When an encampment of unhoused people in Oakland, California, is threatened with eviction, its more than 300 residents rise up to defend their home and community. Over the course of ten years, the site on Wood Street had grown from a collection of tents into a small shantytown with a close knit community. When the city presents plans to replace the RVs and hand-built shacks with supposedly "affordable housing", and to move the community into temporary container homes, the proposal is met with derision: the group wants to preserve its autonomy and alternative way of life. They want to decide for themselves where they live rather than be placed in a temporary city-run shelter.
Journalist Caron Creighton quit her job to spend a year filming the Wood Street community. She follows activists John Janosko and LaMonté Ford as they take the lead in the struggle against the authorities. The film is a tribute to this remarkable and diverse group of outsiders, people bold enough to live on their own terms with ingenuity, independence, and a strong voice.
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