street outreach, homeless shelters, OAKLAND -- The biggest homeless encampment in Oakland will soon be shut down. She started her journalism career reporting on crime and breaking news for The News-Press in Southwest Florida. 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. 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 residents would have a social contract, love thy neighbor and do no harm, Jones said. The audit found the City was not adequately prepared to shoulder such a massive project and the (encampment management team) was overwhelmed by the undertaking of closing and cleaning encampments throughout Oakland, City Auditor Courtney Ruby wrote in an open letter to Mayor Libby Schaaf, the City Council and other city officials. 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. Staff Attorneys will primarily . Residents of the encampment said they know that Caltrans has long wanted to clear them out and plan to resist if the sweep happens. To reduce homelessness, we must slow its growth and keep more people in their homes. (KRON4 News) OAKLAND ( KRON) - A two-alarm fire in an Oakland homeless . Husbands-Hankin said she saw an officer tase the man and tackle him to the ground. View the list of locations and servicing schedule below. Hayward couple file lawsuit over harrowing honeymoon ocean ordeal in Hawaii. In May, Gov. Our Response Homelessness has doubled in the last 10 years. Copyright 2023 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. In the meantime, residents say they live in constant fear that they will be forced to leave with little notice. 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. That injunction was dissolved in phases, beginning in August of 2022, giving residents more time to find other alternatives. 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. Forcing Californians into mental health treatment would get easier with proposed legislation 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. Related Articles Dozens of Caltrans workers and California Highway . The city estimates there are at least 140 encampments scattered throughout Oakland. A. 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. Updated on: July 20, 2022 / 8:30 AM / CBS San Francisco. Without a "constitutional right to housing," Orrick said he had no authority to allow the encampment to remain on the property. But Oakland only has 598-city-funded, year-round shelter beds and an estimated homeless population of 4,000 as of 2019 with nearly 80% of those unsheltered. 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. 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. Caltrans has completed much smaller sweeps in the past. Housing proposal for unhoused leaves Santa Clara residents sharply divided Oakland is experiencing a network outage that is affecting key services such as Oak311, permitting and business tax. Oakland firefighters responded to 90% of the 988 encampment calls they received in less than eight minutes. 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. The homeless population has jumped by 63% since 2017 in Oakland, where the median house sales price is about $750,000. 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. Wood Street encampment resident Theo Cedar Jones plays guitar. Ramona Choyce recounts the moment when an April fire killed one person at a homeless encampment on Wood Street in Oakland. 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. On Monday morning, workers removed vehicles, furniture and other items from the encampment on Caltrans property underneath the MacArthur Maze. Neighbors tell Da Lin the looming closure is long overdue. The Oakland city auditor in April released a report that highlighted a litany of problems that plague the city's estimated 140 homeless communities, including: 1,599 interventions for "hygiene . That case was assigned to Judge Orrick, who expressed concern about the short notice and lack of shelter options. The audit found the new policy lays the groundwork for needed change, but implementation has been slow, as the city is inundated with complaints about encampments. Homelessness has doubled in the last 10 years. Jones and several residents presented their idea of a self-governed site to city staff and Fife at a meeting last summer. The conditions at the encampment which has mountains of trash and burned-out vehicles were called cruel and inhumane in a U.N. report from 2018. That order was dissolved about a month later, when the city said it was set to open a new tiny home site near the encampment, and a safe parking site in East Oakland for people living in RVs. Caltrans says it's closing Oakland's Wood Street homeless encampment because of safety concerns. What could reparations mean for Black residents of Alameda County? View the map in a new window. People living in vehicles represent 35% of Oakland's overall homeless population. City lawyers had no comment on the ruling. The spokesperson said officers were at the scene to assist the citys public works department with an intervention and closure of a small part of the encampment. Wood Street residents deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, Husbands-Hankin said. 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. 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. July 20, 2022 / 8:52 AM / CBS San Francisco OAKLAND -- A federal judge on Tuesday granted a temporary order blocking Caltrans from clearing a homeless encampment under the MacArthur Maze. At the start of 2020, the city was conducting several camp closures each monthseven in January, and nine each in February and Marchuntil COVID-19 cases began rising and the county went on lockdown. 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. He allowed Caltrans to continue removing debris from the area, as long as it didnt involve residents belongings. 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. Bay Bridge light display will go dark after a decade Sunday. The city has demonstrated it now has enough shelter beds for everyone who will be displaced by the camps closure, U.S. District Judge William Orrick ruled. The Oakland City Council voted Monday to open a co-governed homeless encampment to provide shelter for 40 people in West Oakland making it potentially the second site that residents and. A large fire broke out at the encampment on Monday,. The only way to get through involves stepping over bulky items, bbq grills, bikes, tents, and garbage. (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. This chart is updated at the end of each month. Because of the connection to the earlier litigation, the case was assigned to Judge Orrick who entered a TRO on January 6, 2023. (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 the Cob on Monday, Sept. 26, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Caltrans is overseeing the cleanup of its property along Wood Street. 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. As of last week, the city has offered shelter beds to about 70 people at the Wood Street encampment, according to the court filing. 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. Housing | Since the restraining order was issued, another 12 fires have broken out on the site, Orrick said at the hearing. Caltrans crews remove a vehicle from the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on July 19, 2022. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. A large column of black smoke rises Tuesday, April 5, 2022, from a fire at a homeless encampment next to West Grand Avenue and Wood Street in Oakland's Prescott neighborhood. When the city has scheduled sweeps of the site, residents and homeless advocates have blocked workers from entering and removing belongings. 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. The man, who was not identified, was taken into custody. The report lays out 26 recommendations, all of which the city has committed to following, according to the auditors office. The departments goal is to respond to 90% of calls within seven minutes. 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 encampment is one of the largest in the city and has been plagued with problems such as illegal dumping and fires for years. Brigitte Nicoletti, an attorney assisting residents in their pro se lawsuit, reiterated that request at the hearing on Friday. Its been a struggle just to stand up emergency shelters.. Over the past seven years, Oaklands Wood Street encampment has exploded in size. For now, it appears that camp residents will have at least another long weekend at the park before the standoff continues. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. Previously, she covered breaking news and crime for The Chronicle. Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. 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.