Oakland clears large homeless encampment near MLK Jr. Way

The city of Oakland continued cleaning up a large homeless encampment on Tuesday near Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 23rd Street.
The focus was on the area around MLK and West Grand, but at the city council meeting later Tuesday night, council members will decide whether to take the drastic step of closing part of 23rd Street between Brush St and West Street.
The city says the street closure is part of an effort to curb illegal dumping.
“This is straight-up a sweep, not a cleanup,” said Tena Harvey. She is talking about what’s happening on MLK and West Grand today where city crews were cleaning up trash from a large encampment area.
“They had people here in tents. Where’s the tents? Where’s the people? So it’s more like a sweep than it is a cleanup,” Harvey said. She used to be unhoused and live in the Wood Street encampment, but has since been placed in more permanent housing.
She’s concerned for the folks who are being pushed out of the area because she says many of them have nowhere else to go, like Shantel Banks, an unhoused woman who has lived in the area for about two years.
“I don’t know. I really don’t,” said Banks when asked about where she would go after the clearing.
According to the city, there are approximately 30 to 40 people who live in the MLK encampment. A recent double murder and other criminal activity were also pointed to as reason for the encampment to be closed.
“They don’t want to go in for shelter. They just want to be out here doing drugs and tearing up the streets and that’s not fair to taxpayers,” said Akilah McHenry, who owns a condo a few blocks away.
“They always refer you to 211 and 211 refers you to the non-emergency number. It’s just a bunch and then when you call they say we already have that site on our radar,” she continued.
“There’s a lot of shelters with a lot of beds available. Lets see how many people will go to beds today.”  
Just a block away on 23rd Street between Brush Street and West Street, there’s a similar scene of tents on the sidewalk and trash in the streets. It’s the area where the city is talking about closing the street for 18 months to prevent more illegal dumping.
“It sounds like a sweep. That doesn’t sound like somebody trying to clean it up. I think that they’re just cutting it off not to have to deal with it,” said Pastor Bobby Smith of Rehobeth Church in San Leandro. He and other church members have been coming to the area for months to feed the unhoused residents.
The city says local businesses in the area have come together and offered to pay for the barriers needed to block off the section of 23rd Street. The council will take up the issue at the meeting Tuesday night.