Oakland’s homelessness plan sharply criticized

New report lays bare the failings of the city’s $12.6 million effort to handle growing crisis

Oakland’s $12.6 million effort to deal with its recent explosion of homeless encampments was haphazard, lacking strategy, policy direction and adequate funding, according to a scathing new city audit.

The city spent $12.6 million over the past two fiscal years, mostly unbudgeted, to manage the camps that have spread across city streets, sidewalks, parks and open spaces, according to a report released Wednesday by the city auditor. Oakland was overwhelmed by the crisis, leaving staffers working to solve the problem without proper training or resources, according to the report.

“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.

The number of people sleeping on Oakland’s streets jumped from 1,902 in 2017 to 3,210 in 2019, according to the most recent point-in-time counts.

City Administrator Ed Reiskin said city employees have “worked hard to compassionately manage the surge in encampments,” while acknowledging they haven’t always had clear policy direction or sufficient resources. They have lacked funding, housing options and staff, he said.

“The administration is grateful that the City Council unanimously approved a comprehen

sive, 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.

“We are hard at work implementing that policy amidst a historic budget shortfall, staffing shortages and an ongoing pandemic that has limited the shelter options available to the residents of our encampments,” the statement continued

The report lays out 26 recommendations, all of which the city has committed to following, according to the auditor’s office.

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. Staffers closed and cleaned about 500 encampments during fiscal 2019 and 2020 — including camps that were closed once, repopulated and then were closed again.

The city also spent money on contracts, legal costs, towing abandoned cars, and police and fire responses to encampment emergencies.

Because the city had not budgeted for those expenses, staffers 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 city estimates there are at least 140 encampments scattered throughout Oakland. To address the growing problem, the city in 2017 established its interdepartmental Encampment Management Team to respond to various issues at homeless camps. But the city didn’t give the team the resources it needed — including a budget, according to the audit.

In October, the City Council approved an Encampment

Management Policy, which prioritizes the removal of camps near homes, businesses, schools and other areas, and lays out health and safety rules encampments must follow.

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. 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.

The city needs to fund a formal encampment management program to implement the policy passed in October, and to address the findings of the audit, the auditor’s office wrote. Among its recommendations, the audit found the city should ensure staff members are trained in crisis management and interacting with traumatized encampment residents.

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.

“Our housed and unhoused residents are counting on us to make this right,” Ruby wrote. “It is both a humanitarian duty and a civic expectation that our homeless become housed, and our City streets and parks are returned to their intended public uses.”

The audit also analyzed the city’s ability to respond when its unhoused communities need help. Oakland police took an average of four to six hours to respond to emergency calls in encampments during the last two fiscal years, according to the audit. Ideally, the auditor’s office wrote, those calls should have been responded to in 10 to 15 minutes. Last year, 19 murders — 18% of the city’s total for the year — occurred in encampments, according to the report.

Oakland firefighters responded to 90% of the 988 encampment calls they received in less than eight minutes. The department’s goal is to respond to 90% of calls within seven minutes.

The homelessness crisis also has taken a toll on Oakland’s public parks, according to the audit. 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. Repairing damage to lighting at Union Point Park is expected to cost another $500,000, not including additional repairs that must be done to bathrooms, landscaping, benches and other amenities.

The audit also analyzed the city’s ability to respond when its unhoused communities need help. Oakland police took an average of four to six hours to respond to emergency calls in encampments during the past two fiscal years, according to the audit. Ideally, the auditor’s office wrote, those calls should have been responded to in 10 to 15 minutes.