East Bay homeless camp routed, dogs shot

More than a dozen Alameda County sheriff ’s deputies descended on a wooded patch of land in Castro Valley Thursday afternoon, shooting two dogs and arresting four people at a 60person homeless encampment.

The site was just steps away from where, on Tuesday, the same deputies cleared out an encampment of the same homeless people, officials said.

About 1 p.m. Thursday, two deputies on foot patrol at the new homeless camp near Interstate 580 and East Castro Valley Boulevard came across two dogs; the dogs tried to attack one of the deputies, sheriff ’s officials said in a statement. The deputy fired at both of the dogs, killing one and wounding the other.

Several other deputies arrived after the shots were fired. One person at the encampment was arrested for possessing a “large quantity of methamphetamine,” sheriff ’s officials said, and three others were also arrested on drug offenses.

Sheriff ’s Office Sgt. Ray Kelly said the incident occurred after the county had swept out the first encampment. He said the county partnered with advocacy groups to provide resources and housing to encampment residents prior to their Tuesday removal, but few accepted the offer.

“Where it works it works,” Kelly said of efforts to help people off the street. “Where it doesn’t, we’re forced to do enforcement and arrest people.”

The new encampment was across the street and down the corridor from the first, Kelly said.

The Chronicle was unable to reach officials from Abode Services, an advocacy group that was working with the county to provide housing for the camp’s members.

Tuesday’s evictions came after several complaints from the community, Kelly said. The site has been tied to various crimes and qualityoflife offenses including theft, vandalism and drug use, he said.

Cost estimates for cleaning up the litter and human waste are upwards of $500,000, Kelly said.

“They’re tired of the mess, the blight, the environmental damage,” Kelly said of residents in the area. “They’re asking that we do (camp removals) compassionately, but they’re asking that we also enforce the laws.”

City and other government officials recently conducted similar sweeps at encampments in Berkeley and Oakland. The operations come amid a 43% surge in the Alameda County’s homeless population over the past two years, from 5,629 people in 2017 to 8,022 in 2019.

The countywide crackdown on large encampments has sparked a debate about when officials should intervene. Homeless advocates in Berkeley and Oakland have argued that homeless people who are removed from encampments are offered insufficient resources and little time to plan their next move.