report homeless encampment oakland

street outreach, homeless shelters, Caltrans removed five people living on its property between 16th and 20th streets after the deadly fire in April and is now installing concrete barriers and fencing to prevent people from returning to the area. The encampment is one of the largest in the city and has been plagued with problems such as illegal dumping and fires for years. Housing | A separate request earlier this month to halt Oakland workers from clearing parts of the encampment on land it owns was denied. Caltrans OK to Clear Oakland's Largest Homeless Encampment, Federal Officials said they do not know when construction on a community cabin site would begin. I stretched the point up until now in order to try to get to some sort of a place that recognizes the humanity of the people who've been talking to me.. But the time for finger-pointing and disclaimers of responsibility is over. City officials have been . Fire sweeps through homeless encampment near MacArthur Maze in Oakland Tuesday at 3:07 PM. Since the policy has gone into effect, two Oakland nonprofits have burned as a result of fires started in areas where the city knew there to be encampments. Oakland was overwhelmed by the crisis, leaving staff working to solve the problem without proper training or resources, according to the report. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group), OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: An officer with the California Highway Patrol marks a vehicle 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. (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. OAKLAND -- The biggest homeless encampment in Oakland will soon be shut down. Housing | Talya Husbands-Hankin, a homeless advocate who witnessed the incident, said the city was out in extreme force, resulting in more trauma for the unhoused residents.. 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. 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. Cars, RVs and debris burned Monday, sending a giant cloud of smoke into the sky, and freezing highway traffic in the vicinity. Official Website for the City of Oakland | Mayor Sheng Thao. She said shed never seen such a big escalation, referring to the tasing. This is our home.. 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. 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.". Housing | But the injunction was dissolved in phases, beginning in August of 2022, giving residents more time to find other alternatives. Housing proposal for unhoused leaves Santa Clara residents sharply divided 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 is experiencing a network outage that is affecting key services such as Oak311, permitting and business tax. Large Homeless Encampment in Oakland California. We cant go far, Clutch said. Oakland clears part of its most notorious homeless camp - The Mercury News Now is the big showdown, said Theo Cedar Jones, a resident at Wood Street for nearly two years. Related Articles Stuffed animals are seen on a couch at the Wood Street encampment on Friday, April 29, 2022 in Oakland, California. The city estimates there are at least 140 encampments scattered throughout Oakland. 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. Wood Street encampment resident Theo Cedar Jones points to a map of the area hes living near at the Wood Street encampment on April 29, 2022 in Oakland, California.on Friday. At issue is a large encampment on a city-owned piece of vacant land off Wood Street in West Oakland. City leaders have been struggling with how to deal with the massive encampment, which has exploded in size over the past seven years. Walters: Is ending Californias homelessness just a matter of money? Thursday evening, representatives from the city of Oakland submitted a plan for a phased closure of the site, beginning at its northernmost edge, where a fire on July 11 sent plumes of black smoke onto the 880 overpass. Forcing Californians into mental health treatment would get easier with proposed legislation She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay. The Commission on Homelessness provides oversight of the Oakland vacant property tax received bv the City of Oakland for homeless services, and makes recommendations to the City Council for strategies to remedy homelessness. What could reparations mean for Black residents of Alameda County? A number of residents relocated to a two-acre parcel at 1707 Wood St. owned by Oakland. The decision from Judge William Orrick comes after a month-long legal battle between residents and the transit agency, the city, and the county. 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. Oakland Workers continued Monday to clear the massive homeless encampment along Wood Street in West Oakland. Over the past seven years, Oaklands Wood Street encampment has exploded in size. The encampment is now so huge that some residents drive buses and motorcycles to get from one end to the other. In his written decision dissolving the injunction, Orrick recognized that even with the additional time and the help of the city, there were going to be people who would experience serious hardship. The fire at the Wood Street encampment is sending a plume of smoke over the San Francisco Bay and downtown Oakland. Photos by Bront Wittpenn and Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle, decried the lack of access to clean water, just awarded Oakland a $4.7 million grant. 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. Several non-emergency systems including phone lines within the City of Oakland are currently impacted or offline. 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. Contact information for four of the major Southern California sheriff's departments is: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. Diesel is expensive. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani. kept in homes through Keep Oakland Housed in Fiscal Year 19-20, moved from homelessness to permanent housing in Fiscal Year 19-20, Oakland doubled transitional housing capacity from 2018-2020, City of Oakland Opens 100-bed Cabin Shelter Program at Wood Street, Estelle Clemons, Interim Director of Human Services and, Daniel Cooper, Homelessness Administrator, The Funding will enable the Kingdom Builders Transitional Housing project to make accessibility and other improvements to the building to address the needs of some of our most vulnerable neighbors, Learn About the City's Homelessness Strategy, Joint Statement regarding Homeless Services Performance Audit, City of Oakland Receives $5.6M Homekey Award for Transitional Housing Acquisition and Rehabilitation. July 11, 2022 Updated 3:24 PM PT. that was may . Previously, she covered breaking news and crime for The Chronicle. Caltrans to clear Oakland homeless encampment near MacArthur Maze Gavin Newsoms administration just awarded Oakland a $4.7 million grant to come up with a model at Wood Street one that can be replicated in other cities. Oakland Homeless Encampments Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Because of the connection to the earlier litigation, the case was assigned to Judge Orrick who entered a TRO on January 6, 2023. In July, a large fire damaged a portion of Interstate 880. Where can we fit that? 2 arrested as CHP, Caltrans begin clearing Wood Street encampment in Plaintiffs' lawyers did not respond to an inquiry as to whether they would seek to appeal or otherwise challenge the determination. They have lacked funding, housing options and staff, he said. Audit: Oaklands $12.6 million homelessness, 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), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Bay Area weather: After thunderstorms and hail, snow could be on the way this weekend, Audit: Oaklands $12.6 million homelessness response lacked strategy, direction, 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, After nearly two-month delay, judge allows Oakland to remove large homeless camp. Jones and several residents presented their idea of a self-governed site to city staff and Fife at a meeting last summer. The streets of Oakland are already full of unhoused persons, many of whom were previously evicted from their encampments.". Its been a struggle just to stand up emergency shelters.. She joined The Chronicle in 2016 after graduating from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Last year Caltrans cleared a much larger camp between 200 and 300 people on a neighboring lot owned by the transit agency. 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. 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. Resident Ron McGowan, who lives at the site in question, said there are about 80 people there. A lawsuit alleges that Stanford-trained chemists Alexander Burckle and Elizabeth Webster nearly drowned after a dive boat left them behind in choppy water near Maui. Many people at Wood Street live in RVs, cars and other vehicles. He and the others had lived in four old buses one of which was destroyed during the move and a van. July 11, 2022 / 6:27 PM / CBS San Francisco. Clutch, a 40-year-old resident, holds his neighbors dog, Panda, near his van at Oaklands Wood Street homeless encampment. A federal judge on Friday refused to let Caltrans "wash their hands" of people living in a homeless encampment on Wood Street in Oakland by clearing them from it.