The barricades, which the council approved Tuesday night, aim to make it harder for buyers to use concealed side streets to solicit sex and to make it easier for police to see criminal activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe behavior of the buyers relies on these side streets to facilitate these transactions,\u201d Wang said at the council\u2019s Public Safety Committee meeting<\/a> on June 23. \u201cThat is why closing these side streets is a pilot we want to pursue.\u201d<\/p>\n Wang said the initiative draws on crime prevention through environmental design<\/a> principles and is modeled after a similar program<\/a> in Houston<\/a> that police say reduced prostitution solicitation and other crimes in that city\u2019s red-light district in 2023. The program will be paid for by the District 2 council office\u2019s discretionary funds.<\/p>\n Wang described the effort as a \u201ccommunity-led initiative,\u201d with neighbors and business owners in the San Antonio neighborhood long advocating for the city to enact measures to combat trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m always going to be fighting for San Antonio,\u201d Wang said at the meeting. \u201cIt is the most working-class part of my district.\u201d<\/p>\n Evangelina Lara, who lives in the San Antonio neighborhood, said she supports the initiative because trafficking has long affected the community.<\/p>\n \u201cMy oldest son and my daughter left Oakland looking for a better environment for their kids, and I don\u2019t see them as much,\u201d she told council members at a committee meeting last week.<\/p>\n Yesenia Ortiz, a resident of 10th Avenue for more than 20 years, said persistent trafficking in the neighborhood led her to stop walking her son to school.<\/p>\n \u201cAs he\u2019s gotten older and started seeing the ladies standing there almost naked, he started asking questions, and I knew walking to school wasn\u2019t an option anymore,\u201d said Ortiz during public comment. \u201cNow, I have to drive him to school and go around certain streets, hoping there\u2019s none of them standing in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n Wang told The Oaklandside the closures are intended to be a part of a holistic strategy to combat commercial sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the council approved another proposal by Wang<\/a> that imposes fines on people who buy sex and on traffickers. Revenue from those fines is supposed to go to a Human Trafficking Survivor Support Fund for nonprofits serving survivors of commercial sexual exploitation. Wang said it is the first fund of its kind in California.<\/p>\n The council may extend the street closures as many as eight consecutive times, with each extension lasting up to 18 months. OakDOT has not announced an exact date for installing the barriers, according to Bridget Ruiz Rivezzo, policy director for Wang\u2019s office.<\/p>\n The Oakland Police Department and OakDOT will collect data to analyze the program\u2019s effectiveness after it ends, Wang said.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time the city has closed streets to try to divert sex trafficking. In 2023, the city installed barriers along East 15th Street to move solicitation out of the neighborhood, according to Ruiz Rivezzo. David Kakishiba, executive director of East Bay Asian Youth Center<\/a>, located in the San Antonio neighborhood, said he was part of the community\u2019s efforts to push OakDOT to temporarily place water containers along East 15th Street in February 2023 to divert sex trafficking.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a night-and-day transformation,\u201d he told The Oaklandside. \u201cNormal life returned to East 15th.\u201d<\/p>\n Sex trafficking survivors\u2019 advocates feel conflicted about the proposal<\/p>\n Michelle Badue said she was kidnapped, beaten, raped, and trafficked for 15 years, much of which was spent on International Boulevard in Oakland. She now supports trafficked youth as a transformation coach with MISSSEY<\/a>, an Oakland nonprofit that empowers survivors of commercial sexual exploitation.<\/p>\n Badue has doubts that the road closures will reduce the overall levels of sex trafficking in Oakland.<\/p>\n \u201cTraffickers don\u2019t disappear \u2014 they adapt,\u201d she said. \u201cIf one area is closed, they\u2019ll simply move victims to another street, another city, or another neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n If the city wants to end sex trafficking, she said, street closures are not enough. The city needs to offer more housing, education, mental health and substance use treatment, jobs, and long-term support for survivors. The city also needs to be better at holding traffickers and buyers accountable, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cSurvivors need resources that help them rebuild their lives, not just temporary solutions that move the problem somewhere else,\u201d said Badue.<\/p>\n Other community members expressed concerns that the street closures would simply move the problem elsewhere, rather than addressing the root causes of trafficking.<\/p>\n John Jones III, an East Oakland resident, told the council\u2019s Public Safety Committee on June 23 that he\u2019s neither for nor against the effort.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand that you want to do something about it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not really helping those people out there.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oaklandside.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Human-trafficking-survivor-fund_RR_1-12-26.jpg\")
Councilmember Charlene Wang, seen here on Jan. 12, 2026, says the pilot is modeled after a similar one in Houston that police say led to a reduction in prostitution solicitation arrests. Credit: Roselyn Romero\/The Oaklandside<\/p>\n