Berkeley homeless encampment sweep creates secondary encampments nearby

By Carlos E. Castañeda

When the City of Berkeley started its sweep of the Harrison Street corridor homeless encampment last week, the sidewalks of Eighth Street were filled with tents.

We met Jacqueline Mendoza that day, cleaning up her space in hopes of staying put. On Monday, we found her still there but with a lot fewer tents around her.

“If I needed bread I’d go over here. If I needed dog food I’d go over there. Now we are all spread out. It’s just like you are kind of lost.”

Mendoza lives at the Harrison encampment. When we asked her where most of her neighbors went, she told us to stick around because we would find that people hadn’t gone far. As we made our way through what remains of the encampment in the area of Eighth and Harrison streets, we got all kinds of tips on where to find people who were removed last week.

One tip sent us just six blocks away to Second Street, where we met Art and several others who say they moved there after being swept away from the Harrison encampment last week.

“It’s not bad. We aren’t bothering anyone,” Art said. “There isn’t any sidewalk.”

Art says this new encampment is here to stay, and he’s heard there are others like it forming elsewhere in Berkeley.

“You can’t stomp out water,” Art said. “Now there is a bunch of haphazard stuff going on throughout the streets of Berkeley and people are just trying to collect themselves.”

Whether you call it the leaf blower effect or something similar, Harrison encampment residents both current and former believe the city’s sweep has done just that. Their proof, they say, is the creation of new encampments like the one on Second Street and others just like it. 

We reached out to the City Manager’s Office to get their thoughts on the relocation. It declined an interview, citing the active litigation. 

Instead, the office sent us a transcript from a recent City Council meeting. During that meeting, City Manager Paul Buddenhagen confirmed he had received complaints about people relocating to areas like Second Street. He also told council he does not agree with the relocation, instead wanting to end all outdoor encampments.

But with the issue being litigated in court, what happens next will depend on the outcome of that legal process.