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Preston Walker recently chose to share his journey about his obstacles while living in Oakland and his decision to move to Fremont in search of better living conditions. 

Walker is an activist for Oakland’s homeless community and provides spiritual and emotional support to those challenging the government, the police, and other powerful authorities.

According to The OaklandSide, Walker’s East Oakland home began to feel unsafe for him in recent months, which later triggered him into deciding to leave.

 “I got tired of hearing the gunshots in the middle of the night,” he said.

“You go outside, and there’s tape all over the place,” Walker added. 

Walker’s new living situation is a considerable change from the tents, doorways, hotel rooms, and sober-living facilities where he’d spent most of his days since the 1990s.

Walker is known as “Pastor Preston” to the Occupy moment he belonged to in Oakland. 

He said that his new apartment had provided him with a sense of security and pride that he hasn’t felt in years.

Before being offered a chance to live in Fremont, Walker lived at the Days Inn, one of the hotels leased by Alameda County for homeless people who’d been infected with COVID-19 or were at high risk of getting the virus.

A few months after moving in, Abode Services, a non-profit contracted with the county, held a housing fair that sets up hotel residents, like Walker, with permanent housing.

Vera Sloan, an advocate for unhoused Oakland residents, said that although she misses Walker, she’s grown to realize that his decision to relocate to Fremont is an extension of his work and what they stand for.

Sloan said, “He’s modeling that you’re allowed to care for yourself, that you deserve safety and stability.” 

“Something that was uniquely beautiful about Pastor Preston’s work with folks living outdoors,” said Sloan, 

“is that he was vulnerable with people about his own challenges. That created a space for people to be vulnerable about theirs and to set down their shame. That’s a kind of ministry you don’t have to be religious to respect or replicate.”

Walker was able to have the keys to his new apartment in a matter of days after following the housing fair, where his application was screened on site.

Although it all hasn’t been smooth sailing since moving in, Walker remains optimistic about his life.

“For me, it takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile,” he said. “Don’t let circumstance steal your joy.” 

After living on the streets of Oakland for decades, Walker said he never witnessed a substantial change in living conditions or opportunities for his community.

“I grieve for Oakland the loss of Pastor Preston,” said Sloan, “but I don’t grieve for Pastor Preston if Oakland was not going to make itself deserving of him. This needs to be a wake-up call. Sometimes Oakland is coming in a little too late for people.”

Walker has begun a new chapter of his life and has taken the first steps in changing his lifestyle.

He recently started up a car-detailing and washing business within his complex.

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Since 2019, approximately 608 unhoused people have lived in Fremont, compared to 4,071 in Oakland, and Walker believes that those people can benefit from his support, the same way the Oakland community did. 

“I’m learning the community, learning the neighborhood,” he said. 

“I still love Oakland,” he added. “I just can’t live in Oakland anymore.”