BERKELEY — Long perceived as a haven for the Bay Area’s downtrodden, Berkeley is now caught in a battle over its identity as officials attempt to balance the needs of its unhoused residents with those of a struggling business community.
Tents, tarps, wood pallets, RVs and other materials form makeshift shelters along blocks of West Berkeley, most notably its Harrison Street corridor and the area of Second and Cedar streets.
Alice Barbee, 53, a former resident of the Harrison Street camp who now lives in an apartment in Oakland, said those who still reside there make up a close-knit community.
“They’re my family,” Barbee said.
But while concerned parents and business owners shared sympathy for encampment residents during a City Council meeting last week, they implored city officials to take stronger measures to abate the issue.
Heeding those calls, the City Council approved a policy last Tuesday that commits to offering housing “whenever practicable,” but permits staff to clear encampments without providing shelter if city officials determine the site poses a fire hazard, imminent health hazard or public nuisance, or is in dangerous proximity to traffic, construction zones or utility work.
“We will offer shelter when feasible, and that’s not just empty rhetoric,” said Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, who brought forward the proposal during Tuesday’s meeting. “We are striving to have a balanced, reasonable approach so that people can walk down the sidewalk, they can go to their place of business and not be worried about the fire risk. We want our public spaces to be safe for everybody.”
Discussion on the policy proposal came the same day attorneys for several Berkeley businesses announced they’d be filing a lawsuit against the city, demanding officials take a stronger approach to addressing encampments in their neighborhoods.
The owners of Fieldwork Brewing, Covenant Winery, Boichik Bagels, Acme Scenery Company and Aarvaks Heating and Air Conditioning are among the businesses represented by the Sacramento law firm Gavrilov and Brooks and Arizona-based firm Tully Bailey LLP. In legal documents filed with the Alameda County Superior Court this week, the businesses detail a growing struggle to remain afloat amid worsening encampment conditions, from syringes and trash being strewn about the street to alleged harassment of customers and employees.
“Berkeley has shelter to offer. It has even offered members of the encampment non-congregate shelter, which is the gold standard. And these offers are still refused,” Illan Wurman, an attorney with Gavrilov and Brooks, said. “As such, the city always had the authority to remove the encampments. Its vote earlier this week is a good sign, but the city has made many promises before. We will be very glad if they finally make good on them.”
Deputy City Manager Peter Radu, who oversees neighborhood services including the encampment response team, said during Tuesday’s meeting that the number of shelter beds available fluctuates day to day. As of Tuesday, there were 15 congregate beds and five non-congregate beds available in the city, he said. According to a count earlier this year, Berkeley had 844 people either living on the streets or in vehicles.
Still, Radu noted multiple attempts to provide shelter and other forms of assistance have been denied. Of the 700 offers for shelter made in the past three years, only 44% have been accepted, Radu said. That number jumps to 88% when the offer for non-congregate shelter is included, he added.
The reasons why someone may deny shelter varies, but is often due to resistance to curfews and annual inspections, limitations around guests and other rules one Harrison Street encampment resident, 44-year-old Erin Spencer, said he “wouldn’t even place on a teenager.”
While the council’s decision may be welcomed by some, advocates for the unsheltered were outraged at Kesarwani and her proposal during Tuesday’s meeting, accusing the councilmember and city officials more broadly of using a “far-right” tactic permitted by a Supreme Court packed by former President Donald Trump. Following that ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order threatening to withhold state funding from jurisdictions that failed to adequately act to address homelessness.
Medical, affordable housing and mental health professionals said sweeps will make their jobs more difficult by scattering their clients and potentially causing them to lose prescriptions or fall behind on treatments. Berkeley residents with first-hand experience being homeless said sweeps will further traumatize a group of people already grappling with a variety of physical and emotional hardships.
Rather than clear encampments, advocates called on the city to instead direct recourses toward assistance with clearing trash, access to bathrooms, and other housing and medical programming.
“The Berkeley Homeless Union urges the city to work with us. We propose an alternative path forward, one that prioritizes care, dignity and meaningful support,” Gordan Gilmore with the Berkeley Homeless Union said.
Councilmember Sophie Hahn proposed a more limited measure, directing staff to enforce existing city codes — including limits on how and where people store their items in public spaces — while a more refined version of Kesarwani’s proposal can be prepared and reviewed.
That alternative plan failed to gain enough support from the council after Radu said staff has “been desperately trying to enforce” municipal codes at the encampments for years, but have failed to see results. Of the 120 encampment interventions performed over the past three years, Radu said 43% have been at the Harrison Street and 2nd Street corridors.
Hahn ultimately joined six of her colleagues in approving Kesarwani’s proposal, with Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra acting as the lone vote against the policy change. While Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Councilmember Ben Bartlett said they did not support “criminalizing homelessness,” Arreguin said the policy change was not that and he and Bartlett cast a vote in favor of the measure.
Lunaparra came out the hardest against the proposal. She drew attention to the lack of input from experts before the proposal was made public, the marginalized communities who will be most impacted by sweeps, the shortage of affordable housing and temporary housing that currently exists to shelter residents and the potential for unsheltered residents to be criminalized and hit with fines they can’t afford to pay.
“I don’t doubt that my colleagues genuinely want the best for our neighbors and our friends and our community members, but this approach either reflects a profound misunderstanding of the lived experiences of unhoused residents or, at worst, a willful disregard for them,” Lunaparra said.
The day after the council’s vote, Spencer and Barbee were trying to help others in nearby encampments prepare for potential sweeps.
“I’m very worried,” Barbee said, growing emotional. “This is ever present in my mind.”
