OAKLAND — Beneath a freeway in West Oakland, three dozen tents and makeshift wooden shacks are spread out over the sidewalks at Sixth and Brush streets. There are mattresses, broken bicycles, overflowing shopping carts and piles of garbage, some of it illegally dumped. Motorists waiting at the signal light peer out from behind rolled-up windows at a scene some have compared to a refugee camp. A homeless encampment has been at the same location off and on since at least October 2014.
“What throws people is the magnitude of it,” said Tomika Perkins, operations manager for Operation Dignity, which has a city contract to provide homeless outreach services. “It’s so in your face.”
The homeless encampment at 35th and Magnolia Street caught fire on Monday, May 1, 2017.
This is one of a growing number of outdoor sites where people without shelter are living in filthy conditions with no sanitation, a public health hazard. Since Jan. 1, there have also been at least half a dozen fires at homeless tent camps. This has raised safety concerns in the wake of the December Ghost Ship warehouse disaster where 36 people died and another fatal blaze in March at a halfway house on San Pablo Avenue that killed four people.
According to Operation Dignity outreach workers, there are about 200 homeless encampments in Oakland of varying size, the majority concentrated downtown and in West Oakland. They range from a couple of tents or makeshift shelters to sprawling, blocks-long communities containing as many as 50. They can be found in the shadows of the Oakland Coliseum, near the booming Uptown district, and close to the Emeryville border.
As the camps have increased, so have tensions with nearby neighbors who have been bombarding Oakland and county officials with complaints about garbage, sewage, violence, aggressive panhandling and other concerns.
At a recent City Council committee hearing, Victoria Angelo, the owner of the Kinetic Arts Center at Seventh and Brush streets, described a “war zone” near her business.
“The crisis down there needs immediate support,” she said. “I can’t wait until six months from now, or even next week. It’s really awful.”
Near Coliseum: Aylleiah Jones talks with Outreach Coordinator Lester Vender about her illnesses and some services in Oakland, California, on May 15, 2017. Operation Dignity provides support to homeless bringing food and services to those living on the streets. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)
600 Block of Sycamore Street: A view of a homeless encampment in Oakland, California, on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
2600 Wood Street: A woman who goes by the name of "Random Citizen" for her privacy, right, talks with Frankie Bailey outside her tent at a homeless camp on Wood Street in West Oakland, California, on May 9, 2017. Bailey was asked what she needed and she said: "Help." (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Fifth Street between Brush and Castro streets: A BART train rides past above a homeless encampment in Oakland, California, on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Castro Street between Fifth and Sixth streets: Part of a homeless encampment in Oakland, California, on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
2400 Wood Street: Messiah "Peck" Alil organizes materials that were dumped off at a homeless camp in West Oakland, California, on May 9, 2017. He's been a resident of the camp for about a year and a half and is a homeless activist. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Near Coliseum: Lester Vender, outreach coordinator for Operation dignity, peeks in Derrick Soo's tent in Oakland, California, on May 15, 2017. Operation Dignity provides support to homeless bringing food and services to those living on the streets. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)
E. 12th Street: A couple of tree houses have been built in a homeless encampment off 12th Street in Oakland, Calif., on Monday, May 15, 2017. Workers from Operation Dignity checks on the status of one of their clients who lives in this encampment. Operation Dignity provides support to homeless bringing food and services to those living on the streets. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)
2600 Wood Street: A woman who goes by the name of "Random Citizen" for her privacy, tidies up her guest room at a homeless camp in West Oakland, California, on May 11, 2017. She has lived there about four years. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
International Boulevard and 85th Avenue: Robert Turner, 63, sweeps up in a homeless camp in Oakland, California, on Wednesday, May 3, 2017. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
17th Street, between Willow Street and Wood Street: A woman stands in a homeless encampment in Oakland, California, on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Fourth Street and Clay Street: A homeless camp is sprawled near a fence May 18, 2017, in Oakland, California (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Brush Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets: Rufus Boykins spends time at a homeless camp under Interstate 880 in Oakland, California, on May 9, 2017. He's been on the street for 20 years and living at this location for four years. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
35th and Magnolia streets: Darron Singleton, 54, smokes as he lays on a mattress in a homeless encampment on May 2, 2017, in Oakland, California. A fire tore through the camp Monday night destroying tents and belongings of residents at the city-sanctioned camp. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
2400 Wood Street: Mike Wilmarth leaves a friend's shelter at a homeless camp on Wood Street in West Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 11, 2017. He has lived there since January with his wife and three dogs, which they have for security. He said that obtaining fresh running water is his biggest challenge. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
2400 Wood Street: A truck with portable toilets is seen at a homeless camp on Wood Street in West Oakland, Calif., on Thursday, May 11, 2017.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Derrick Soo gives a tour of his tent in Oakland, California, on May 15, 2017. Soo ended up homeless after a series of unfortunate events in his life taking him from successful business owner to being on the streets. (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group)
28th Street between Magnolia and Adeline streets: A small homeless encampment is near a major thoroughfare that includes business such as Hodo Soy and Sweet Maria's Coffee Warehouse on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
East 12th Street & 23rd Avenue area: Eric Bryant organizes items in his tent at a homeless encampment below the 22nd Avenue overcrossing to Intestate 880 were a dog was killed and five tents destroyed in a fire in Oakland, California, on April 13, 2017. Bryant has been homeless for three years and has been living in the camp for about eight months. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
Market Street and Fifth Street: A homeless camp is photographed on Thursday, May 18, 2017, in Oakland, California. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue area: Norma Ortega sits on a couch at a homeless encampment below the 22nd Avenue overcrossing to Interstate 880 were a dog was killed and five tents destroyed in a fire in Oakland, California, on Thursday, April 13, 2017. Ortega has been homeless for the past year and a half and has been living in the camp for about a month. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
27th Street and Northgate Avenue: Mo, who did not wish to give her last name, shows burn scars on her hand and arm at a homeless camp on Northgate Avenue underneath the Interstate 980 overpass in Oakland, California, on May 11, 2017. She said she received the burns in an explosion at another camp in December. She's been living at the Northgate camp for three weeks. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
27th Street and Northgate Avenue: A woman walks past a homeless camp on Northgate Avenue under Interstate 980 in West Oakland, California, on May 9, 2017. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
2600 Wood Street: A woman who goes by the name of "Random Citizen" for her privacy, shows bread that was donated and left on the street a homeless camp on Wood Street in West Oakland, California, on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. She has lived there about four years. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Market Street and Fifth Street: A homeless camp is shown May 18, 2017, in Oakland, California. It is nearby Interstate 880. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Brush and Seventh streets: An assortment of items are seen at a homeless camp in West Oakland, California, on May 9, 2017. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
2400 Wood Street: Mike Wilmarth inspects his shelter at a homeless camp in West Oakland, California, on May 11, 2017. He calls it the "Pallet Palace" and has lived there since January with his wife and three dogs which they have for security. He said that obtaining fresh running water is his biggest challenge. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue area: A fire-damaged bed remains at the scene after a fire at a homeless encampment that killed a dog and destroyed five tents below the 22nd Avenue over-crossing to Intestate 880 in Oakland, California, on April 13, 2017. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue area: A woman who did not wish to be identified walks past the site of a fire at a homeless encampment that killed a dog and destroyed five tents below the 22nd Avenue overcrossing to Interstate 880 in Oakland, California, on April 13, 2017. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
27th Street and Northgate Avenue: A stuffed dog and an American flag are seen outside a tent at a homeless camp underneath the Interstate 980 overpass in Oakland, California, on May 11, 2017. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Brush Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets area: A homeless encampment is set up in the shadow of Interstate 880 in Oakland, California, on Thursday, May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
2600 Wood Street: A woman stands near a memorial and graffiti for Marvel Thompson at a homeless camp in West Oakland, California, on May 11, 2017. Thompson died there on April 28. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
17th Street, between Willow Street and Wood Street: A homeless encampment in Oakland, California, is nearby Raimondi Park on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Peralta Street & 36th Street area: A homeless encampment sits under the MacArthur Freeway in Oakland, California, on Thursday, May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
People are sleeping in tents, shacks, tiny homes and makeshift wooden structures. Sometimes they sleep under pilings covered by tarps and cardboard boxes. Others live in cars or RVs, or are squatting in vacant properties. People at one encampment on East 12th Street in East Oakland built plywood shacks in trees to escape the rodents.
Clarence Wheeler, 77, was living with his wife until they split up seven months ago. He couldn’t afford an apartment in Oakland on his Social Security income of $900 a month and moved into a wooden dwelling on a lot near railroad tracks off East 12th Street in East Oakland.
Wheeler, who has limited use of his right arm and leg because of a stroke, narrowly escaped when a fire broke out at the encampment in April. Fiery embers singed his coat. A neighbor’s dog died, and five tents were destroyed.
He said he has tried to get help.
“I tried some things with the city,” Wheeler said. “Come back in three months. Come back in six months. Uh, maybe you should come back in 10 months. Maybe you shouldn’t come back at all.”
Clarence Wheeler, 77, left, is photographed at a homeless camp along E 12th Street on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. A fire tore through the camp two weeks ago killing a dog and destroying property at the camp. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Like Wheeler, 70 percent of Oakland’s homeless are African-American, 40 percent are over 50, and 70 percent are male. There were 2,761 homeless in the city, of which 1,900 were unsheltered, according to the latest 2017 point-in-time homeless count by EveryOne Home. That was a 25 percent increase in people without long-term shelter compared with the 2015 count. City officials said there are probably at least twice that many. Half of unsheltered people in Alameda County live in Oakland, nearly 3 times as many as Berkeley, which had the second-highest number.
Homelessness in Oakland is not new. Just as in other cities, there have always been people living on the streets. Many suffer from mental illness or are struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol.
What’s different now is that affordable housing has vanished amid soaring rents. Investors have snatched up single-room occupancy hotels that were one of the last resorts for very low income residents. Fewer and fewer landlords accept Section 8 federal housing vouchers for those lucky enough to even get them. As people’s cost of living has increased, there have also been cuts in general assistance.
Mark Holys, 58, worked as a server and sommelier at high-end restaurants for decades. He’s been living in a tent at Lake Merritt for four months after exhausting his savings. A cocaine habit and mounting debt, including child support, led to his current situation.
“It’s not as easy as you might think getting shared housing,” he said. “I haven’t really been in a financial position to support doing that.”
Mark Holys is photographed at the Oakland Public Library in downtown, Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, May 10, 2017. Holys is homeless and comes into the library to use the internet and charge his laptop and phone. He used to be a sommelier and server in various Bay Area high-end restaurants. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Operation Dignity outreach teams bring food, water, hygiene kits and blankets to encampments four times a week. Case managers conduct assessments to help people find out what housing and other services they might be eligible for.
“It’s not one thing that leads someone to be homeless,” Perkins said. “It’s one thing that leads to another thing that leads to a spiral.”
As the encampments have become a humanitarian crisis impossible to ignore, Oakland has been seeking county, federal and private help.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved recommendations from the Human Services Department to help alleviate some of the suffering of people living on the street, while city officials seek permanent housing solutions. Those recommendations will now be taken up during budget deliberations, but it will be a challenge for city officials to find money for the different short-term strategies.
The proposals included bringing portable toilets, garbage pickup, washing stations and traffic barriers to 10 existing encampments, and creating at least one “safe haven” city-sanctioned encampment — an expansion of a pilot project at 35th and Magnolia spearheaded by City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney that, in addition to the above, helped connect people with housing and other services.
Of 40 people who were there regularly for a year, city officials said 24 moved into transitional or permanent housing. However, when they left, other homeless people quickly took their place. To prevent that, the new site would have on-site staff as well as 24-hour security. City officials hailed the Magnolia pilot as a success when they closed down the camp earlier this month. However, it ended on a low note when a fire broke out a few days earlier, destroying 12 tents.
Human services officials are also proposing to purchase a building for a second transitional housing facility similar to the Henry Robinson Multi-Service Center, where formerly homeless people receive intensive case management and many go on to permanent housing. It would cost an estimated $2 million, not including annual operating expenses.
“We have a successful model that works,” Human Services Director Sara Bedford said. “We just don’t have the scale we need.”
But scale costs money, and the various new proposals would cost more than $2.5 million a year. The city relies on about $7 million in grants to address its homeless problem. Mayor Libby Schaaf’s proposed budget adds $250,000 a year for homeless housing and support services.
Several council members, affordable housing advocates and others have said that amount is woefully inadequate, given the pressing need.Members of an ad hoc homeless advocacy group have pressed city officials to be more proactive to alleviate widespread suffering. City Councilwoman Anne Campbell Washington, meanwhile, said she would seek $2 million for homeless services.
The city administration is also seeking funds from the county, the recently passed Measure KK housing bond measure, the Oakland Housing Authority, and federal as well as private sources to address homelessness.
City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who has been a vocal supporter of city-sanctioned homeless encampments, and has called for immediately using housing bond funds to purchase SROs to house homeless people, said the current policy of having public works clear the camps is inhumane and counterproductive.
“Pushing them from one encampment only to have them move to another underpass with no solution is expensive and wasteful,” she said. “Creating a space where people can go with their tents and RVs is really important to how we create a humane way forward.”
Homeless resident Holys said that, at least, would be a start.
“The longer it stays the way it is, the worse it’s going to get,” he said.
To take an interactive journey through Oakland homeless encampments and hear from the residents who live there, go to http://tinyurl.com/m7oqlde
600 Block of Sycamore Street: A view of a homeless encampment in Oakland, California, on May 18, 2017. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
