A PLACE TO CALL HOME

They’re a growing group of homeless people but now there’s a centre that brings them dignity and a feeling of community

- GABRIELLE CANON

TUCKED under a flyover just beyond a graveyard of charred cars and dumped rubbish, lies an unexpected refuge. There’s a collection of beautiful, small structures built from foraged materials.

There’s a hot shower, a fully stocked kitchen and a health clinic. There’s a free “store” offering donated items including clothes and books, and a composting toilet. There are stone-and-gravel paths lined with flowers and vegetable gardens. There’s even an outdoor pizza oven. This little community in West Oakland in California developed over recent months to provide amenities for those living in a nearby homeless encampment.

Residents, business and those without homes all worked together to bring it to life. “It is about uniting everybody,” says Dmitri Schusterman, a nearby resident who also serves as the director of innovation for Artists Building Communities, one of the organisations that helped build the centre at the end of last year.

Cob on Wood, as it’s being called, was created with help from local arts and food advocacy groups who teamed up with Miguel “Migz” Elliott, an expert in the ancient technique of making cob structures. Teams of volunteers and residents built each component by hand.

Now, almost six months since they broke ground, they host events and workshops and offer food, hygiene and skill-sharing to the estimated 300 people who live in nearby encampments.

COB on Wood was born of parallel crises – the US city of Oakland’s rising rate of homelessness and the Covid pandemic. The city is home to more than 4 000 unhoused people, a figure that jumped 86% over four years, according to a 2019 report.