The city of Oakland has kicked people off the streets and moved them into cabin communities. But this \u2018innovative solution\u2019 is leaving some behind Sam Levin<\/a><\/strong> in Oakland @SamTLevin<\/a> Email<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tue 15 Jan 2019 (theguardian.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric Clark didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d survive the sheds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the city of Oakland began clearing homeless communities off the streets last year and placing them into sheds under a freeway, the 51-year-old reluctantly moved in and quickly had problems. One day, another occupant pulled a gun on him during an argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He thought it couldn\u2019t get much worse than fearing for his life in a new home that reminded him of jail. But then the program kicked him out \u2013 without justification, he said \u2013 and he no longer had a street encampment to join or even a blanket to sleep outside. He had nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy life was turned upside down,\u201d said Clark, who subsequently slept alone by a park under a piece of tarp. The lifelong Oaklander now lives out of a banged up green truck with his two dogs and has little hopes of finding permanent housing: \u201cI\u2019m worse off. I feel like I never should\u2019ve moved into that place. It ain\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The controversial \u201ctuff shed\u201d experiment, which involves housing homeless people in makeshift structures that resemble basic toolsheds, has become a visible symbol of the obscene housing crisis in a region home to staggering tech wealth<\/a>, rapid gentrification<\/a> and widespread displacement of black residents<\/a>. City officials have presented the sheds as an innovative, emergency tool to combat homelessness \u2013 giving people a safer form of shelter and security, while working to get them services and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But critics say the sheds can be cruel and dysfunctional and have given the city cover to mass evict homeless people living in sidewalk encampments that were community-run and preferred by some. The destruction of tent communities can tear apart groups of the homeless, and people like Clark who don\u2019t last in the sheds sometimes find themselves out of options. Some end up in remote locations where they may be less vulnerable to police harassment but more vulnerable to violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oakland\u2019s fourth site of tuff sheds, which officials now call \u201ccabin communities\u201d, is scheduled to open this month on a city lot that housed a burned-down library. Standing outside one of the 120 sq ft sheds on a recent morning, Sara Bedford, the city\u2019s director of human services, said she was initially skeptical about the idea of housing people in these structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But given the \u201chumanitarian crisis\u201d, the city had to try it. \u201cIt is better than nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt provides hygiene and safety. It creates a space in which you can engage people.\u201dAdvertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Living in the sheds is voluntary, and the city tries to have minimal rules \u2013 allowing pets and permitting residents to come in and out 24\/7, with security signing them in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But some have said they felt forced into the program when authorities told them they would soon be removed from their camp sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019ve been stripped of their community in the streetsGwen Wu, Homeless Action Center<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe gave up our place,\u201d said Michael London, 51, who started living in a shed last year, before the city dismantled his encampment. With two individuals placed in a single shed, there were quickly problems, he said: \u201cA lot of us were put into rooms with people we were having issues with on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n London, born and raised in Oakland, emotionally recounted the program\u2019s decision to later kick him out, after an altercation: \u201cMy life is in somebody else\u2019s hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the institutionalized nature of the sheds was difficult for him: \u201cIf you\u2019ve been incarcerated like I have \u2026 you don\u2019t want to be in a situation like that again when you\u2019re a free person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n People who can\u2019t make it in the sheds have now been forced to sleep in hidden corners of the city, because their encampment communities are gone, said London, who eventually got into a housing program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric Clark first became homeless in 2012 after losing a trucking job. He said he didn\u2019t have many problems living on the streets, but agreed to move into a shed because he was promised housing. But on his shed site petty arguments quickly escalated and he felt threatened by other residents, eventually filing a police report against one who he said pointed a gun at him. (Police showed up, but did not make an arrest).Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n He said he was ultimately kicked out due to a small fire that was near his shed, but that he did not start, forcing him to try and rebuild a life on the streets without support or basic supplies: \u201cI feel like they just left me hanging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n People can end up distraught and hopeless if their camps are raided and the sheds then reject them, said Gwen Wu, an attorney with the Oakland-based Homeless Action Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt promises to house people and provide a safe space, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily seem to be the case,\u201d said Wu, who has assisted Clark and London in the aftermath of their removal from the sheds. \u201cThey\u2019ve been stripped of their community in the streets they were living on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blair Hippolyte, another tuff shed resident, said authorities had destroyed a structure she was living in during street crackdowns and that it was one of the worst moments of being homeless: \u201cI sat there and cried. They tore my house down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said she appreciated some aspects of the sheds, but felt unsafe with her roommate. She was also skeptical that she would ever be able to find stable, affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey can do everything but give us a goddamn place to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sight of massive encampments adjacent to new bars and high-end coffee shops has become commonplace in Oakland. The camps have grown in neighborhoods that suffered through decades of racist<\/a> housing policies, where a high pace of evictions<\/a> has devastated communities in recent years.Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n The birthplace of the Black Panther party, Oakland has an international profile<\/a> as a haven for arts and activism, but it is also home to an estimated 2,000 unsheltered homeless people, a 26% increase in two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The encampments are often dismissed as a nuisance and eyesore, and they can be prone to life-threatening hazards, health problems and conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I sat there and cried. They tore my house downBlair Hippolyte, tuff shed resident<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s the complete wild west when it\u2019s unregulated,\u201d said Joe DeVries, an official in the city administrator\u2019s office, describing an encampment fire that he said was started by a \u201cmeth lab\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n City officials have argued that closing unauthorized encampments is a matter of urgent public safety and have claimed in court that they offer alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But some occupants said the camps function better for them than sheds or overcrowded shelters, which can have a range of restrictions and complications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have a system that actual works,\u201d said Benjamin Royer, a 33-year-old local homeless man who has been part of a group that camps outside and has been repeatedly raided by authorities. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to help us. They just want to enforce laws that make no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Royer, who uses a wheelchair and has bipolar disorder, said shared living arrangements in shelters or programs don\u2019t work for him and that his tent group<\/a> in the city of Berkeley, on the border of Oakland, has basic rules that are effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou have a support group that\u2019s able to help you in your worst moments,\u201d said Royer, who filed a complaint against the city after authorities took his property, including a therapy tool, during a raid. \u201cIt\u2019s just the homeless shuffle game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His camp would function well if police just left them alone, Royer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many don\u2019t have the capacity to deal with the fallout when they lose a tent or sleeping bag during a sweep, said EmilyRose Johns, a civil rights attorney who has challenged<\/a> Oakland\u2019s treatment of homeless people: \u201cIt\u2019s really atrocious.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n Needa Bee, a 47-year-old mother, said she became homeless after her previous landlord demanded an exorbitant rent hike she couldn\u2019t afford. When she and other unsheltered women set up an encampment they called the Housing<\/a> and Dignity Village, she felt safe, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s a sanctuary we created for ourselves,\u201d said Bee, whose daughters are ages 16 and 21. \u201cI\u2019m trying to protect my kids as best I can \u2026 There is literally nowhere for us to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The city, however, evicted<\/a> her group last month, resulting in them moving into cars and tents. The court battle and eviction process wore them out, she added. \u201cWe\u2019re all sick as fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bee and her 16-year-old have been staying in a camper vehicle, regularly moving spots to try to find safe locations that aren\u2019t too far from a bathroom or her daughter\u2019s school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The city\u2019s shutdown of her campsite made her lose trust in any government efforts, she said, adding she would never consider living in a shed. \u201cThey do not want the working class in Oakland anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The city also said the sheds have served 200 people, and that out of 133 people who have left the sheds, 93 of them (70%) have gone into some form of housing. The city declined to comment on individual cases, but said that people are removed if they violate rules prohibiting violence, weapons, drug sales, and other activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n DeVries said the program gives people \u201cmultiple chances\u201d if there are problems, and that officials doesn\u2019t toss people\u2019s belongings and will give them tents and other supports after they are kicked out. He said some voluntarily move out: \u201cWe do lose people who aren\u2019t ready. I\u2019ve been heartbroken about a couple people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clark\u2019s son, a 32-year-old teacher in Oakland who asked not to be identified, said his removal from the sheds made his father deflated and angry in a way he hadn\u2019t seen before. It was hard to even think about him forced back on the street: \u201cHonestly, I just kinda numb myself. It\u2019s not easy to see him like that. There is so much potential lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was especially painful since the sheds initially seemed to be a positive force in his father\u2019s life, the son said: \u201cIn retrospect, it may have been better if he never went.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These days, Clark spends many hours in his car with his energetic pitbulls, Pree and Shay, hanging out in the front seats. He often passes the time by playing Total War, a strategy game on his computer that takes his mind off everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Clark would love to get back into trucking, but if the city doesn\u2019t help him get a roof over his head, he doesn\u2019t know how he\u2019ll turn things around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf I had a place,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019d be a lot easier to start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Submitted by Mike Zint of First They Came for the Homeless)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Homelessness The city of Oakland has kicked people off the streets and moved them into cabin communities. But this \u2018innovative solution\u2019 is leaving some behind Sam Levin in Oakland @SamTLevin Email Tue 15 Jan 2019 (theguardian.com) Eric Clark didn\u2019t know if he\u2019d survive the sheds. As the city of Oakland began clearing homeless communities… Continue reading
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Sam](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/uploads\/2017\/10\/09\/Sam-Levin,-L.png?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=af78f26151eed90f7adcc1e680d7c5bf\")
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<\/a>Placed in sheds, then evicted<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/6fc0f43f6b8b3fd2b47a710f2c5e857dda8c6f5c\/0_0_5760_3840\/master\/5760.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=12c7c32886c37827bad3a8072c83a7d2\")
<\/a>When homeless camps are torn apart<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nSan Francisco or Mumbai? UN envoy encounters homeless life in California<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Alone on the street<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n