A Tiny Plot

Snap Judgment

Using broken refrigerators, mattresses, and dishwashers, residents of Union Point Park barricade their tent city. And they fight for an extraordinary idea: their own plot of land, where they could live in community and set their own rules.

A Tiny Plot is a new 5-part series from KQED’s Snap Studios. Host and Reporter Shaina Shealy takes listeners inside an encampment in Oakland for an against-all-odds story about scarcity, community, and the complexity of building something new from the margins of a broken system. What happens when people who’ve been shut out of a system that has failed them decide to take the lead? Disaster, and unexpected beauty.

Huge love & thanks to the entire cast from A Tiny Plot for sharing your worlds with us at Snap Judgment!

Snap Studios LLC

Huge love & thanks to the entire cast from A Tiny Plot for sharing your worlds with us at Snap Judgment!

Snap Studios LLC

2hr 57min

It's barricades vs. bobcats, tents vs. tiny homes and a team of people fighting to stay together. Listen to a radical experiment in freedom that puts an entire city under the microscope…

September 9, 20252min 22sec2.28 MB

Using broken refrigerators, mattresses and dishwashers, residents of Union Point Park barricade their tent-city. And they fight for an extraordinary idea: their own plot of land from the city, where they could live in community and set their own rules.

September 10, 202545min 14sec43.43 MB

The standoff between Public Works and the group from Union Point Park ends with a handshake -- a deal to build a new kind of housing community funded by the city where homeless residents make their own rules. But right away, the civility of this agreement seems to break down.

September 10, 202537min 46sec36.26 MB

Mama D sees that the future of the experiment is up to her and what she decides: Lead the group to the plot of land offered by the city, hope and pray for a magical new plot, or disband the group and dissolve the experiment. Following weeks of indecision, Mama D makes a choice. And while everyone from the group was hard at work to turn their dream into reality, they didn’t seem to notice a major problem with the set-up. A fault line of sorts.

September 10, 202533min 59sec32.63 MB

Mama D, President Matt, and the rest of the group are finally seeing their experiment in co-governance take shape. They built their security sheds and saw their tiny homes for the first time. But when Nino Parker stepped onto the sidewalk in a neck brace, on crutches, it was clear that the group was about to face a whole new level of chaos.

September 10, 202526min 3sec25.01 MB

The group from Union Point moves into their new homes on the tiny plot of land near Lake Merritt. They run their own security and decide who comes into their space. But then, on a Monday morning in March, we hear devastating news…

September 10, 202531min 25sec30.16 MB