Burgeoning Homeless Population Threatens Oakland Economic Development

as Berkeley bans its overnight RV parking and San Francisco cracks down on overnight camping in its parks more homeless people are moving to encampments in Oakland you might be familiar with this one at the Home Depot and one City Council member is concerned that encampments like this are driving businesses out of Oakland meet Kay she's the unofficial mayor of one of Oakland's largest homeless encampments she's been living here behind the home depot in Oakland for two years it actually has grown substantially within the last six months there's no official count but by the looks of it at least one hundred homeless people are now living in the sprawling shanty town located behind the hardware chain kay says its growth is tied to nearby encampment closures and as due to all the closures that has happened 23rd was closed so some of the people that didn't go to the tough sheds came here 66 was closed she says people are also coming from other cities and even other states that's because we're the only state that gives out money immediately to her neighbor Elizabeth moved in just about a month ago she paid K 500 dollars to live in this encampment on the street Elizabeth lost her home to hurricane Marga and was living in a camp behind the Oakland Coliseum until the city shut that down she says the nights are the worst when most of her neighbors are on meth the humanity is not there no more they they don't care what they do how they do it who they do it to she's already been robbed once but even worse she says the back of her house is being used as a toilet which is it's a situation she recently complained about to Oakland City Council member Noel Gaia become a real serious public health issue he knows a lot of the inhabitants of the encampment by name because he says he's here all the time cleaning up trash if I don't pick up 200 needles every Saturday and Sunday I didn't pick up another he's worried the growing encampment will force out Home Depot and with it 300 entry-level jobs so far the city hasn't able to shut this encampment down partially because of a recent appeals court ruling that makes it illegal for cities to displace people in encampments when no alternative shelter is available and right now there isn't an alternative in Auckland the police won't go there Public Works when I pick up a trash there will not service their public restrooms so it's a mess so the street behind the Home Depot where people have been camping is city-owned property and Mayor Libby Schaaf told us that she's going to petition City Council to secure funding to shut down this dead-end street she's promising a resolution to this by the end of the summer Home Depot has not threatened to move and I appreciate that they have been absolutely reasonable in demanding that the city address what is an untenable situation for them is the city being taken advantage of no I've been very clear about my approach to resolving homelessness it is compassionate and it is effective but it is not lenient or the Wild West mayor Libby Schaaf says right now Oakland is in triage mode let me be clear we don't have the resources to completely address the problem that we have but Gayo says that's a line he's heard one too many times we got to change that behavior and the mayor has got to quit making excuses as for Kay she knows from experience what's about to happen the city will shut this place down and will probably offer her a space in a tough shed or community cabin which she won't take so despite the city's efforts to avoid shuffling people from encampment to encampment Kay says that's exactly what will happen to her the shelters that's provided by the government are fool there's no beds so what help is to one one I would just be moving on and finding another location that's pretty much all I can do so Home Depot has reported increased theft from people living in these encampments it also says it's been dangerous for its suppliers to drive up here and drop anything off because of all the blight in this area and to add insult to injury the city has actually cited Home Depot because of all of the trash that's accumulated here in Oakland Suzie's daemul KPIX 5

Channel: KPIX | CBS NEWS BAY AREA

Views: 391,988

Keywords: KPIX 5 News Evening, Homelessness, KPIX Original Report, KPIX Original Reports. Susie S, Oakland

Id: uzCIYlMu_1s

Length: 4min 32sec (272 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2019