Judge puts plan to clear Wood Street homeless site on hold
The city must open more shelter beds for residents who would be displaced
A week after a federal court gave Oakland the go-ahead to clear one of its most prominent homeless encampments, the judge in the case reversed his decision Friday, allowing unhoused people to remain at the Wood Street camp until the city opens more shelter beds for the residents who will be displaced.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick had ordered on Feb. 3 that the city could move forward with disbanding the encampment after barring it from doing so in January. His latest order, however, pauses the eviction of several dozen people living on the vacant, city-owned lot in West Oakland — a move the city says is necessary so 170 units of affordable housing can be built on the site.
Encampment residents, who have built a cohesive community and help each other access clothes, sleeping bags, medicine and food, pleaded with the judge to continue protecting the camp — at least until more shelter sites are up and running.
In his most recent order, Orrick wrote that he had agreed to allow the city to clear the camp only if it could provide shelter for residents, including at a new “cabin community.” Upon learning the cabins weren't ready, he ruled the city is prohibited from moving forward until “the cabins are open and the other conditions are met.”
Oakland did not provide an exact timeline for when the cabins could start accepting residents. In a statement, Assistant City Manager LaTonda Simmons said the delay was caused by issues finalizing the contract for the cabins and “IT network challenges” the city experienced last week.
“We believe this minor delay will result in an even more supportive cabin program for the Wood Street community,” Simmons.
The camp represents the last vestiges of Oakland's largest encampment — a massive,
sprawling complex of tents, vehicles and make-shift shacks that had come to symbolize the Bay Area's homelessness crisis. Caltrans cleared the bulk of the camp — between 200 and 300 people — from a neighboring lot owned by the agency last year. Many of the people displaced by that eviction ended up on the city-owned lot.
Earlier this month, Brigitte Nicoletti with the East Bay Community Law Center, which is representing the plaintiffs in the case, accused the city of putting the “cart before the horse” by seeking approval to clear the encampment before the new tiny home cabins and other sites were open.
The cabins are set to have 30 beds to start and eventually accommodate 100 people. Another 29 parking spaces with electrical hookups and bathrooms will open on Monday in East Oakland for unhoused residents who live in RVs. In addition, the city expects to have about 100 beds available in other shelters, tiny home communities and transitional housing sites.