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.
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| This sign was recently placed on Emeryville public property to stop homeless people, according to the City Manager. |
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
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| 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? |
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
Ridiculous. This story is even more 'tattlery' than most. Only you would find fault in the people being able to walk down the sidewalk without being accosted by drug addicts and insane people. Keeping homeless people out of Emeryville is the one bright spot in this town and you of course hate it. F*ing pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI do think clearing homeless people out of a town is not work any government should be doing. But the story is also about how the government is not leveling with the people about what they're doing. It sounds like you are OK with that so let's just agree to disagree about how a government should function. Like it or not, the Tattler will always report when we find City Hall or the police whitewashing public policy. Reporting on dishonest government doings is the most 'Tattlery' thing we can do.
DeleteSorry Brian, I disagree with your attitude about the Homeless in Emeryville. Deep in my heart I am sorry for them, but I am happy that they don't have a presence in Emeryville. Thanks go to our City Government for whatever they're doing about it.
ReplyDeleteSome people think the government should not be helping the people capitalism left behind and that's fine. People can disagree about the role of government. So you and others may appreciate Emeryville rousting the homeless people in our midsts but don't you think they should be telling us what they're doing? If not for ethical reasons at least for fiscal accountability reasons? I mean it IS our money they're spending when they secretly roust these undesirable people out.
DeleteThe governor and legislature have the authority and money but not the motivation to house the homeless on available land rather than tap dancing lightly around the problem.
ReplyDeleteA sliver of the money the pentagon spends on weapons every year would be enough to ease the suffering of all the homeless. This wouldn't make the U.S. into sitting ducks attack-wise. Just a sliver.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the government this and the government that. How many individuals in this I-T rich city have offered much help perso
ReplyDeleteNot surprising so many get addicted and crazy when from their point of view, God and humanity have abandoned them.
ReplyDeletegod hates us .
DeleteWhile I am actually hopeful Emeryville could be heading in the right direction by having a near zero policy on the homeless in Emeryville, the city also gets a near zero chance of buildings and catching fire, spewing toxic smoke, extensive littering, degrees of crime, tent cities of rubbish wand garbage attracting difficult to get rid of rats and panhandling. The police has done more than their share of keeping our city safe and in their quest in ridding homeless, they can focus on many other crimes this city is already experiencing. This town is small, compared to others in the Bay Area and a relatively higher density, but most everyone already feels this.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of homeless people setting up camp in Emeryville and support clearing them out but Brian is right the city should be truthful about it. They are moving the homeless out of town but they are not admitting they are doing it. They should just come out and admit it so we can be doing it transparently. The sneakiness isn't right.
ReplyDeleteI see your point but I have to admit, I wish we had a bit more Emeryville in Oakland. To state that all the folks living on the street were left behind by the capitalist bus is a bit of a simplification. I go through these camps 3x a week in Oakland and I get the sense that a lot of these folks are engaged in full-time criminal activity, and have chosen to never even attempt to get on the bus...
ReplyDeleteThis what you get with a collapsing middle class brought to you by (late) American capitalism. Have you noticed the ranks of the unhoused have been increasing? That's not an indication of increased laziness among American citizens. That's an indication of growing despair brought on by our mean spirited economic/political system. Scandinavian countries don't have growing homelessness. In fact their rate of homelessness is effectively zero. This is an American (capitalist) phenomenon. Homeless people gravitate to the Bay Area because the weather is nice and because, unlike in the red states, the local governments here don't generally arrest/harasses them (Emeryville excepted).
DeleteDo you listen to the police scanner Mr. Donahue? I do. The Emeryville Police Department (EPD) are regularly dispatched to help the homeless. They have been dispatched with city and county personnel assist homeless in encampments. Have you heard the EPD called to an unconscious homeless person? I've heard on several occasions where EPD administered Narcan and saved a homeless person's life. Possibly you can do some reporting to find out just how many homeless peoples lives EPD has saved in the past few years? This sounds like the opposite of harassment. This sounds like empathy and compassion. Listen to the scanner for a month. Then do an update to your opinion piece.
DeleteThat’s great but why are you listening to the scanner when you can hear it in your own patrol car? Are you talking about listening after work when you go home? If that’s what you’re talking about then I’ll say props for the dedication!
DeleteYour point however is not well taken. Because one or two cops jay walk occasionally doesn’t mean the whole department is rotten. There could still be compassion and good work being done by police even within a wholesale jaywalking police culture. Your cop cheerleading position is laid bare.
Emeryville police are not rousting homeless people because they’re mean. They’re doing it because that’s the (unwritten) policy. Where does the policy come from? Well, the chief of course. But even more from City Hall. This rousting of homeless people comes from the top. And it’s been done this way since Emeryville started. In 2018, after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled people are allowed to sleep on public property unless the government provides enough beds for everyone, Oakland and Berkeley stopped rousting homeless people. Emeryville (and some other towns) has continued on in violation of the law.
So Mr Anon, please stop violating the law and go back to stoping crime.
There are no homeless people in Emeryville because we don't want homeless people here. What's wrong with that? I agree with the earlier guy who said you want homeless people everywhere. You want Emeryville to be like the failure towns of Oakland and Berkeley.
ReplyDeleteI welcome persons who are experiencing homelessness. They are human beings worthy of respect and support, unlike individuals who complain about "failure towns." Get a life, pal.
DeleteBrian, who has EVER said this: "Emeryville they say, is a smart, compassionate and nimble city that quickly matches homeless people with emergency shelter and other services."? No one I know thinks this! Way to start your blog post with a straw man argument.
ReplyDeleteNo straw man here. The last two city managers said it as the City Council looked on. Probably more city managers than just the last two as well. This actually is the lore here at City Hall. Some probably actually believe it. The cops know it's hooey however.
DeleteEvery person has the right to shelter, income, and health care. If the government entity says there is not enough housing, build it!
ReplyDeleteEveryone says the government should do it. Build more housing. Everybody deserves everything. Well, I agree we are all humans and no one should have to live on the streets and no one should go hungry. However, there are 8 billion people on Earth and literally hundreds of millions of them are without shelter or adequate food. It's not just a local problem. It's a problem with our species.
DeleteBut it's $500 or more square foot to build a structure. And with our land prices it's pretty difficult to create affordable housing. And where is the money going to come from?
I'd rather live in Malibu on the White Sand Beach in perfect weather than Berkeley. But I can't afford it. So I have to live where I can afford.
That's how it is everywhere.
How many homeless people are there in Tiburon or belvedere? Or even Mill valley or Sausalito?
When a place is nice, has nice weather, views of an iconic bridge, a relatively strong economy, people will come to it. And more and more people are coming and there is no way to create housing quickly enough.
So I'm all for affordable housing. I'm all for everybody having all their needs met. Just tell me how you're going to do that.
Seriously. And don't say you're going to take money from the rich and share it among everyone. Because, first off, even if you could do that so that everyone had exactly the same amount of resources, what do you think would happen? Then? Imbalance would arise again. That's the nature of it. That's the nature of our species. That's the nature of nature.
But be specific. Where you going to get the land from and the money from to create affordable housing in the Bay area?
And I too like the idea of taking a slice of our military budget. But how are you going to do that?
And how big a slice? And how quickly will that happen?
This is a hard problem to solve. And I sure wish cities like Berkeley and Oakland would report clearly on how much money they've spent on homeless issues and problems and show us what programs have worked and how many people have been lifted out of poverty through these programs and expenditures.
We've been working on this problem for decades and spending fortunes, yet the number of homeless continues to increase.
I don't mean to be an ideologue or come down on any side of this. Nor do I mean to be snarky.
And I really appreciate those individuals and organizations that go at this one person at a time, helping one person solving one problem. And I wish we could find ways to do it more effectively and on a large scale. I think that's what we're trying to do. But in the meantime, we can't have huge, dirty, rat infested dangerous encampments all over the place
Those that aren't interested in solving the problem of homelessness in America always use these fatuous arguments you have made here. When capitalism fails us as it has, it is up to the government to backstop it, not individuals. How do we know this? Use the argument your side never uses: Look to how other countries have done it. Scandinavian countries for instance. Those countries are not as rich as America but they have no homelessness crisis. See how that works? It's the question your side never asks: Can we learn anything at all from other countries that have been successful?
DeleteHomelessness is generally a mental illness issue. Most of you commenting here seem to think its economic. Wrong!
ReplyDeletePeople with mental illness problems in Denmark are not homeless. Or Sweden, or Norway, or Finland....
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