The other side of the street

An embarrassment

Please restore the sidewalks for public passage and establish real housing for the homeless. This is no solution. If we must have encampments then establish one on public land with trash removal and showers. Do something now.

Just because it's under a freeway doesn't mean it's outside of Oakland. Our city must to take on this issue and provide transitional housing with services, right now.

Tents without any services are a factory for poverty, robbing people of their sense of self worth without providing hope of improvement.

Without a change in city policies, the number of people living on sidewalks in Oakland will continue to increase. We need a new direction.

The piles of furniture, trash, and tents are ever expanding and it doesn't feel safe to drive by with your window down -- let along walk on the sidewark! There is no sidewalk left in many places. These are people and there ahould be a better place for them to take shelter! There should be trash collection service too so it doesn't pile up in the street.

The City's lack of action is putting local businesses on jeopardy. This needs to be fixed!

thanks for posting

These camps are dangerous for the residents who live in them as well. I hope the city comes up with a constructive solution before one of the increasingly frequent uncontrolled camp fires claim lives.

These camps are not a suitable solution for a lack of sufficient social services, we NEED to do more to support all members of our community. This is not safe for anyone.

I agree with all the concerns raised above. I drive by this area frequently on my way to the Jack London Square area, and the camp is a health and safety hazard for its own residents. Clearing the camps is not a solution, but providing people with safe housing and running water is. The fact that Oakland is doing so little to help the well-being of its residents who are most in need is deeply troubling.

Safe Housing, running water, dignity, and respect

Please, Oakland. Ignoring the growing need for affordable housing isn't a solution.
Please be humane and generous with our city resources before this slips too far down the slope to catch.

I can't believe how out of control the camps have gotten. It's worse than embarrassing. It makes me not want to live in Oakland. The city really needs to provide space with trash pickup and toilets and land for the people.

Tent cities with no services exist in the shadow of incredible affluence. It is a shame to our Californian ideals. Please assist these citizens with trash pickup, toilets, and showers. Forcing these residents to move periodically only intensifies the issues.

People without housing still deserve access to basic services. Oakland can do better for our residents.

People deserve to live with dignity - change the policy! Give people housing, food, and water. You can do better Oakland

Just a couple of years ago, this area was fine to come to for business. The changes have severely discouraged my doing business here. The debris has gotten completely out of control and is quite dangerous. Debris completely blocks the sidewalk and spreads into the street, making it very risky to drive past and impossible to walk. I cannot invite clients to meet with me here, and am often very uncomfortable to park, walk, or drive through these blocks. Oakland has laws against debris on sidewalks and in roadways to keep them safe and I am extremely disappointed to see these safety concerns being ignored. I witnessed a fire a couple of weeks ago, and was horrified. This area is rife to become the next Ghost Ship and it is appalling that Oakland again is turning a blind eye.

I've owned a loft that is now two blocks away from one of the largest encampments. We're constantly having car break ins, meth heads roaming the streets, not to mention having to drive through what literally looks like a dump every day. If I park for more than 4 hours in front of the building I've lived in for 15 years I get a ticket but somehow it's OK for this "camp" to take up an entire lane of 5th street not to mention pile trash 4 feet high down an entire block. I lived in the Arts District in Los Angeles for several years which is a couple blocks from Skid Row, the largest and some say worst homeless population center in the Country and was no where near this bad or unsafe. They have a rule there that you can camp out but every morning you have to vacate, businesses open up and are open for business and in the evening the come set their tents back up. This AT A MINIMUM would prevent building huge forts and having a bunch of bike and barbeques and piles and piles of trash until a real long term solution can be provided. Getting really sick of paying property taxes on a property that's value is being effected by this when it seems no solution or service is being offered to correct as it just seems to get worse and worse. In the last several weeks I've talked to numerous people who have moved out of Oakland and/or are moving out as a result of this. Seems we are not prioritizing tax paying people who support local business and the local economy over camps that are literally filling our streets with trash, crime, drugs and disease!

I've tried walking to businesses in this area from West Oakland (I don't have a car), and was forced to walk in the street because the encampments are completely blocking the sidewalks and in some cases even spilling out into the streets. People need safe and affordable housing. Allowing these encampments to continue just damages the neighborhood, neighborhood businesses and public safety. There needs to be some alternative that will allow people to live with dignity and not pose a hazard to others.

And forcing people out with water hoses is not a viable answer to the problem.

The situation is as bad as it's ever been – lawless, filthy, drug-ridden, with fire hazards and objects blocking the road – it's a public health and public safety fiasco. On our own city streets, in one of the wealthiest regions in the country.

The sentiment and resentment building among Oakland voters about how this situation is being handled by city leadership (or more appropriately, not being handled) is palpable. We are not simply NIMBY complainers – we are looking for a sensible, equitable, humane solution to a horrific problem that impacts everyone – residents, local businesses, city visitors, and the homeless themselves.

The news yesterday about the investment in SROs was encouraging and a step forward, but I'm afraid it will be just one piece of the solution, and it is unclear how long it will take to put that program into effect. In the meantime, the streets of Oakland continue to burn.

We know there is no immediate panacea, but I hope, for everyone's sake, that City Leadership understands the depth and impact of the issue, and the frustration that is boiling over among residents and voters with the inaction from City Hall.

There has to be some solution to this. Kicking all of them out isn't it, but allowing it to continue as is is harmful to everyone involved--the residents of the tenet, the neighbors and businesses in the area, and the law enforcement that has to deal with it. Do something!!

Corner of 5th and Brush

Would love to figure out how to just get all the trash picked up

Tell the mayor and council you demand clear sidewalks. Police have been told not to enforce existing laws. Powers that be must be held accountable. Tell them to change that policy NOW.

Live and 2nd and Brush we've been in contact with the City NONSTOP. They've done one or two trash pick ups and within two days it's right back to looking like a DUMP! Clearly the City Government is FAILING it's citizens!

My understanding is the city is currently developing its new budget. One version of the budget allocates substantial funds to supporting housing services for the homeless. The other does not. Oakland we expect you to address this issue with funds, compassion, civility, and action. Move people off the sidewalks and into housing. Open the sidewalks to pedestrian use again. Stop ignoring this humanitarian crisis. Indifference will not make the difference we need.

Oakland needs safe and clean sidewalks. If the City accepts that this problem will be with us for a while, why not move the encampments off the sidewalks and into Frank Ogawa Plaza and expose the mayor and Councilmembers to what many of us see every day. Why is it okay to block all the sidewalks under I-880? Why not block the entrances to City Hall? Oakland needs clean and safe sidewalks. What is City Hall doing to address the problem TODAY?

This should not just be an Oakland problem. We need to get other cities in Alameda County to help. Send over their Waste Management trucks to haul trash that most likely came from other cities and dumped in Oakland.

Vote them all out!!

Wow. I have to say that i am amazed. If i ever get a home and could choose my neighbors, I would choose all of you. I read the reports on here everyday. Often I find myself responding as if I am fighting for all of our lives out here and the souls of those who have homes. So many have stopped caring. In fact this the first time I have ever come across so many caring, verbally communicative, direct, human beings.
From one homeless human being I thank you for you actions. Bless you all.

We dont need garbage trucks from elsewhere. There's more than enough here in Oakland. They are not being allowed to pick up the garbage dumped on the streets.

I own property nearby and run a business. Lack of action on this issue will cause me (and my tax revenue) to move out of Oakland.

Can I rent a moving van and move it myself? Will I be arrested for essentially picking up trash?

Rich cities build poor communities. What can we do to help?

How many of you have talked to someone at one of these camps? Asked what you could do to help them, an individual, not the multiarmed homeless monster you see from the outside? Asked what you could do to help them not be homeless? Can the community pitch in for a dumpster for them? Why does "the city" need to fix this? You are the city. Help.

JMP have you? I know all of the vagrants in my neighborhood. After a great deal of effort we are down from around 80 illegal campers to 5. Yes I know them all buy name. I feel bad that there is nothing anyone or any thing will help them from there addictions. Our system of enabling and pandering is a complete failure.

Thank you all who commented on this posting. I appreciate the caring and support from each of your comments.

The original posting of this problem says it very well. People need dignity, safety, and sanitation. Please find a solution that does not turn our wonderful city into a shantytown.

I work near a Tuff-Shed housing project. The residents get free showers on Tuesday, free needle exchange on Thursday and free dinners every night. The residents say they will never leave and why would they? They get free busing to weekly bingo games. They have very expensive phones and tell me they love the set-up. I've had my vehicle broken into twice and after $500.00 in window repairs I don't lock it any more. The neighbors regularly throw their trash in the streets.
The homeless urinate and throw their cigarette butts, clothing and trash over our fence. There are abandoned cars all over the place. I do not patronize any of the local businesses because the parking is non-existent because of the homeless camps. i finally found a job out of the area and will be moving soon. This is the way the Mayor wants it so I've made my choice. Join me...there are plenty of places in the Bay Area that have control over their own problems.

Thanks for posting this and thanks for the responses. Oakland is my home City and I am deeply sad about what our city leaders have allowed it to become. This is a problem they created by getting in bed with developers to line their own political coffers......and now city leaders want to pass the buck to Oakland residents and property owners to solve the problem...much talk about small houses, other types of alternative communities, one stop shop for services.....but no action....typical of city leaders.

If Singapore can control homelessness and give shelter to those less fortunate, how come America can't do it? Something is very wrong with this picture. No one should be living in the streets in the so called most powerful 1st world country. Very very wrong. I'd say, vote everyone out of Office, it's time for new Blood that can get things done not just ignore or don,t care, or say it's complicated. Everything is complicated, public officials are voted to solve all these complications. Do you your job or get out and put someone willing to solve all these issues.

Let’s just be candid; the state of ..... has been nowhere to be found on the da-mn issue of homelessness.”

We haven’t been focused on this issue; there’s a reason things are the way they are. It’s because we haven’t addressed them. It’s happened on our watch over the last decade; in particular, it’s really gotten bad over the last decade. And we were just slow to respond.”

“You want to know who’s the homeless czar is? I’m the homeless czar,"

The California Government is paid plenty of money by us tax payers to address these problems.

Years later SNAFU. That plenty of tax dollars is in the hundred of millions and our Homeless Czar Gavin stated just after getting elected they would need a billion more looking for solution. There is a bunch of crooks out there getting very rich at our expense in this human pandering/trafficking scheme. Plus do not forget the world wide billion dollar illegal narcotics corporations roll in keeping these vagrants addicted.

We’d like to thank you Herbert hoover

Please send emails directly to city council and city department members. They did a "deep clean" today of the park and let this man stay on the side of the road. Services have been offered to him repeatedly and he refuses, so they allow him to stay. I have emailed each of these (below), each in CC so they are all getting the same complaints from me, and I only have to send out one email:

Each email is @oaklandca.gov

Homelessness@ 

atlarge@
AMTellez@
KJones3@
JTombolesi@
TLove@
RBayeh@
OfficeoftheMayor@
CFife@
District3@
CityAdministratorsOffice@
TMorgan@
RBattersby@
sdjones@
PDunlap@
GMonares@
LSimmons@
TRubin@
Ffoster@
OAK311@
AMTellez@
Rbedoya@
sbedford@
ajeffress@
housingassistance@
sOlatoye@
parksandrec@
hduffey@
OaklandDVP@
ethicscommission@

@carrollfife.org
Joty@

The fact of this issue being posted over FIVE YEARS AGO and not resolved is just maddening and saddening. What has become of this city that our elected leadership and their administrative staff cannot seem to do anything to meet the urgent needs of this humanitarian crisis?

I am tired of being IGNORED and LIED TO by the city officials and staff that I've interacted with regarding my concerns around homelessness and the hazards it presents to both the unhoused and housed residents/businesses alike. If you are unable to do your jobs, dispense with the facade and just admit you are overwhelmed. I'll have much more respect for you if you did.

There will be a reckoning at the ballot box this fall, I can assure you of that. We need real solutions that carefully consider the needs of ALL stakeholders, and appropriate funding to ensure the city's policies can actually be carried out efficiently and effectively.