Oakland is moving aggressively to clear homeless encampments, including one of the city's largest
Oakland officials are clearing some of the city's most challenging homeless encampments, flush with an infusion of state funds and new homeless housing to offer displaced residents.
The city has long struggled to address sprawling, chaotic camps, including what was once the state's largest, because of a shortage of homeless shelters and affordable housing. Oakland also faced uncertainty, as other cities did, over how to legally clear encampments before a key court ruling last year.
The city last month removed camps around Lake Merritt, as well as a growing encampment at Mosswood Park. Next week, the city will begin dismantling another one of the city's largest encampments, on East 12th Street, located just east of the BART tracks between Fruitvale and the underground tunnel leading to the Lake Merritt station.
The closure of the encampments comes less than a year after the city launched a more aggressive approach to addressing homelessness. Less than two months before former Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled, she issued an executive order directing police, fire and city workers to enforce existing city policy to clear homeless encampments. While Thao's critics said her move was a political stunt to fight the recall, her order came just three months after the Grants Pass ruling from the Supreme Court that gave cities the power to sweep encampments without offering services.
The city logged 63 encampment closures in February, the most recent month for complete data, marking the highest of any month in the last four years.
The proliferation of camps throughout Oakland has long been a concern for residents. A city survey released in March determined that residents' top priorities were homelessness, safety and cleanliness, in no particular order. Oakland's homeless population, which accounts for more than half of the total across Alameda County, grew 9% from 2022 to 2024 to reach an estimated total of about 5,490 unhoused people. Oakland has a significantly higher rate of unhoused people compared with San Francisco.
Thao's order, which remains in effect, still requires the city to offer people shelter and services before closing down an encampment, but it doesn't force residents to accept the offer. The city doesn't have enough beds to meet the demand. Oakland has about 1,300 beds for unhoused people across shelters, RV parking sites, tiny cabins and other housing sites but it has 3,337 unsheltered homeless residents and about 1,400 encampments.
There are more resources on the way. Oakland officials announced last month that the city had purchased the Extended Stay America hotel in North Oakland, using $7 million in state funding, $25 million in grant money from the state's social services department, and $4.6 million in city money, to rehouse residents from three encampments. The hotel will provide temporary housing with wraparound services for up to 150 people before the site gets converted to permanent supportive housing, according to the city.
Still, homeless advocates have criticized what they view as Oakland's aggressive response to encampments — as well as condemning San Francisco and other cities across the Bay Area for sweeps.
'Since the Grants Pass Supreme Court ruling, cities including Oakland have been emboldened to increase sweeps, often with no accessible shelter being offered,' said Talya Husbands-Hankin, a homeless advocate in Oakland. 'Community members living in trailers and RVs are rarely offered any assistance and the few 'safe parking' programs are almost always full.'
Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, who is expected to take office later this month, has not said whether she will continue the current encampment sweeps and did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. During the campaign, she said that she wants to test a guaranteed income pilot for unhoused residents, work with the Veterans Administration to get homeless veterans off the street and hire unhoused people to clean the streets.
Lee also released a 10-point plan for her first 100 days in office that pushes for the city to get its fair share of money from Alameda County to tackle homelessness. Lee is referring to a voter-appointed homelessness funding measure, but it's unclear how much help Oakland might get from that money, which is controlled by the county.
Still, that funding could help address encampments like Mosswood Park, which officials closed in April, by adding shelter, housing and social services. Over the last four years, Mosswood Park was Oakland's most visited location for encampment sweeps. Residents complained about open drug use, hazardous waste, rats and other safety concerns.
A fence now stands to block off a small area of the park where the tents and makeshift shelters once stood. City officials have added 'no re-encampment' signs around the park to deter unhoused people from returning, and they're instructing neighbors to call 311 if they see any tents pop back up. Of the 41 people that Oakland officials called 'core' residents of Mosswood Park, 32 moved into the Extended Stay Americaafter the site was cleared late last month, according to city spokesperson Sean Maher.
Even bigger than Mosswood is the encampment on East 12th Street, which spans at least four city blocks and is home to just under 100 people, according to city estimates.
The site has more than a dozen makeshift pallet shelters, RVs and vehicles with other living quarters made of tarps, wood and other discarded items. The site, which has angered some neighbors who say the city needs to do more to clean it up, is also a hot spot for illegal dumping and is littered with massive piles of trash.
LeAndre Redd moved to the massive site recently after the city closed the encampment where he was living nearly a mile away.
'They took my stuff and destroyed my home,' Redd said. 'It's tough because all my stuff was gone.'
In 2022, the city attempted to close the East 12th Street encampment, but Maher said that 'outside parties created an unsafe work environment' and efforts stalled. As part of this month's closure, city officials said they're exploring the addition of new landscaping and parking restrictions to reduce the chances of re-encampment.
Outreach workers have spent the past six months preparing encampment residents for the move. All 79 of the 'core residents' of the East 12th Street encampment will be offered temporary housing at the Extended Stay America site, officials said.
But some encampment residents, including Hassan Shaghasi and Redd, said they were either never approached by the workers or told they were not identified as one of those 'core residents' who were prioritized for housing. Shaghasi said he has lived at the encampment for more than five years and is stressed about not knowing where he'll go after it's cleared.
Harold Duffey, assistant city administrator, acknowledged at a recent public meeting that not all residents at the encampment were offered a spot at the interim housing site. Duffey said the city created a list of longer-term encampment residents who had priority for housing, and that more offers of housing will be forthcoming.
Bartholomew Drawsand, 37, has been living at East 12th Street for nearly a decade after his struggles with drug addiction left him homeless. Drawsand said he'd move to the hotel if given the option, but no one from the city has offered him housing or shelter.
Some residents are more hesitant about leaving. Raquel Zavala, 51, expressed concern that the hotel stays are temporary and said she has a community at East 12th Street.
'We have established ourselves just like you have your neighborhood,' Zavala said. 'There has to be more input from the people's lives they're affecting. The person who's never been homeless gets to decide, 'what are we going to do with the homeless people.' '
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