On Monday morning, workers removed vehicles, furniture and other items from the encampment on Caltrans property underneath the MacArthur Maze. Residents of the encampment said they know that Caltrans has long wanted to clear them out and plan to resist if the sweep happens. As of last week, the city has offered shelter beds to about 70 people at the Wood Street encampment, according to the court filing. 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. 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. Without a "constitutional right to housing," Orrick said he had no authority to allow the encampment to remain on the property. Photos: State clears Wood Street homeless camp,, 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, Photos: State clears Wood Street homeless camp, Oaklands largest, 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. In an attempt to fend off the impending closure of the Commons, residents sued the city in early January. LAPD union supports unarmed responders to certain 911 calls including homeless encampment clean-ups 0. And, he ordered the state transportation agency to work with staff from the city of Oakland and from Alameda County to come up with a plan to relocate residents. 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. The EMT is facilitated by the City Administrator's Office via the Homelessness Administrator and receives input and advice from the Commission on Homelessness. Oakland's biggest homeless encampment could massively shrink with 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. To learn more about how we use your information, please read our privacy policy. Today at 621AM OFD responded to report of an RV fire at East 12th & 17th Ave. E4 arrived and found 2 RV's & 12 . View the list of locations and servicing schedule below. they paid around $400 a month in public assistance and charged. (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. To report an issue related to an encampment, please email Homelessness@oaklandca.gov. Housing proposal for unhoused leaves Santa Clara residents sharply divided Instead of clearing homeless camps, Oakland is spiffing them up - SFGATE The plaintiffs asked that the eviction be enjoined because of a lack of shelter beds, heavy winter rains, and the continued prevalence of Covid and other viruses. Caltrans has cleared the parts of the encampment on its property three times in the past year and says it will continue to do so if safety concerns, such as fires, continue. Officials said they do not know when construction on a community cabin site would begin. We got three buses. Under state law, working with homeless individuals to identify housing or shelter alternatives is a local, not a state, responsibility.. Skinny lives at 37MLK, the homeless encampment in Oakland, California, that was created by community organizers taking over a vacant lot. February 22, 2023. 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. Gov. Newsom blasts Oakland leaders for not handling rampant homeless The number of people sleeping on Oaklands streets jumped from 1,902 in 2017 to 3,210 in 2019, according to the most recent point-in-time counts. 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. But those are things that are beyond what can be ordered in this case.". News Feb 07, 2023 Oakland. Jones and several residents presented their idea of a self-governed site to city staff and Fife at a meeting last summer. In May, city officials put the total number of residents in the encampment at 300 people. That speaks to the demand and the concentration of homelessness, she added. 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. Caltrans crews remove a vehicle from the Wood Street encampment in West Oakland on July 19, 2022. Walters: Is ending Californias homelessness just a matter of money? Housing | City of Oakland | Encampment Management Warriors treating Andrew Wiggins with understandable patience, but his Gov. 2 arrested as CHP, Caltrans begin clearing Wood Street encampment in The Team provides sanitation services and regular trash pick up. OAKLAND -- About 80 unhoused residents and their property were being cleared from Caltrans property along Wood Street in Oakland on Thursday following a federal judge's ruling that the state. Local News | Housing | 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. The encampment is one of the largest in the city and has been plagued with problems such as illegal dumping and fires for years. 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. To reduce homelessness, we must slow its growth and keep more people in their homes. The homelessness crisis also has taken a toll on Oakland's public parks, according to the audit. She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay. (KRON4 News) OAKLAND ( KRON) - A two-alarm fire in an Oakland homeless . Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. Caltrans announced it is closing the entire Wood Street . She started her journalism career reporting on crime and breaking news for The News-Press in Southwest Florida. 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? Gov. One dead, five displaced in West Oakland encampment blaze - East Bay Times 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. 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. On Tuesday, homeless people in Echo Park were faced with a decision as an imminent city closure drew near. (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. A. Sep 2022 Q. Oakland Homeless Encampments Anti-Eviction Mapping Project Residents say the camp is a place where they can live how they want after losing stable homes because of evictions or job losses. "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. Homeless Encampment Protocol & Reporting Tool She started her journalism career reporting on crime and breaking news for The News-Press in Southwest Florida. 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.". 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. $400 rent for the low income housing they made. A burned-out van amid charred rubble of where Ramon Choyce once lived at a homeless encampment on Wood Street in Oakland. Because of the connection to the earlier litigation, the case was assigned to Judge Orrick who entered a TRO on January 6, 2023. Thank you for your patience while we work to restore services. She graduated from American University with a BA degree in literature with a minor in journalism. Last year Caltrans cleared a much larger camp between 200 and 300 people on a neighboring lot owned by the transit agency. We appreciate your patience; the homelessness@oaklandca.gov service has been restored. That case was assigned to Judge Orrick, who expressed concern about the short notice and lack of shelter options. Caltrans to close troubled homeless encampment in West Oakland Fed up with homeless encampments that have taken over streets, parks and open spaces, a group of Oakland residents is suing the city. Theo Cedar Jones, a resident at Wood Street for nearly two years who lives in a makeshift shelter, said he doesnt like the citys community cabin model and wouldnt use it. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area. "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. We cant go far, Clutch said. 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 . Judge will allow Oakland to clear dozens from massive homeless camp What Happens Next Officers from your local police precinct will respond within 4 hours. He issued a temporary injunction on July 19, 2022. 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.". The encampment is one of the largest in the city and has been plagued with problems such as illegal dumping and fires for years. July 11, 2022 / 6:27 PM / CBS San Francisco. Local News | But the injunction was dissolved in phases, beginning in August of 2022, giving residents more time to find other alternatives. 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. Homeless Encampment - Issue #13733349 - Civic Center, Oakland, CA In the six weeks following the TRO, the city advanced the RV park and cabin community projects to a point where it represented to the judge that it would be able to "hold" enough spots to accommodate all the 1707 Wood Street residents who wanted to be sheltered. 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. OaklandWorkers continued Monday to clear the massive homeless encampment along Wood Street in West Oakland. Aric Crabb has been a staff photographer at the Bay Area News Group since 1998. 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. The Encampment Management Team is responsible for implementing the Encampment Management Policy and directing coordination across city departments. Get Morning Report and other email newsletters. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group). (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group), OAKLAND, CA - SEPTEMBER 26: Workers remove debris 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. 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. Caltrans reports it's on pace to close 1,200 encampments in this fiscal year up nearly 500% from the 269 cleared last year. 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Newly formed Oakland homeless encampment on Caltrans property cleared Encampment Management is necessary to address the emergency needs of our unhoused residents, and serves as one part of the Citys overall response to prevent, stabilize and house our community. Dozens of Caltrans workers and California Highway . Housing | We're not homeless. Among its recommendations, the audit found the city should ensure staff members are trained in crisis management and interacting with traumatized encampment residents. Hayward couple file lawsuit over harrowing honeymoon ocean ordeal in Hawaii. He issued a temporary injunction on July 19, 2022. Several non-emergency systems including phone lines within the City of Oakland are currently impacted or offline. The expert behind the report compared it to the poorest places in the world, decried the lack of access to clean water and toilets, and said the rodent infestations, fire dangers and other hazards should be quickly addressed. Two blocks from the Federal Reserve, a growing encampment of the In these situations, the Encampment Response Map will include information about the code violation case instead of details about an encampment cleanup effort. In the meantime, residents at Wood Street say few officials have come to consult with them on relocation plans. 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. 211 West Temple Street. (Beth LaBerge/KQED) 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. City of Oakland Opens 100-bed Cabin Shelter Program at Wood Street, Estelle Clemons, Interim Director of Human Services and, Daniel Cooper, Homelessness Administrator, Court order would allow phased clean-up and closure operation to resume to abate potentially hazardous conditions that threaten public health and safety, Completed Encampment Management Operations, FACT SHEET: Wood Street Update - October 2022, FACT SHEET: Wood Street Encampment - July 2022, HOJA INFORMATIVA: Intervenciones para la gestin del campamento de Wood Street, FACT SHEET: East 12th Street Median Encampment - October 2022, Completed Encampment Management Team Operations Since 2021, Joint Statement regarding Homeless Services Performance Audit, Federal Judge Indicates Approval of City of Oaklands Thoughtful Outreach and Services Plan in Support of Caltrans Encampment Closure Operation on Wood Street. The Encampment Management Policy seeks to address the adverse health and safety impacts of unsheltered homelessness, with compassion and care to not criminalize poverty. Its unclear if the transportation agency meant the entire Wood Street encampment or only the part located on land it owns. Housing | That's higher than what a typical . The transportation agency said in a release they will begin shutting down the entire encampment in phases beginning July 20 and will work with city officials and the county to place people in alternate shelter. Report the issue to our encampment management team at homelessness@oaklandca.gov. People are seen in a homeless encampment on Thursday, March 19, 2020, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) SAN FRANCISCO (CN) A temporary restraining order put in place last month to protect the unhoused residents of an encampment the city of Oakland had hoped to clear to make way for new affordable housing has been dissolved. that was may . The audit also found the city needs to collect better data on encampments, increase outreach to unhoused people, provide better notice to camp residents before a camp will be closed, improve its efforts to collect and preserve residents belongings when a camp is closed, and create a comprehensive policy on transporting displaced camp residents. Since the restraining order was issued, another 12 fires have broken out on the site, Orrick said at the hearing. As in the earlier case, the plaintiffs argued, among other things, that the eviction would amount to an unconstitutional state-created danger. Lawsuit demands Oakland crack down on homeless camps - The Mercury News 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 .