City says Civic Center Park encampment has its attention
Staffers say they're working to get up to speed and added that, if the city finds grounds to take action, it will likely face another lawsuit.
The city of Berkeley pledged Wednesday night to turn its focus and resources to a homeless encampment that's been growing since January in Civic Center Park, right across from Berkeley High and the police station.
Parents have been raising concerns about problematic behavior related to the camp, particularly after a man who walked out of the park grabbed a Berkeley High student on her way to school in late January.
On Wednesday night, local activists and advocates emphasized that the man, who is now facing criminal charges, did not live in the Civic Center Park encampment.
(He did walk out of the area just before the crime and returned to the park a short time later, police have said.)
Many community members, including parents and local workers, urged the city to take decisive action to address what they see as a dangerous situation at Civic Center Park that appears to be festering, well beyond a single person or one-off crime report.
Several people said the park, which could be a downtown jewel, has instead become an embarrassment due to current conditions, which include slow-moving city infrastructure work.
An ongoing infrastructure project at the park has contributed to its dilapidated appearance. Emilie Raguso/TBS
Activists and advocates, meanwhile, urged their neighbors not to cast aspersions on the downtrodden, particularly those who had not broken any laws.
Members of the camp have said there is a strong sense of community among many of its occupants and that they're there, in part, to be close to various city services.
People across the aisle advocated for compassionate solutions that emphasize supportive services — although some also said that the status quo clearly isn't working.
Mayor Adena Ishii and Councilman Igor Tregub, who represents downtown Berkeley, organized Wednesday night's public safety town hall, which took place at the North Berkeley Senior Center, in response to the growing tension and concerns about the park.
"We're not here to criminalize our unhoused population," Ishii said, adding, "People who have fears and … don't feel safe, those feelings are real too."
A homeless encampment has been growing in Civic Center Park across from Berkeley High. Emilie Raguso/TBS
The most substantive information of the night came from Peter Radu, who oversees the city's approach to homeless services along with other duties as Berkeley's neighborhood services manager.
"We're very aware of the encampments in Civic Center as well as around the city," he told attendees. "It's not OK, what's happening."
Radu explained that the city had most recently been focused on encampments in West Berkeley but had "started to shift our attention to Civic Center Park" in recent days as the other work wound down, at least for now.
As a result, he said, his "small but very mighty team" would begin getting to know the Civic Center Park encampment and developing a "by-name list," a tool the city uses in its ongoing collaborative case management efforts to ensure, at least in part, that unsheltered individuals who are receiving regular outreach are getting what they need.
"We take pride in getting to know encampments as a community of people," Radu said. "We get to know what their needs are. We ask them what their goals are."
Emilie Raguso
Radu also emphasized that the city's policy is that it cannot close or clear a homeless camp without offering all residents beds — except under very narrow exceptions.
The city does not have enough beds at this time to offer those staying at Civic Center Park, he added.
Radu said his team had not previously had the resources, due to the West Berkeley work, to assess whether the Civic Center camp might meet the closure criteria.
But he said staffers had already begun trying to learn more to find solutions.
"I'll commit to turning over every stone, to looking at this situation and being very careful," he said. "I cannot make any promises — because I don't know what types of things we're gonna find."
Radu also noted that, if and when the city decides to take action to clear the camp, it would likely be sued — as it has been about a half-dozen other times in recent years.
"I'm not optimistic about Golden Gate Fields"
City Manager Paul Buddenhagen said he had been working for years to try to find land in Berkeley that might work as some kind of sanctioned homeless camp.
Some have floated the idea of leasing property at Golden Gate Fields, which shut down in June.
Buddenhagen said, to date, "they have said, point blank, we're not gonna lease it to the city."
"I'm gonna call them again," he continued, "but I'm not optimistic about Golden Gate Fields."
He urged anyone with other ideas to send them his way.
"I've been engaged in this work for quite a long time and it is some of the hardest work that there is to do," he said. "And that is, how do we manage collectively a nationwide problem of people living on our streets?"
"It is a terrible problem that has a lot of impacts on a lot of people," he said.
A stepped-up police presence at Civic Center Park
Emilie Raguso
Throughout the night, officials and other speakers decried, in the strongest possible terms, sexual assault and sexual violence of any kind.
Some speakers said teenagers had been subjected to catcalls and other harassment routinely since the Civic Center Park encampment moved in.
Buddenhagen said he had directed Berkeley police to pay more attention to the park since the sexual battery incident, particularly at times when students are coming and going, including when they might be off campus for lunch.
"Police have been in the park every day, multiple times a day," he said, "just to have a presence to respond if there are issues that they see proactively, and they also respond reactively when there's a call for service."
In addition to city staff and city officials, several members of the Berkeley Police Department were also in attendance.
Berkeley School Board members and BUSD representatives were also in the room, but only to listen in an unofficial capacity due a scheduling conflict, the mayor said.
In closing the meeting, Mayor Ishii and Councilman Tregub both thanked the public for expressing themselves and sharing so many ideas and concerns.
"This was a really important conversation. My staff and I took copious notes," Tregub said. "We are working night and day to figure this out."
Read more about Berkeley homeless encampments and related subjects.
