Oakland, together we can meet this crisis, expand our progress, and reduce homelessness in our community. According to a report by the city administrative officer, the new East Hollywood campground costs approximately $2,663 per participant per month. The city's lawyers had no comment on the ruling. We cant go far, Clutch said. Today at 621AM OFD responded to report of an RV fire at East 12th & 17th Ave. E4 arrived and found 2 RV's & 12 . The city wants to build the state-funded community cabin site in partnership with residents and a provider who would offer wraparound services at the site. When the City decides to close an encampment, the Team makes every effort to relocate encampment dwellers to emergency shelters or community cabins. Caltrans crews remove a vehicle from the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on July 19, 2022. hese are vehicles of human beings," he said at the hearing, "and they are not to be lost. Several non-emergency systems including phone lines within the City of Oakland are currently impacted or offline. Cars, RVs and debris burned Monday, sending a giant cloud of smoke into the sky, and freezing highway traffic in the vicinity. Ruined vegetation, broken irrigation lines and damaged fencing at Lake Merritt, as well as degraded water quality in the tidal marsh, will cost the city an estimated $550,000, according to the report. In October of 2020, the Oakland City Council adopted an Encampment Management Policy to focus encampment actions on mitigating negative outcomes as they pertain to public safety, public health, and equity outcomes. Under these circumstances, the judge found that the standards for the TRO were no longer met. He found that the plaintiffs raised at least a significant question about whether the doctrine applied to them and concluded that under all the circumstances, including the weather and the ongoing "tripledemic," it was appropriate to issue the TRO, though he telegraphed that the pause on eviction would not be unlimited. Oakland is experiencing a network outage that is affecting key services such as Oak311, permitting and business tax. She joined The Chronicle in 2016 after graduating from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. The encampment is on property owned by the city, railroads and various government agencies, including Caltrans, which owns the property directly under the freeway. Its unclear if the transportation agency meant the entire Wood Street encampment or only the part located on land it owns. Oakland Unveils 100-Person Tiny-Home Village at Troubled Wood Street Encampment What was once northern California's largest homeless encampment at Wood Street in Oakland now has a. I really love this life here.. Its uncertain if Caltrans has the authority to clear land it doesnt own. Caltrans says it's closing Oakland's Wood Street homeless encampment because of safety concerns. 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 . 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. In July, a large fire damaged a portion of Interstate 880. (KRON4 News) OAKLAND ( KRON) - A two-alarm fire in an Oakland homeless . Our Response Homelessness has doubled in the last 10 years. The only way to get through involves stepping over bulky items, bbq grills, bikes, tents, and garbage. Orange County Sheriff's Department. 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. While the city did open a RV safe parking site for 40 vehicles at Wood Street last summer, its struggled to house more residents. The action will set in motion the eviction of several dozen people living on a vacant, city-owned lot off Wood Street in West Oakland . 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. Under state law, working with homeless individuals to identify housing or shelter alternatives is a local, not a state, responsibility.. She started her journalism career reporting on crime and breaking news for The News-Press in Southwest Florida. The Administration is grateful that the City Council unanimously approved a comprehensive, citywide Encampment Management Policy last October, and are now beginning to identify the necessary resources to support this important work with an understanding that even more is necessary, Reiskin wrote in an emailed statement. City lawyers had no comment on the ruling. That case was assigned to Judge Orrick, who expressed concern about the short notice and lack of shelter options. Members of the cleanup crew rolled tires and lifted couches overhead as larger equipment moved car after car, some just burned-out shells, off the state-owned lot. Review and respond annually to the Citys Homeless Encampment Policy and the Permanent Access to Housing Path Plan which shall be presented to the Commission, as well as hear reports on the housing, programs, and services for persons experiencing homelessness in the City including, but not limited to. Raised eyebrows. the city has scheduled sweeps of the site, cleared the parts of the encampment on its property. The choice: Leave, or hunker down. "I realize that there are alternatives that public policy could be generating that would work better for homelessness than what has happened in the past. How long has the homeless encampment been there? Over the years, advocates have thwarted city attempts to close the encampment, demanding that the city offer residents adequate shelter or to leave them be. The majority of the $12.6 million spent over the past two years went to staff and equipment associated with closing and cleaning encampments, as well as providing garbage services, portable toilets and water at camps. 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. We are hard at work implementing that policy amidst a historic budget shortfall, staffing shortages, and an ongoing pandemic that has limited the shelter options available to the residents of our encampments, the statement continued. 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. Now, both new shelter sites appear to be up and running, and the judge has once again changed course. Fife said the site which could offer pallet shelters, a community kitchen, bathrooms and wraparound services could house many of Wood Streets residents. The Commission shall review relevant financial and operational reports related to the expenditure of the homeless services fund. Cold Bay Area rains fail to shut down vibrant Holi celebration in Fremont. In these situations, the Encampment Response Map will include information about the code violation case instead of details about an encampment cleanup effort. OAKLAND - Fire swept through a homeless encampment near the MacArthur Maze highway interchange in West Oakland on Monday morning. Neighbors tell Da Lin the looming closure is long overdue. We got three buses. Homeless Encampment at Lake Merritt Blvd Oakland, CA, 94607, USA: Hi, both sidewalks on either side of the channel going from Lake Merritt to the Bay are entirely blocked by homeless encampments. Several non-emergency systems including phone lines within the City of Oakland are currently impacted or offline. Repairing damage to lighting at Union Point Park is expected to cost another $500,000, not including additional repairs that must be done to bathrooms, landscaping, benches and other amenities. We are ready to scale up for reductions in homelessness, though new state and federal funds and more intergovernmental coordination are needed. Residents of the encampment said they know that Caltrans has long wanted to clear them out and plan to resist if the sweep happens. The plaintiffs have raised serious questions that the state will violate their constitutional rights, Orrick wrote in his July order, by placing them in increased danger when it removes them at short notice from the encampment without adequate plans to provide shelter.. Diesel is expensive. Reporting an Issue If you or someone you know is hungry, homeless, or housing insecure - Call 2-1-1. They asked for resources to make the encampment safer, including access to dumpsters for trash removal, fire extinguishers, sand buckets, water hoses and assistance creating markers throughout the encampment so that emergency service providers could more easily navigate the area. Yes, that's a toucan flying around Walnut Creek. December 24, 2022, 9:57 AM SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge has temporarily banned San Francisco from clearing homeless encampments, saying the city violated its own policies by failing to offer other shelter. The man was bleeding and was very confused asking police what he had done wrong. To report an issue related to an encampment, please email Homelessness@oaklandca.gov. Stuffed animals are seen on a couch at the Wood Street encampment on Friday, April 29, 2022 in Oakland, California. 6 of 23 7 of 23. (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. The plaintiffs and all living at the Wood Street encampment must make immediate plans to move.". She graduated from American University with a BA degree in literature with a minor in journalism. Its absurd to think that we've gotten this far through this process and we have not had anybody take a survey of who is actually affected by this, McGowan said at the hearing. The Encampment Management Team is responsible for implementing the Encampment Management Policy and directing coordination across city departments. 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 the meantime, residents say they live in constant fear that they will be forced to leave with little notice. To reduce homelessness, we must slow its growth and keep more people in their homes. On Monday, six weeks later, he proved his suspicions correct and dissolved the TRO, authorizing the city to clear the site and begin to ready the property for an affordable housing development. March 23, 2021 6:54 PM PT. I do not look forward to being kicked out. 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. Oakland was overwhelmed by the crisis, leaving staff working to solve the problem without proper training or resources, according to the report. Oakland is experiencing a network outage that is affecting key services such as Oak311, permitting and business tax. He said, "This TRO is not a long-term prohibition on Oakland's actions but rather a stopgap to prevent violation of constitutional rights that are likely to result from the combination of the state-of-emergency weather situation and the failure to provide alternative shelter.". Our housed and unhoused residents are counting on us to make this right, Ruby wrote. Some people keep watch out for fires or other dangers. Marisa Kendall is a housing reporter for the Bay Area News Group who covers homelessness for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. Local News | The encampment is one of the largest in the city and has been plagued with problems such as illegal dumping and fires for years. But that's only a fraction of the more than 5,000 encampments on . Report the issue to our encampment management team at homelessness@oaklandca.gov. The Oakland City Council unanimously passed a new homeless encampment policy Tuesday, more than 10 hours into a meeting where dozens of members of the public spoke passionately about the proposal and protesters rallied outside two councilmembers' homes. A surprise sweep of a newly formed homeless encampment on state property has forced some unhoused West Oakland residents to move - yet again. At issue is a large encampment on a city-owned piece of vacant land off Wood Street in West Oakland. Thank you for your patience while we work to restore services. Russell Wilson asked for Pete Carroll, Seahawks GM to be fired; QB denies report. Caltrans said it would shut down the entire encampment, clearing out about 200 people who live there. View the map in a new window. Newsom paid a surprise visit to the encampment in April to show the inhumane living conditions too many Californians face.. She said some weeks she only had 25 open shelter beds out of nearly 600 in the system. What Happens Next Officers from your local police precinct will respond within 4 hours. Multiple. Walters: Is ending Californias homelessness just a matter of money? The city did not immediately return a request for comment. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group). The result is a shuffling with no long-term strategy on how to get people into more permanent, supportive housing. But Orrick told the agencies to work it out. $400 rent for the low income housing they made. Sign up for our daily newsletter. The city says it needs to clear the camp to make way for a 170-unit affordable housing project planned for the site. 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. Resident Ron McGowan, who lives at the site in question, said there are about 80 people there. Designate high-sensitivity areas, where unmanaged encampments are presumed to cause unreasonably high levels of health and safety impacts due to the nature of the location; Designate low-sensitivity areas, where enforcement will not be prioritized. Oakland Workers continued Monday to clear the massive homeless encampment along Wood Street in West Oakland. We appreciate your patience; the homelessness@oaklandca.gov service has been restored. A federal judge on Monday ruled the city can resume efforts to remove dozens of people from a large homeless camp in West Oakland, ending a nearly two-month courtroom battle over the camps fate. All Access Digital offer for just 99 cents! The encampment is one of the. Walters: Is ending Californias homelessness just a matter of money? But if it fails to get people into real shelter and housing, it could be a cautionary tale for officials throughout California struggling with mushrooming encampments. 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. Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. City leaders say the encampment which spans property owned by the city, railroads and various government agencies is a crisis, but officials havent cleared it, arguing they dont have enough shelter beds for everyone. ", previously halted Caltrans plans to clear the camp. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) (Beth LaBerge/KQED) Caltrans workers clear a barricade made by Wood Street residents meant to keep Caltrans out of the encampment in Oakland on Sept. 8, 2022. Oakland residents told a polling firm in 2023 that homelessness, such as at the Wood Street encampment, is their top concern for the city to address in its coming budget. Ramona Choyce recounts the moment when an April fire killed one person at a homeless encampment on Wood Street in Oakland, Calif. on Monday, May 3, 2022. Tuesday at 3:07 PM. Its been a struggle just to stand up emergency shelters.. Marisa Kendall is a housing reporter for the Bay Area News Group who covers homelessness for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. Nobody who lived in the homeless camp on Wood Street in Oakland was surprised when police cars and helmeted motorcycle officers started driving up and down the block early on a Tuesday. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. Oakland. Oakland has responded to the crisis level surge in homelessness with emergency measures like community cabins. February 22, 2023. If you would like to report new concern, please use the TacomaFIRST 311 online system or call 3-1-1 within city limits or (253) 591-5000 outside the city. Now, they live on city property along Wood Streets right-of-way. News Feb 07, 2023 Staff Attorneys will primarily . Alameda Hot Spot Makes Best Sandwich List, Health Emergency Ends, COVID Vigilance Does Not, American Tulip Day & Free, U-Pick-Tulips 2023: Union Square, San Francisco, St. Patrick's Day Pub Crawl: LepraCon San Francisco, Before & After Photos Show CA's Snowpack, Reservoirs After Storms, Best Bay Area Sandwiches + Stranded Hiker Rescued: Saturday Smiles, Sprawling Estates, Suburban Dreams: 11 Featured Bay Area Homes, The Poop On Free-Range Cats And Your Lawn And Garden [Block Talk], Monarch Butterflies: Our Fluttery Friends Are Wintering In The Area, Visit CA's National Parks For Free On 5 Fee-Free Days In 2023, Alameda County Gardening: November Checklist, Growing Spinach In Containers: Alameda County Gardening, What To Do In Alameda County Gardens In October. Ramona Choyce lost everything in a fire in March at the encampment, which has seen several blazes in the past year. Earlier this month, Gov. But the money is insufficient to help all the camps residents. Credit: Darwin BondGraham. They come in out of nowhere, said Ben Murawski, another Wood Street resident, lamenting how agency employees destroy our homes.. Grappling with homelessness, California weighs extending foster care for 5 years The order is the latest in a long-running dispute over a homeless camp, who expressed concern about the short notice and lack of shelter options, Activist Judy Heumann led a reimagining of what it means to be disabled, How this year's Selma Bridge Crossing could mark a community renaissance, Storms across the U.S. cause deaths and power outages, Russia's foreign minister gets laughed at over Ukraine remarks at a global conference. In July, Caltrans alerted the residents they would have five days to pack their belongings and leave. Caltrans spokesperson Rocquel Johnson said the agency plans to eventually completely close the parts of the encampment that are under freeway overpasses and work to relocate people to safer conditions.. He concluded his decision with "I recognize that no party is happy with this order. 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. Pushing people with no real and adequate shelter to accommodate them is inhumane and does not solve the larger problem.. The encampment is one of the largest in the city and has been plagued with problems such as illegal dumping and fires for years. If you or someone you know is hungry, homeless, or housing insecure - Call 2-1-1. Residents say the camp is a place where they can live how they want after losing stable homes because of evictions or job losses. The departments goal is to respond to 90% of calls within seven minutes. 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. The department is taking this action to address the increasingly serious safety risks to life, property and infrastructure at the encampment, including from the fire this week that prompted the closure of the MacArthur Maze, Caltrans said in a statement. 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. By City News Service on . Call Taker: Is the homeless encampment within 500 feet of a waterway (creek, lake or bay)? You will be asked to sign off on an arrest warrant. Attorneys for Caltrans said the encampment posed a serious health and safety risk, citing some 200 fires at the Wood Street encampment over the past two years.