Oakland to close part of street where people live in their RVs
Oakland City Council voted early Wednesday to close a section of street behind Home Depot in Fruitvale after the hardware chain store complained that homeless people parking recreational vehicles there had made employees feel unsafe.
The resolution, introduced by Councilman Noel Gallo, closes the street behind the store, at 4000 Alameda Ave., from the 600 block to the 700 block of 37th Avenue. The closure would last at least 18 months.
It was passed unanimously by a 60 vote just before 1 a.m. Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney and Vice Mayor Larry Reid were excused.
“We are working to make sure we have access in and out (of the street), but also make sure we protect Home Depot’s goods that are all being stored in the back,” Gallo said at the meeting. “There are some serious safety issues.”
Next week, the city will meet with Home Depot, other businesses and a resident who lives in the area to discuss a plan to fence off the street, said Joe DeVries, an assistant to the city administrator.
“Home Depot has agreed to bear the cost of the installation of the fence,” DeVries said.
Margaret Smith, a spokeswoman for Home Depot, said
the hardware chain is going to replace an existing fence that is in need of repair.
The portion of 37th Avenue that will be shut down — a deadend street that intersects with East Eighth Street — has been used by several RV dwellers who park there intermittently. Between the RVs, large pieces of cardboard are set up in a makeshift home with piles of plastic storage boxes, nearly a dozen bicycles and trash. Knocks on the doors of the RVs by a Chronicle reporter Wednesday morning went unanswered. A generator hummed quietly outside one of the vehicles.
“They are mobile, so we are not looking at this as a homeless encampment intervention,” DeVries said at the meeting. “It’s not an area where you have tents and built structures.”
In the past year, the city’s Public Works Department has responded to 18 reports of illegal dumping on the section of street that’s set to be closed, DeVries said.
The resolution was applauded by Home Depot officials at the meeting.
“We have about 240 associates that reside in that area,” said Adriana MartinsGregus. “We definitely support this closure just for the safety of our associates. We have a lot of associates that work in the back.”
Gallo said the resolution is about jobs.
“This is an economic development action,” Gallo told The Chronicle. “It’s about Oakland creating jobs to be able to hire people so they can afford to pay their rent and pay to live in Oakland. We need to grow Oakland. The more jobs that I create the less people we will have in the streets.”
A larger homeless encampment with RVs and tents is located at the front of Home Depot. The street closure doesn’t affect that encampment, but the city said it’s working on finding alternative solutions.
Authorities responded seven times to calls on the street in 2018, including for stolen vehicles, assault and burglary, according to a report submitted to the City Council by the Oakland Police Department. So far this year, authorities have responded to eight reports of crime, including three incidents of theft and four incidents of stolen vehicles.
On May 6, a person brandished a firearm at two Home Depot employees, police said. After the incident, Francisco J. Uribe, Home Depot’s government relations coordinator, sent an email to Gallo expressing an “urgent need” to restrict access to 37th Avenue.
DeVries said the city will post a notice near the street that designates the area as a “towaway zone” and will give people “ample time” to leave. Then the city’s Public Works Department will come in and clean up the street.
The city will post a towaway notice in about two weeks and give the RV dwellers about a week to leave voluntarily, DeVries said.
Council President Rebecca Kaplan urged DeVries to refrain from towing any RV dwellers to a tow yard and instead recommended that the city help them relocate.
“That’s already our policy,” DeVries said at the meeting. “To make every effort to not tow vehicles that people actually live in.”