Oakland officials are clearing some of the city’s most challenging homeless encampments, flush with an infusion of state funds and new homeless housing to offer displaced residents.
The city has long struggled to address sprawling, chaotic camps, including what was once the state’s largest , because of a shortage of homeless shelters and affordable housing. Oakland also faced uncertainty, as other cities did, over how to legally clear encampments before a key court ruling last year.
The city last month removed camps around Lake Merritt, as well as a growing encampment at Mosswood Park. Next week, the city will begin dismantling another one of the city’s largest encampments , on East 12th Street, located just east of the BART tracks between Fruitvale and the underground tunnel leading to the Lake Merritt station.
The closure of the encampments comes less than a year after the city launched a more aggressive approach to addressing homelessness. Less than two months before former Mayor Sheng Thao was recalled, she issued an executive order directing police, fire and city workers to enforce existing city policy to clear homeless encampments. While Thao’s critics said her move was a political stunt to fight the recall, her order came just three months after the Grants Pass ruling from the Supreme Court that gave cities the power to sweep encampments without offering services…