year son Elijah into this apartment with a moldy bathroom.

And then the stove broke.

And then the oven broke.

Cortney: I tried to get the landlord to fix the appliances, because I had no way to cook food for my kids. But he wouldn’t talk to me. He had a problem with women; he refused to deal with me and insisted to talk to Will, which was hard to coordinate because of Will’s work schedule.

Even after Will was able to speak to the landlord, nothing was done to fix the issues. We cooked in our neighbors’ kitchens for months.

October 2014

As the months passed and the days got shorter, the temperature dropped, and we found that our heater was broken as well.

November 2014