Berkeley Police Department officers cleared a small unhoused encampment of 3-4 people at Trinity United Methodist Church near Blackwell Hall on Oct. 10.
According to Berkeley city law, it is considered illegal trespassing when somebody is on someone else’s private property after being prohibited from the property, and removal of individuals is enforceable by police.
After officers cleared the encampment, which was located in the yard of the closed Trinity United Methodist Church, Selina Mares, an unhoused person living on the property, stood a few feet away with her tarp, bike and other belongings on the sidewalk.
Immediately after the police came, she was stuck guarding the belongings of her friends, who entrusted her with their bags of cans.
“It was a safe place, it was God’s house, a church,” Mares said. “It is gated and our things would stay safe without the city or other people stealing our things from us while we’re not at home because we don’t have walls, so it was a safe place to rest our head and live for a while.”
While some individuals left, others moved onto the public sidewalk frequented by UC Berkeley students.
BPD officer and spokesperson Jessica Perry said officers arrived around noon to ask people to leave in response to the church management’s “report of trespassers” setting up tents on private property. Everyone on the scene complied and officers took no further action, Perry said.
Mares said that upon being asked to leave, the unhoused people tossed their belongings over the fence and onto the sidewalk to save what they could. After an hour, the remaining garbage and belongings were piled into a trailer.
She said without a proper garbage disposal system, trash piled up in the encampment, causing unhealthy conditions.
The Trinity United Methodist Church has not opened its doors in years. According to a blog post on the Berkeley Methodist United Church website, the church closed in 2020 due to “extremely serious exigent circumstances” like plumbing and roof problems, and significant water damage. The post said it may also be seismically unsound. A live-in janitor’s pets caused a flea infestation in the education building.
The management of the Berkeley United Methodist Church did not respond to requests for comment.
Mares alleged that officers did not provide housing options, and that her housing counselor recently told her that the city had no open beds she qualified for. In September 2024, the city of Berkeley adopted a policy trying to provide housing when possible during encampment sweeps, but did not declare it a requirement.
Mares said she previously came from the 8th and Harrison encampment. In September, a judge allowed the city to partially clear the encampment, but prevented the removal of 19 residents who were seeking Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations from the city.
“Either the city, Caltrans or private property owners (come) in and they take everything,” Mares said. “So we have to start all over. … It’s an awful cycle, and it’s been going on for me for 12 years. It’s over and over and over again.”