27th Street plan:
Oakland homeless camp to be cleared, with some inhabitants moving into Tuff Sheds nearby.
A long-standing homeless encampment in Oakland will be cleared out in the coming months as the city moves a portion of the population there into a publicly owned lot outfitted with Tuff Sheds.
With an estimated 100 inhabitants, the homeless camp is one of the largest in the city, covering the sidewalks and some lanes of traffic along 27th Street, Northgate Avenue and Sycamore Street. In recent months, several people living there were hit and killed by cars exiting the nearby Highway 980. One man died in his hand-built shack in February when it caught fire.
City officials say the situation is untenable, and they are offering temporary housing in the Tuff Sheds for 40 people — two to each shed. Ten are expected to move into the so-called Northgate Community Cabins on 27th Street this week or next, officials said.
Mayor Libby Schaaf said the program was almost entirely privately financed, with funding from Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health and the
Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. Caltrans, which owns the lot, is leasing it to the city for up to two years.
“Once we have invited people into the Tuff Shed shelters, we will not allow re-encampment by new unsheltered residents,” Schaaf said Monday while touring the site. “This will become a no-camping area, and we will maintain it as a clean and clear area so that people can use the sidewalks and roads in safety.”
Joe DeVries, assistant to the city administrator, acknowledged that those who don’t initially have a spot will likely shuffle elsewhere in the city once the camps are cleared.
DeVries said more people want to move into the Tuff Sheds than space allows. The first 10 were chosen because they have lived at the encampment the longest, and the next 30 spots will go to those with the greatest needs.
Kevin Greene, 38, who’s been living on Northgate Avenue for the past 10 months, will be among the first to move into what he called the “studio cottages” — a step up from the current “box” he sleeps in. He said he will take whatever help he’s offered.
Greene said he wants to find a job working with his hands and was looking forward to the new living situation, but was concerned what would happen to a mass of bicycles and bike parts he’s collected.
He also didn’t think clearing out the encampments would help.
“They’re trying to make everybody leave,” Greene said. “That’s not going to work. All that’s gonna do is make everybody go straight down to 23rd.”
The city’s goal is to get the 40 participants into housing within six months while helping them find jobs and social services, then move additional homeless people into the sheds as others leave. Operation Dignity, a nonprofit that contracts with the city to provide meals and outreach to the homeless, will run the site.
It will be the second one in Oakland, where the homeless population has surged in the past two years. The first Tuff Shed site at Castro and Sixth streets, also managed by Operation Dignity, has moved eight of its 51 participants into housing since it opened six months ago. Fifteen of them found jobs.
The prefab storage sheds are an upgrade from the first set. The new ones have foam insulation, two sets of windows, ramps for people with disabilities, lounging chairs, plus low-voltage electricity for lamps and phone charging.
Michael Pyatok, an architect who helped build the units, said he intentionally staggered the sheds so there wouldn’t be a feel of “regimentation” in straight rows.
A curtain can be erected inside the 120square-foot shed to give each of the two inhabitants privacy. Lava Mae, the nonprofit that converted old buses into mobile hygiene units, will be at the site twice a week so residents can shower and wash their pets.
There are smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, toilets, wash stations, an area for visitors, old shipping containers for property storage and a big canopy for people to gather under. The site will also have security and a social worker.
Sobriety from alcohol and drugs is not required, so long as their use isn’t creating a hazard or harming other people, DeVries said. A code of conduct prohibits theft, weapons, violence, hoarding, smoking and other behavior.
The mayor said the clearing of the homeless camps will take time.
“It will be a slow process,” Schaaf said. “We are trying to respect people’s dignity and not just move the problem to somebody else’s neighborhood or somebody else’s sidewalk.”