In revealing interview, Oakland's new mayor discusses her top priorities
OAKLAND -- Oakland's new mayor Sheng Thao kicked off her administration in the new year. Aside from filling key positions in her office, she'll have to hire a city administrator as well. The previous city administrator resigned last month.
Mayor Thao said her top priorities are homelessness and crime.
The topic of homelessness is a personal one for her.
"Bringing my lived, life experience to city hall and to the mayor's office -- that's my superpower," Thao told KPIX.
She experienced homelessness after she left an abusive relationship.
"I still remember it. (I was) about six and a half months pregnant. I was sitting on top of the bed and he grabbed me by the hair, pulled me down and kicked me in my six-month (pregnant) stomach. I'm here just protecting my unborn child and that was the moment where I was like 'this is ridiculous. I do not want my unborn child, who has no say in any of this, to be born into this reality.' And so, for me, it was just survival and to make sure that I kept my son as safe as possible. And 'safe as possible' meant living in my car," Thao said.
She and her infant slept in her car and couch-surfed for months. She decided to go to Merritt College to improve her circumstances.
After being named class valedictorian at Merritt, she enrolled and graduated from UC Berkeley. Thao has life experience few mayors preceding her can relate to.
"I was on social services the majority of my life and now, here I am as Oakland's next mayor -- the 51st mayor," Thao said.
She believes she has the right approach and balance to reduce homelessness in the city. Roughly 5,000 people are living on the streets of Oakland and many more are in danger of becoming homeless.
"We have to provide resources to really help families so they're not on the streets. It saves the city more dollars if we preserve the home that they are currently in right now ... That's one step. Another step is: build, build, build. We have to build deeply affordable ... housing," Thao said.
She plans to meet with leaders from the Oakland Unified School District and Alameda County to identify unused public land to build short-term as well as permanent housing.
"It's important that we do bring our unhoused out of the parks, away from our schools. That's why I want to start the centralized space where we have pallet shelters and dignified temporary living so that we can actually bring in services that they need," Thao said.
The obvious question: how will you pay for all these services?
"We are setting ourselves up to be competitive for state grants and federal grants. I have a really strong team that I'm putting together to ensure that we can go to the federal government and really fight for those dollars," Thao said.
Oakland recorded 120 homicides in 2022. Even though that's a decrease compared to the previous year, Oakland still recorded more homicides than San Jose and San Francisco combined.
Thao wants to expand Operation Ceasefire. It's the crime-fighting strategy Oakland has been using to fight gun violence in recent years. The program offers high-risk individuals incentives to change their behavior.
Thao said she'll also expand on prevention programs aimed at young people.
"Working directly (churches), our faith-based community as well to really put these (programs) together. And, number two, year-round paid internships. Again, another public/private partnership where we're working with other businesses. It's just not going to be the city of Oakland who's providing these paid internships," Thao explained. "The previous administration only had a summer youth program."
There are roughly 700 police officers in Oakland. She wants to fill vacancies and bring the police force back to 752 officers and she plans to use an incentive program to entice more people from Oakland to join the force.
She says expanding the pilot MACRO program should free up officers to focus on crime.
"Working (along) with MACRO, our mental health response, so (the police can focus on) the crime fighting while we can call on MACRO to do more of the mental health calls," Thao said.
She said that, unlike the situation in the previous administration, she's got the backing of the city council. The progressive Democrats have a supermajority on the council.
"I do believe that's going to be the change in the city is being able to get people to come along and work together because our north star is always a better Oakland," Thao said.
Thao was sworn-in last week but there will be a public swearing-in ceremony for her and other newly elected leaders on Monday, Jan. 9 at city hall. Thao is the first Hmong-American mayor of a major U.S. city.