Oakland is being threatened with the loss of millions of dollars in state funding because the city is “seeking to shirk its responsibility” over housing unsheltered people on Caltrans property along Wood Street in city limits, according to a letter from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office.

In the letter sent to City Attorney Barbara Parker, Oakland is accused of taking a “novel legal position” that it has no responsibility to house about 200 individuals, even though the city received $4.7 million for rehousing activities at Wood Street.

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Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.