Name: Emeryville: Judge blocks city's plan to close homeless encampment
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Emeryville: Judge blocks city's plan to close homeless encampment

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By | | Bay Area News GroupA federal judge has blocked Emeryville from closing a homeless encampment near a Shellmound Street construction site, siding — for now — with residents and activists who argue displacing unhoused people during the COVID pandemic is illegal.The court order provides a temporary reprieve for a group of unhoused people camped near Shellmound Street and Ashby Avenue. After the city posted notices alerting residents they would be removed this week, camp occupants sued the city for the right to remain in place.Plaintiffs will face off against the city in court next month, and the judge will decide whether to extend the order prohibiting the camp’s closure. But for now, activists are celebrating a win.“For us, it’s huge,” said Ian Cordova Morales, president of the activist group Where Do We Go Berkeley, which brought the lawsuit. “The fact that we got them to stop at all — it usually doesn’t work out that way. Even if it’s just for this week.”Emeryville City Clerk Sheri Hartz confirmed the city had been served with the court order, but did not comment on the order or the merits of the case.The East Bay legal battle is the latest in a fighting for the rights of unhoused Californians — several of which have resulted in victories for homeless plaintiffs.The California Homeless Union convinced judges in Santa Cruz, Sausalito and Sacramento to temporarily bar those cities from removing certain encampments during the pandemic. A group of people living in RVs in Pacifica last month, attempting to block an ordinance that prohibits RVs from parking on some city streets.Additional lawsuits have been filed in Sonoma County, Tulare County, San Diego and Los Angeles over unhoused people’s right to live in their cars, remain in their encampments or avoid being disproportionately cited for minor offenses.In Emeryville, about six unhoused people have set up camp on a city-owned site near 6701 Shellmound Street, with another 30 camping on adjacent Caltrans-owned land. The city recently posted signs around the camp directing residents to vacate the site immediately, and warning the city would clear the camp April 19 and dispose of any property not removed. The city designated the encampment location a “construction safety clearance area.”The camp borders a site where developer AMCAL has started work on a 186-unit residential project, which will include eight units&nbsp;affordable for households making 50% or less of the area’s median income, according to Hartz.“In October of 2020 the City’s homeless services outreach provider began focused engagement with the individuals at that location, letting them know that the housing project was soon to be under construction and that the construction impacts would ultimately require them to relocate,” Hartz wrote in an emailed statement. “Shelter beds at St. Vincent DePaul (in Oakland), funded by the City of Emeryville, are available for individuals relocating from this area.”Even so, plaintiffs argue clearing the camp would fly in the face of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which state cities should not break up homeless encampments during the pandemic unless occupants have alternate shelter.“If the Court does not intervene to stop the City of Emeryville from its noticed actions, plaintiffs will be irreparably harmed,” the lawyers wrote in their motion to block the city from clearing the camp. “They will lose all of their personal possessions, they will be dispersed into the community where they will be more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, and they may spread COVID-19 in the community.”On Monday, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed. For now, the city cannot remove the camp until all residents are provided safe, individual housing, she wrote, granting the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary restraining order. The city will have a chance to respond, and both sides will return to court May 3, when the judge will consider whether to extend her temporary order.But the situation is complicated because Caltrans owns the land where most of the residents camp. Since the court order prevents the city, but not Caltrans, from displacing residents, it’s unclear what the state agency will do, Morales said“We’re just going to wait and see,” he said.Caltrans did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Of the four named plaintiffs living in the Emeryville camp, one has a compromised immune system and faces a heightened risk of contracting COVID, and two others are disabled, according to the complaint.The city notices warning of the camp closure directed residents to call nonprofit Operation Dignity for help, but according to the lawsuit, several residents tried and received no response.We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. 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By | | Bay Area News GroupA federal judge has blocked Emeryville from closing a homeless encampment near a Shellmound Street construction site, siding — for now — with residents and activists who argue displacing unhoused people during the COVID pandemic is illegal.The court order provides a temporary reprieve for a group of unhoused people camped near Shellmound Street and Ashby Avenue. After the city posted notices alerting residents they would be removed this week, camp occupants sued the city for the right to remain in place.Plaintiffs will face off against the city in court next month,...

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Homelessness reporter for @mercnews / @EastBayTimes

Marisa Kendall

Latest Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area news from reporters & columnists at The Mercury News.

Emeryville: Judge blocks city's plan to close homeless encampment

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