There are 32 beds available in the new tiny home site off Wood Street, and another 28 new safe parking spaces in East Oakland, the city said in a court filing. In July, a large fire damaged a portion of Interstate 880. View the map in a new window. A resident of the 1707 Wood site and a local advocate then brought suit against Oakland in federal court asking that the city be enjoined. The Encampment Management Policy seeks to address the adverse health and safety impacts of unsheltered homelessness, with compassion and care to not criminalize poverty. . We cant just let people to continue to die on the sidewalks while we try to figure out what permanent solutions can be, Fife said. The city spent $12.6 million over the past two fiscal years, mostly unbudgeted, to manage the camps that have spread across city streets, sidewalks, parks and open spaces, according to a report released Wednesday by the city auditor. A separate request earlier this month to halt Oakland workers from clearing parts of the encampment on land it owns was denied. Caltrans has completed much smaller sweeps in the past. 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Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. Official Website for the City of Oakland | Mayor Sheng Thao. Marisa Kendall is a housing reporter for the Bay Area News Group who covers homelessness for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. The City Council has to approve the plans and construction is likely to take longer than other sites because a set of railroad tracks cuts through the property. The man was bleeding and was very confused asking police what he had done wrong. Oakland Workers continued Monday to clear the massive homeless encampment along Wood Street in West Oakland. A hand-painted sign can be seen at a homeless encampment on Wood Street in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, May 3, 2022. When could it return? Information, if available, concerning the impacts of programs funded bv the Vacant Property Tax (2018 Measure W1 and 2020 Measure Q homelessness funds subject to Commission oversight this Ordinance on the occurrence of homelessness and illegal dumping outcomes in the City; Recommendations to the Mayor and the City Council on the Biennial Fiscal Year Budget, in accordance with the City Councils Consolidated Fiscal Policy at the time, that ensures that the Commission Chair communicates homelessness priorities to the Mayor and Council: and. The pandemic caused the city to halt most encampment closures, but now city staff say closures are on the table as long as shelter space is available. Pushing people with no real and adequate shelter to accommodate them is inhumane and does not solve the larger problem.. This chart is updated at the end of each month. It dissolves a restraining order that previously halted Caltrans plans to clear the camp and allows the city to begin a phased closure of the encampment. Narcan spray and other sanitary products can be seen on a book shelf at a homeless encampment on Wood Street in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, May 2, 2022. What could reparations mean for Black residents of Alameda County? A spokesperson for the Oakland Police Department said the department is investigating a use-of-force incident on Thursday just after 2:45 p.m. in the area of West Grand Avenue and Wood Street. Santa Ana, California 92703. The encampment is now so huge that some residents drive buses and motorcycles to get from one end to the other. Walters: Is ending Californias homelessness just a matter of money? Multiple. OAKLAND, CA When U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick issued a temporary restraining order on Jan. 6, 2023 forbidding the city of Oakland from closing a homeless encampment at 1707 Wood St., he told the parties he suspected the TRO would be "brief.". Husbands-Hankin said she saw an officer tase the man and tackle him to the ground. A large fire that swept through a homeless encampment underneath the 880 Freeway in West Oakland on Monday destroyed several vehicles and RVs before it was put . Housing | that was may . City workers do a sweep at the homeless encampment under Interstate 580 in West Oakland as the city promise to deliver porter potties, fences, regular trash pickup, and counseling . A show made by people behind bars in California prisons. Although the first phase includes offers of temporary shelter, Orrick said subsequent phases could continue whether or not shelter was available. Clutch, a 40-year-old Wood Street encampment resident who said he has no last name, was one of the five people moved last month. Oakland has responded to the crisis level surge in homelessness with emergency measures like community cabins. Both the city and the camps residents have different ideas for what the future should be for the land and the people who live there. Housing | The city plans to offer approximately 40 emergency shelter beds to residents in the first phase of the closure, though its unclear how many people actually live in the affected area. She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay. Complete clearing of total area without option to return, Partial clearing of an encamped area without option to return, Cleaning of an area with the option to return, May apply to a portion of or the total area, Regularly established garbage clearing and temporary sanitation. Yes, that's a toucan flying around Walnut Creek. Workers have been clearing the sprawling camp in phases, a process that started in July. LAPD union supports unarmed responders to certain 911 calls including homeless encampment clean-ups 0. When the city has scheduled sweeps of the site, residents and homeless advocates have blocked workers from entering and removing belongings. Walters: Is ending Californias homelessness just a matter of money? The encampment spans nearly 25 city blocks with about 300 people living under freeways in tents, RVs and makeshift shelters amid burned-out vehicles, mounds of trash and dirt. But that's only a fraction of the more than 5,000 encampments on . Reporting an Issue If you or someone you know is hungry, homeless, or housing insecure - Call 2-1-1. Staff Attorneys will primarily . In a lawsuit filed this week, grassroots group Neighbors. View the list of locations and servicing schedule below. According to "point-in-time" counts cited in their pleadings, there were 5,055 individuals in Oakland experiencing homelessness, of which 3,347 were unsheltered. Thank you for your patience while we work to restore services. Homeless Encampment at 9418 Edes Ave Oakland, CA, 94603, USA: Im a community member and my street is getting full of RV and abandoned cars for many months now. The plaintiffs and all living at the Wood Street encampment must make immediate plans to move.". (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group), OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: Workers take a break during a partial clearing of the Wood Street homeless encampment on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Caltrans is overseeing the cleanup of its property along Wood Street. PUBLISHED: February 27, 2023 at 4:49 p.m. | UPDATED: February 28, 2023 at 1:58 p.m. A federal judge on Monday ruled the city can resume efforts to remove dozens of people from a large homeless. Because the city had not budgeted for those expenses, staff had to divert resources away from other essential services including responding to illegal dumping, conducting fire inspections and maintaining traffic signals and street lights. Oakland which has more than 5,000 homeless people currently has 598 year-round, city-funded shelter beds, 313 community cabin and temporary structure shelter spaces, 147 RV safe parking. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! Stuffed animals are seen on a couch at the Wood Street encampment on Friday, April 29, 2022 in Oakland, California. This is our home.. The judge noted that while the U.S. constitution does not require the government to protect people from harm caused by third persons, there is an exception when the state "affirmatively places [a plaintiff] in danger by acting with deliberate indifference to a known or obvious danger.". Caltrans can begin evicting the estimated 200 people who live under an 880 overpass in West Oakland after Labor Day, a federal district judge ruled Friday. Oakland police towed several vehicles parked by a homeless camp near the Fruitvale Home Depot on Thursday, as part of a cleanup and closure operation. If you or someone you know is hungry, homeless, or housing insecure - Call 2-1-1. Oakland. The shelters are full. She previously covered startups and venture capital for the Bay Area News Group and prior to that court cases for The Recorder in San Francisco. 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Wood Street encampment resident Theo Cedar Jones plays guitar. Gavin Newsoms office publicly excoriated Oakland officials for failing to cooperate and threatened to withhold state funds. The order is the latest in a long-running dispute over a homeless camp that once covered 40 acres under the Nimitz Freeway in Oakland, where between 200 and 300 people lived in vehicles, RVs, tents and other makeshift structures. The encampment is on property owned by the city, railroads and various government agencies, including Caltrans, which owns the property directly under the freeway. But those plans were slow in coming. Resident Ron McGowan, who lives at the site in question, said there are about 80 people there. After nearly two-month delay, judge allows, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Bay Area weather: After thunderstorms and hail, snow could be on the way this weekend, After nearly two-month delay, judge allows Oakland to remove large homeless camp, Housing proposal for unhoused leaves Santa Clara residents sharply divided, Forcing Californians into mental health treatment would get easier with proposed legislation, Grappling with homelessness, California weighs extending foster care for 5 years. The choice: Leave, or hunker down. In an earlier statement, Caltrans said it planned to clear the camp to address the increasingly serious safety risks to life, property and infrastructure at the encampment. The agency said it was coordinating with the city and the county to offer residents shelter. The city's lawyers had no comment on the ruling. July 11, 2022 Updated 3:24 PM PT. Home used to be a tent at the 77th Street homeless encampment, where they had to fill two . It is both a humanitarian duty and a civic expectation that our homeless become housed, and our City streets and parks are returned to their intended public uses.. But the time for finger-pointing and disclaimers of responsibility is over. But the injunction was dissolved in phases, beginning in August of 2022, giving residents more time to find other alternatives. Both the city and the camps residents have different ideas for what the future should be for the land and the people who live there. The new report, completed by City Auditor Courtney Ruby, found that the EMT was "overwhelmed by the undertaking of closing and cleaning encampments throughout Oakland." Ruby found that Oakland spent $12.6 million on tasks related to encampments over the past two years, and roughly $1,500 an hour on camp closures and cleanings. Jones and several other residents want the city and state to give them the land to build their own community, equipped with a kitchen and common area to play music. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group), OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: An officer with the California Highway Patrol watches as a vehicle is towed from the Wood Street homeless encampment on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Caltrans is overseeing the cleanup of its property along Wood Street. When the City decides to close an encampment, the Team makes every effort to relocate encampment dwellers to emergency shelters or community cabins. Its been a struggle just to stand up emergency shelters.. Velena Jones reports. Cold Bay Area rains fail to shut down vibrant Holi celebration in Fremont. Many people at Wood Street live in RVs, cars and other vehicles. To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy. The city did not say exactly when it planned to begin closing the encampment, but said it would make reasonable efforts to avoid displacing people during excessive rain or very cold weather. LA CITY COUNCIL GREENLIGHTS BAN ON HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS 500 FEET FROM SCHOOLS, DAYCARE CENTERS Though Newsom's handling of the Oakland matter was worded authoritatively, the governor has also. If you or someone you know is hungry, homeless, or housing insecure - Call 2-1-1. California snowpack hits highest level this century for March, could I-80 closed across Donner Summit as snowstorm pummels Sierra, San Francisco citizens once traveled by gondola. Updated on: July 20, 2022 / 8:30 AM / CBS San Francisco. He and the others had lived in four old buses one of which was destroyed during the move and a van. Without a "constitutional right to housing," Orrick said he had no authority to allow the encampment to remain on the property. Mayor Libby Schaaf, city administrator Ed Reiskin, police Chief LeRonne Armstrong and Daniel Cooper, the citys newly appointed homelessness administrator, were at Wood Street on Wednesday. But the lots homeless residents, who have developed a tight-knit community they call the Commons, argue theyll suffer when that community is broken up and theyre forced to scatter to other locations including to shelter programs that might not meet their physical and mental health needs. Oakland police took an average of four to six hours to respond to emergency calls in encampments during the last two fiscal years, according to the audit. Local News | Caltrans plans to clear out 200 homeless people from the sprawling homeless encampment at Oaklands Wood Street by the first week of August, officials said. To address the growing problem, the city in 2017 established its interdepartmental Encampment Management Team to respond to various issues at homeless camps. Because of the connection to the earlier litigation, the case was assigned to Judge Orrick who entered a TRO on January 6, 2023. Check out the latest season about Muslim converts and past seasons of stories of struggle and never giving up hope. Three days later, a group of encampment residents sued Caltrans, the governor, Oakland and a number of public officials in federal court, alleging that their forced removal from the site would constitute an unconstitutional "state created danger" and place them at a high degree of risk because there were not adequate shelter options for them in Oakland. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. He issued a temporary injunction on July 19, 2022. The judge quickly sided with the homeless residents, and issued a temporary order barring the city from clearing the camp at least until the city could prove it had enough shelter beds for everyone displaced. "What I have tried to do is create a possibility of relocation in a way that is the least harmful to the people who live on Wood Street," he said at the hearing. In these situations, the Encampment Response Map will include information about the code violation case instead of details about an encampment cleanup effort. The City has implemented a number of interventions at every step in the cycle. Grappling with homelessness, California weighs extending foster care for 5 years The city says it needs to clear the camp to make way for a 170-unit affordable housing project planned for the site. The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody. While the city was working to open a safe parking area for RVs that would accommodate 29 vehicles and a "cabin community" with 31 beds, neither site was yet ready for occupancy. Fed up with homeless encampments that have taken over streets, parks and open spaces, a group of Oakland residents is suing the city. Caltrans crews remove a vehicle from the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on July 19, 2022. City staff were there to clear out residents from the northern part of the encampment, near the city-sanctioned RV safe parking site. That site reportedly contained a communal area used to organize donations and cook group meals several nights a week as well as "pop-up clinics, regular open mics, and other community town hall events.". She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay. The Rise of Homeless Encampments in Oakland As reported to Public Works The Rise of Homeless Encampments in Oakland As reported to Public Works The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project is a data visualization, counter-cartography, and digitial storytelling collective documenting dispossession and resistance upon gentrifying landscapes. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area. City and state leaders say a deadly fire that occurred in April at the site, killing one and displacing five, makes action there all the more urgent. people had to eat at charity style centers, and a sunday 'picnic in the park' feed. We got three buses. Multiple fires have erupted at the city's largest homeless encampment, which. OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 5: Maria Fuentes, who is a coordinator at the Community of Grace homeless encampment, shows their community garden across from the Home Depot on the 4000 block of . The encampment spans nearly 25 city blocks with about 300 people living under freeways in tents, RVs and makeshift shelters amid burned-out vehicles, mounds of trash and dirt. OAKLAND, CA When U.S. District Court Judge William Orrick issued a temporary restraining order on Jan. 6, 2023 forbidding the city of Oakland from closing a homeless encampment at 1707. Several non-emergency systems including phone lines within the City of Oakland are currently impacted or offline. Earlier this month, Gov. Specifically, the audit found the City lacked an effective strategy for dealing with the growth in encampments and did not provide sufficient policy direction or adequate funding at the onset of this crisis, the letter continued. Its uncertain if Caltrans has the authority to clear land it doesnt own. Ramona Choyce lost everything in a fire in March at the encampment, which has seen several blazes in the past year. Copyright 2023 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. He currently plays for his neighbors outside his shelter, where a piano, guitar and drums are set up. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group), OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: Workers remove a couch from the Wood Street homeless encampment on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Caltrans is overseeing the cleanup of its property along Wood Street. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. The Oakland police department, the Oakland city councilmember responsible for the area, and the mayor's office official running specific policy towards homeless encampments did not respond to a . She and her husband, Lenton, live in a 20-foot trailer at the Coliseum Stadium parking lot in Oakland. The Oakland City Council has . Despite the problems, Wood Street residents say they look out for each other and have formed a self-sufficient community, building homes using wood panels and doors among the abandoned railroad tracks. The city of Oakland agreed to assist residents on identifying their options. Raised eyebrows. Diesel is expensive. Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. Among its recommendations, the audit found the city should ensure staff members are trained in crisis management and interacting with traumatized encampment residents. they paid around $400 a month in public assistance and charged. Cars, RVs and debris burned Monday, sending a giant cloud of smoke into the sky, and freezing highway traffic in the vicinity. The city needs to fund a formal encampment management program to implement the policy passed in October, and to address the findings of the audit, the auditors office wrote. The report lays out 26 recommendations, all of which the city has committed to following, according to the auditors office. That case was assigned to Judge Orrick, who expressed concern about the short notice and lack of shelter options. As he drove past the intersection of 21st and E streets in Northwest Washington, a 68-year-old man peered through the window, struck by an encampment of homeless people here that grew from 10 . In July, Caltrans alerted the residents they would have five days to pack their belongings and leave. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group), OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: Community members watch as workers clear a section of the Wood Street homeless encampment near an area known as Cob on Wood on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Caltrans is overseeing the cleanup of its property along Wood Street. He issued a temporary injunction on July 19, 2022. Meanwhile, Council Member Carroll Fife, who represents the district that includes the Wood Street encampment, has directed the city administration to study creating an emergency shelter for 1,000 people on a section of the former Oakland Army Base.