BERKELEY — After spreading their footprint in Berkeley, the teams behind a number of protest encampments within the metropolis are encouraging others throughout California and the nation to make use of the identical type of civil disobedience to deliver to gentle what activists have described as aggressive encampment insurance policies applied on the native and state degree.
Demonstrators with the nonprofit The place Do We Go Berkeley and the Berkeley Homeless Union have occupied the entrance garden of Berkeley’s Previous Metropolis Corridor for practically three weeks and established two extra websites this week, every with the group’s trademark crimson and blue tents scrawled with black paint asking “Where Do We Go?”
The “guerrilla encampments,” as dubbed by The place Do We Go Berkeley President Ian Cordova Morales, are real houses for Berkeley’s unhoused, he mentioned throughout a press convention outdoors of the three websites Wednesday. However they’re additionally meant to behave as “symbols of safety and protection and protest,” mentioned The place Do We Go co-founder Andrea Henson.
“We call on everyone; when you see these tents, it’s unhoused individuals fighting back, having a voice and expressing their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and protest. And wherever you see these tents you will see us protecting them,” Henson, an lawyer targeted on homelessness, mentioned in the course of the press convention.
The protest is in response to a shift in federal, state and native stances on homelessness and encampments. A U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling in June, referred to as the Grants Move resolution, gave state and native governments larger energy to brush homeless encampments no matter whether or not shelter beds can be found.
Of the seven native governments receiving a complete of $48 million, Berkeley’s share is $5.8 million.
After the Supreme Court docket resolution and government order, however earlier than the funding announcement, Berkeley councilmembers accredited a brand new coverage permitting employees to brush encampments with out providing shelter if metropolis officers decide the positioning poses a fireplace hazard, imminent well being hazard or public nuisance, or is in harmful proximity to visitors, development zones or utility work.
Morales referred to as the extra aggressive strategy “fascist,” “draconian,” and a “backslide in American democracy.”
“This is also a call to action for the rest of California, the rest of the West Coast, the rest of the United States to take action, to join us in establishing these guerrilla encampments, to join us in resisting, to join us in fighting to change what is happening here, because if we don’t fight now, we may never get the chance again,” Morales mentioned.
Metropolis officers have defended the coverage as a narrowly crafted measure meant to stability the wants of all metropolis residents, asserting it might apply to a small variety of town’s unsheltered residents.
“We’ve continued to act in accordance with best practices to end homeless and proactively offered connections to housing and services,” Chakko mentioned.
Berkeley is dwelling to about 900 unsheltered residents, in line with the newest Level-In-Time depend carried out yearly. Greater than half of these residents dwell on the road in tents, makeshift shelters or autos versus short-term shelter amenities.
Past entry to providers although, Henson mentioned the group is demanding a seat on the desk to debate coverage. Particularly, The place Do We Go Berkeley needs to see unsheltered residents granted related protections afforded to tenants and property homeowners.
Berkeley’s municipal code at the moment limits the house an unhoused particular person’s belongings can take up on the sidewalk to a 9-square-foot space, and state shelter eviction legal guidelines are much less strict than these for renters.
“When you’re unhoused, your very existence is unlawful,” Henson mentioned.
Initially Printed: October 19, 2024 at 6:15 a.m.
