Why No Homeless People in Emeryville?

Homeless Clearances Reveal Emeryville's Policies Are Not Compassionate, Not Truthful

Official Claims Don't Stand Up  

Emeryville they say, is a smart, compassionate and nimble city that quickly matches homeless people with emergency shelter and other services.  With the City so committed, the downtrodden are seldom visible, City Hall explains.  Turns out, reality is far from that image.

This sign was recently placed on Emeryville public
property to stop homeless people, according to the 
City Manager.

In fact, local homeless people report they intentionally avoid Emeryville, saying they are rousted without warning by the police, their possessions confiscated and discarded.  Sharply contrasting with the City's official "all are welcome here" reassurances in the wake of recent right wing attacks on the LGBTQ community, City Manager Adam Politzer last week admitted an on-going and punitive city policy against those most disadvantaged.

Mr Politzer confirmed that a "no trespassing" sign recently placed on City owned public property behind City Hall was intended to prevent a homeless encampment there.  The sign was placed amid a field of boulders placed by a landscaping firm paid for with tax dollars whose contract stipulated that the Emeryville PD clear away a homeless encampment that was previously starting to form there.  Boulders spaced 12 inches apart on the City owned property apparently wasn’t enough to chase away homeless people so the City put up a no trespassing sign for them like a maraschino cherry on top of a cupcake made of boulders.  

"All* are welcome in Emeryville".      *except homeless people

Cleared homeless encampment on Wood St
in Oakland, Friday.  
On Emeryville's border, 300 were sent packing.
Where did they go? 
Why haven't any set up camp in Emeryville?
 

To anyone asking, the EPD, City Hall and the City Council has for years explained the reason there are no homeless encampments here is because they do such a great job helping those people find shelter (and other government services).  Emeryville would have us believe Oakland and Berkeley have cruel policies towards poor people that is evident in all the homeless people encamped in their respective cities.  And to skeptics of this official explanation, the City of Emeryville lets the explanation of ‘no homeless visible is proof of a compassionate local government’ speak without any other supporting information.  Concerned citizens are told to just believe City Hall and the police. 
 

If Emeryville is so good to homeless people, last week’s (and continuing) well publicized clearance of a camp of some 300 people on Wood Street in Oakland near Emeryville will make it plain for all to see.  The City of Oakland freely admits there are not enough beds in local shelters or homes for the massive influx of unhoused people left by the unprecedented clearances.  With a compassionate Emeryville right next door, they would migrate here and we would be seeing many tents going up.   Because there are not enough local shelters to accommodate them, tents should now be proliferating here if Emeryville has been truthful to us.  If not, then everyone will know the City has not been entirely truthful about what it does with homeless people found sleeping in our city.  So far there are no new tents in Emeryville, EPD informs us.

A compassionate city that helps homeless people doesn't place boulders and no trespassing signs on the public's property to stop camps from forming.  The Tattler spoke Sunday with five people displaced by the clearances on Wood Street about what Emeryville is like for people without homes.  A woman who wished to remain anonymous told us what all unhoused people in Berkeley and Oakland know: "Emeryville cops arrest you.  They take your stuff and they throw it away and they arrest you.  They don't play." she said.

Several police personnel and City Hall employees were contacted for this story but all refused to comment.

“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”

-Anatole France