Facing a recall election and a slew of scandals, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao is seizing on a recent Supreme Court decision to proclaim that the city will get a lot more aggressive in clearing homeless encampments.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed faces a tough reelection vote in six weeks, and has latched on to more homeless encampment sweeps in an attempt to bolster her reelection bid. Over on the other side of the Bay, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao faces an even tougher recall effort on that same November 5 Election Day. And she seems to be taking a page from Breed’s and other mayors' playbooks, as KRON4 reports that Thao also just declared an executive order to ramp up encampment sweeps, even though Oakland has nowhere near the shelter beds to accommodate those whose tents are confiscated.
Thao made her announcement in the Monday morning Youtube video seen above. “Being unhoused is not a crime in Oakland, but it doesn’t give individuals the right to break other laws. We must protect our critical infrastructure, and do so by leading with compassion,” Thao said. “This is work we have already been doing, like clearing Wood Street, which was the largest encampment in Northern California. This work won’t be completed overnight. But as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on Grant’s Pass, we are now able to do this more expeditiously.”
She refers to the Supreme Court’s June City of Grant’s Pass v Johnson decision, which said cities could clear homeless encampments, and even arrest street campers, regardless of whether a city had adequate shelter beds to accommodate those people.
Oakland city workers and police were already clearing a large encampment at MLK Jr. Way and West Grand Avenue last week, and critics have been howling. Homeless population advocate Talya Husbands-Hankin of Love & Justice in the Streets argues this effort will steal property from the unhoused, and only just move them to different encampments.
“Aligning with the values of a Trump-appointed Supreme Court is appalling and contrary to the values of justice and equity that Oaklanders want to uphold,” Husbands-Hankin told Oaklandside.
Per that website, Oakland has 5,400 unhoused people, but less than 2,000 shelter beds for them.
In related news, the Chronicle today covered the aggressive encampment-sweeping efforts, complete with threats of jail time, that are happening in the city of Fresno, where the mayor is the former chief of police, and where the approach is even more onerous.
And similar sweeps are occurring up and down the state following the Supreme Court's decision, however it remains to be seen whether these widespread efforts have any lasting impact on the number of unhoused people on the streets.
Image: Mayor Sheng Thao via Youtube
