Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Family,
Below is the draft of a letter the Lakeshore Avenue Business Improvement District, of which I am the Board President, is preparing to send to members of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. It is not a happy or pleasant letter. It reflects very real pain and frustration. Please join me in praying for those have mental illness, advocating for caring and accessible mental health programs and understanding the concerns of those who run businesses and pay taxes.
Pastor Jim
Dear Supervisor _______________,
Lakeshore Avenue has an unprecedented public health issue due to the increase of unhoused and mentally ill individuals currently defecating in doorways on the Avenue. This directly affects businesses, customers, and individuals that walk on Lakeshore. Business owners on Lakeshore have to clean up human waste in their doorway daily before opening for business; if the business is closed or the building is vacant, the waste remains there when individuals and children walk on Lakeshore Avenue. This is a serious health hazard to everyone. Business owners should not be handling human waste; customers, pedestrians, and children should not be exposed to human waste, and the mentally ill houseless individuals need help. We are asking the County to help with these mentally ill houseless issues in the Lakeshore Avenue area.
Over the past two years, we have reached out numerous times to Operation Dignity, Project Hope, the Oakland Police Department, and the County not received any meaningful responses or help. Yet, more mentally ill houseless people are coming to Lakeshore and the surrounding area and defecating in building doorways daily. Consequently, business owners are considering leaving Lakeshore because they do not want to risk their health or their employees’ health cleaning up human waste daily. Our businesses are already suffering, and this human waste hygiene issue poses an urgent economic and public health issue for Lakeshore Avenue and the surrounding area.
We need immediate assistance with this issue.
The Lakeshore Avenue Business Community
On LABC Zoom this week – No Soup, But Study (Tuesday 6:00 pm), Wednesday Prayer and Bible Study (10:30 am) and A Time For Prayer (Saturday 10:00 am)
College and Graduate School Students – LABC Scholarship applications are due this Sunday, August 15. Please contact me for an application.