Homeless

Oakland Evicts Residents of Union Point Homeless Camp

Published

6 years ago

August 24, 2019

Nicole Kahele and Elijah Marra pose in front of their handmade sign on Aug 20th, shortly before the City of Oakland evicts them from Union Point Park. Kehele is one of for plaintiffs in a lawsuit claiming Mayor Lib¬by Schaaf and the city are violating her 4th, 8th, and 14th amendment rights during evictions. Photo by Zack

Oakland’s Department of Public Works (ODPW) and Oakland’s Police Department (OPD) and Auto Plus Towing evicted at least 20 adults and five children who were living in RVs, campers, and other vehicles in a parking lot in Union Point Park on Tuesday.

“I grew up within a mile radius of here my whole life and I’m a member of this community but they’re trying to shuffle me out of where I’m from,” said Nicole Kahele. “We’re staying in a public park because there’s no affordable housing.”

Kahele is one of four Union Point community members who, after experiencing past evictions, filed a lawsuit claiming the City of Oakland and Mayor Libby Schaaf are violating their fourth, eighth, and 14th amendment rights and that ODPW is not following its own stated policy when it evicts unhoused residents.

“The City is supposed to bag, identify and tag all the property that people want to keep but can’t take with them and store it for free for three months,” said Needa Bee, an unhoused, lifelong Oakland resident who lives outside of Union Point but is helping with the suit. “That has never happened in the three years that I have been following evictions.”

Kahele and the other defendants, all of whom lived at Union Point before the eviction, had filed a restraining order to U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer through their lawyer, Emily Rose Johns, that prevented ODPW from evicting them.

The order also protected other Union Point residents, as the city couldn’t evict some residents while allowing others to stay. But the city successfully challenged and overturned the order while Johns was on vacation and posted eviction notices on Friday, Aug 16, leaving most Union Park residents five days to pack all of their belongings to leave.

The rush to pack was especially difficult for those who have physical limitations and/ or disabilities. Elijah Marra, who was recovering from hernia surgery that he’d had two days before, complained of sharp abdominal pains as he packed his belongings. While he was able to keep his most important belongings, there was much he had to throw away.

Residents whose vehicles didn’t run, like lifelong Oakland resident Dre Nash, had to have them towed and impounded. The City offered some of these residents a single night in a homeless shelter but no one was offered permanent housing. Nash’s RV home and almost all of his belongings are currently in an impound lot and he’s unsure of when or how he can get them back.

Oakland’s assistant city administrator Joe DeVries, who helps to organize and implement the Schaaf’s administrations plans and policies for homelessness, claims that he and the city see eviction as a last resort, but that they’ve received complaints from housed residents, as well as the Bay Conservation and Development Commission and the California Coastal Commission.

“It’s tidewater land and it’s protected so it’s really not an appropriate place to have people camping,” said DeVries.

While DeVries claims the encampment was filled with trash and not well kept, those staying at Union Point claim it’s difficult to keep clean when the city doesn’t provide consistent trash service, and that housed residents would have the same issues if they didn’t have weekly trash pickup.

None of the Union Point residents the Oakland Post spoke with wanted to leave the site without being offered another permanent living option and many claimed they felt safe there as they supported each other.

While Union Point’s residents claim that some housed people come by and harass them, some nearby housed residents say they don’t want them forced out.

“They’ve fallen on hard times and everything’s so damn expensive here,” said Douglas Thorn, who’s lived near Union Point for three years. “I think they’re decent people, and I enjoy having them here.”

Zack Haber

Posts by Zack Haber

Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

5 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.