Berkeley Could Sweep Homeless Encampments Without Offering Shelter Under New Proposal

Berkeley may soon become the latest Bay Area city to crack down on homeless encampments under expanded authority granted to local governments by a recent Supreme Court ruling.

Legislation proposed by Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, who represents northwest Berkeley, would allow the city, under certain conditions, to clear encampments without providing alternative shelter. Unhoused residents could also face citation or arrest if the resolution passes.

“We want our staff to continue to make a shelter offer when practicable,” Kesarwani said. “But sometimes, we have encampments that have created a fire or health risk for neighboring businesses or residents, and we need to be able to address those health and safety issues by enforcing our state and local laws.”

Under Kesarwani’s proposal, encampments could be cleared if they pose a fire or health hazard, constitute a “public nuisance,” or sit in the way of traffic, construction or maintenance.

However, those exceptions are broad enough to apply to every encampment in the city, according to Andrea Henson, who provides legal counsel to the homeless advocacy group Where Do We Go Berkeley.

“If you want to sweep all these camps, where’s everyone going to go? Because they’re not going to leave Berkeley — a lot of them are from Berkeley. They don’t want to leave home,” Henson said.

Kesarwani argued that the exceptions are specific and nuanced. The legislation mentions two of the city’s largest encampments as priorities for removal — both of which are within her district.

One of them on Harrison Street prompts around one police call per day and has rampant health and safety violations that concern neighboring businesses and residents, Kesarwani said.

“It is not progressive to enable people who are in the throes of serious drug addiction to continue in their addiction without serious consequence and continue to create fire and health hazards for the surrounding neighborhood,” Kesarwani said.

According to Kesarwani, Berkeley cut its unsheltered homeless population in half over the past two years, coinciding with the opening of several permanent and transitional housing options.

But there still aren’t enough beds to house the city’s remaining 445 unsheltered homeless residents. Henson said it could take years to get people into housing, adding that an independent audit of Berkeley’s shelters could identify the roadblocks to helping people off the street.

In the meantime, Henson said the city should prioritize options like safe parking sites instead of sweeps.

Under a federal court ruling in 2022, sweeps were restricted and cities could not fine or jail people for camping in public if insufficient shelter was available. In June, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the City of Grants Pass, Ore. v. Gloria Johnson overturned that precedent, leading Gov. Gavin Newsom to direct state agencies to dismantle encampments on their property and urge local officials to do the same.

In San Francisco, Mayor London Breed promised the city would launch “very aggressive” sweeps. Advocates and some neighbors have argued the crackdown is only moving people from place to place, and a federal judge has ruled the city must better train its workers on how to handle unhoused people’s belongings during the sweeps.

Some officials in Berkeley tried to pass additional protections for unhoused residents in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. That resolution, co-authored by Councilmember Cecilia Lunaparra, ultimately failed.

“I find it unconscionable to burden the most vulnerable residents of our City as a result of our regional failure in our housing shortage, insufficient anti-displacement mechanisms, and lack of shelters,” Lunaparra said in a statement. “Under no circumstance should the City effectively criminalize the status of being unhoused without providing a reasonable alternative.”

Kesarwani’s resolution is up for a vote before the council on Sept. 10. Homeless advocates also plan to hold a rally outside the council chambers ahead of the meeting.

“We’re all trying to make Berkeley a model for the state. We haven’t swept yet — let’s continue that,” Henson said.