UN report singles out homeless conditions in Oakland, San Francisco as 'cruel and inhumane'

By Lisa Fernandez

OAKLAND, Calif. - A United Nations expert on housing explicitly singled out San Francisco and Oakland as the only two U.S. cities that are part of a "global scandal," describing homeless encampments there as "cruel and inhumane."
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Canadian attorney Lelani Farha, presented her 23-page report on Oct. 18 in New York at the U.N. General Assembly after touring the world and visiting the Bay Area in January.
She also visited Berkeley and Los Angeles, but did not mention those cities in her report. On Tuesday, Bay Area housing activists held a rally at Oakland City Hall to discuss the findings.