Cob on Wood
2020-2022
From the climate crisis to social inequity, the planet and its people are in a critical time.
We believe that the inequalities that vulnerable and frontline communities face were exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic, but that the crisis around access to healthy food, nutrition, sanitation, natural medicine, and high touch care have long been building and will continue to remain once everything “Goes back to Normal.”
EFAM believes that healing is a direct action.
We believe that all people, no matter whether they have shelter, financial means, or the privilege of insight, deserve access to tools to shape their destiny with dignity.
Through our work, EFAM aims to restore equity and balance within our communities through the reconnection of people to land and plants that will help us in mending the sacred hoop.
We invite you now to reimagine what “normal” is and stand with us as we shape our new reality.
Beginning in the Spring of 2020, and through October 2022, EFAM, Artists Building Communities, and Living Earth Structures joined forces to build Cob on Wood.
Together this collaboration began with a cleanup using found materials on site and in the surrounding neighborhood to create fire proof support structures including a community kitchen, free store, performance stage, solar shower, composting toilet, healing clinic, and more.
Advocates worked hand in hand with residents in exchanging skills around construction, soil, and environmental remediation coupled with the vision of one day creating a food forest.
A total of 8,022 individuals experiencing homelessness were counted in Alameda County as of January 30, 2019, an increase of 2,393 individuals (+43%) from 2017.
— 2019 Homeless Count which surveyed people in Alameda County who were unsheltered and people who were residing in a publicly or privately funded emergency shelter, safe haven, or transitional housing facility
In October 2022 through May 2023 our community formerly known as Cob on Wood and her sister residents at the Wood Street Commons underwent demolition and eviction by CalTrans and the City of Oakland displacing nearly 400 residents from what was one of the largest independent, self-sustaining communities on the West Coast. Our coalition of allies continues to support them in a resident-led transition to long-term permanent housing.
Join us below in continuing our support for this community and beyond.
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