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A homeless encampment on Fifth Street, off of Mandela Parkway, is seen from the West Oakland BART Station. Mayor Barbara Lee\u2019s homeless plan will require hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a feat that no big city in California has ever achieved: cutting street homelessness in half in just five years.<\/p>\n
But this month, approaching the end of her first year in office, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee unveiled plans to do just that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee says clearing more encampments and cracking down on those living on the city\u2019s sidewalks and underpasses has not worked. In fact, homelessness has increased even as the city has significantly increased sweeps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The spike is driven by the fact that the number of people becoming homeless outnumbers those who are getting housed. Oakland\u2019s programs help house 1,500 homeless people each year, but more than 2,500 people in Oakland become homeless annually, according to city data.<\/p>\n
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Randall Hall, 65, sweeps trash near the site where he and his wife, Diane King, 68, are sleeping on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland.
\u201cWe\u2019re homeless, not hopeless,\u201d Hall said. \u201cPeople keep dumping and I\u2019m trying to keep up with it.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Lee\u2019s plan would focus on prevention and increasing housing capacity for the city\u2019s thousands of homeless residents\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a strategy backed by homelessness experts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe can do a great job of housing people, but as long as more people are entering homelessness than exiting, we\u2019re just running on a treadmill,\u201d said Edie Irons, spokesperson for All Home, a nonprofit working on regional homelessness solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But Lee\u2019s plan will face significant challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s goal is ambitious. Past pledges from Bay Area mayors have proved\u00a0difficult to deliver, as they confront the realities of funding and local politics. In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie initially pledged to build 1,500 shelter beds in his first six months in office, a promise that his administration later walked back<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe question really comes down to resources and execution, and Oakland residents are unfortunately very used to seeing the city fail spectacularly when it comes to resources and execution on these sorts of issues,\u201d said Jason Overman, an Oakland-based political consultant and lobbyist.\u00a0<\/p>\n Implementing Lee\u2019s agenda would cost dramatically more than Oakland\u2019s current budget allows, even with a major boost from newly available county homelessness dollars<\/a>.<\/p>\n A man sleeps under harsh sunlight at a massive homeless encampment at the intersection of Brush Street and San Pablo Avenue.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n There are also questions about whether her plan is urgent enough to appease voters who have grown impatient with street homelessness. By focusing on prevention and rehousing, Lee differs from her counterparts in San Francisco and San Jose, who\u00a0\u2014\u00a0while still making major investments in prevention and supportive housing\u00a0\u2014\u00a0have projected to voters that they aim to rapidly build more interim shelter to get people off the streets now.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Even the Oakland City Council is responding to voters\u2019 desire for change, as it considers reforms to the city\u2019s encampment management policy<\/a> that would allow sweeps to proceed even if the city doesn\u2019t have available shelter for displaced residents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor\u2019s plan is really thoughtful and data driven, but it runs the risk of not satiating the average voter\u2019s desire to see action right now,\u201d Overman said. Through a spokesperson, Lee declined to be interviewed for this story. But details of her plan were outlined in a 70-page document that has been circulated among council members and city staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oakland is home to some 5,500 unhoused people\u00a0\u2014 just over half of Alameda County\u2019s homeless population, even though Oakland represents just 22% of the county\u2019s total population. Of them, 3,700 are unsheltered.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite spending some $120 million a year on homelessness, Oakland\u2019s overall homeless population grew 9% between 2022 and 2024\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and since 2015, it has more than doubled. The unsheltered population grew<\/a> nearly 11% between 2022 and 2024 to 3,659.<\/p>\n Trash has been dumped at a massive homeless encampment in Oakland.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Oakland has struggled to build interim shelter and permanent supportive housing as quickly as have San Jose and San Francisco. Oakland has just 1,200 interim housing beds across shelters and tiny homes, versus some\u00a03,600<\/a> in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s plan calls for adding about 860 interim housing beds and units over five years, expanding Oakland\u2019s system to roughly 2,000 beds citywide. San Jose, by comparison, has added some 1,500 units since 2023 between emergency interim housing sites and conversions of\u00a0hotel rooms into homeless shelters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s plan also calls for the city to house 730 additional people each year, either through housing vouchers or new permanent supportive housing units. Since voters approved the city\u2019s Measure U housing bond in 2022, Oakland has funded about 930 new homes dedicated to people experiencing homelessness, though most are still in pre-development or under construction. A new unit of affordable housing in the East Bay typically costs around $800,000 to build<\/a> and, per the report, costs about $20,000 in annual expenses.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s priority is not clearing encampments\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but managing them to ensure that they\u2019re not nuisances to their surrounding neighborhoods by boosting trash removal services and containing them to specific areas.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a position backed by affordable housing and homeless advocates.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIf we just keep doing sweeps, we are just pushing people around from one place to another,\u201d said Jeff Levin, of East Bay Housing Organizations, at a recent committee hearing.<\/p>\n A pedestrian passes by trash that has been dumped at a massive homeless encampment at the intersection of Brush Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland. Mayor Barbara Lee wants to cut street homelessness in the city in half within 5 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n But a recent survey released by the East Bay Polling Institute<\/a> found widespread support among Oakland voters for clearing encampments, with 79% of respondents saying they should be removed from public spaces like parks and sidewalks.<\/p>\n A 2024 Supreme Court ruling gave cities broader authority<\/a> to ban public camping, accelerating a shift toward tougher enforcement across the Bay Area.<\/p>\n San Jose<\/a> and Fremont<\/a> last year passed policies that would allow police officers to arrest unhoused residents if they repeatedly declined offers of shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cities have also been ramping up their sweeps since the Supreme Court ruling \u2014 Oakland included. Last year, it cleared more encampments than it has in the previous three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sweeps would still continue under Lee\u2019s plan. For now, Lee\u2019s popularity among both Oakland residents and the council has meant that even the most fervent supporters of sweeps aren\u2019t criticizing her plan\u00a0\u2014\u00a0at least not publicly.<\/p>\n City Council Member Ken Houston, who is leading the charge on the new encampment abatement plan, said in an interview that he envisions Lee\u2019s plan working in conjunction with his proposed encampment policy.<\/p>\n \u201cHer plan and my policy will work together,\u201d Houston said. \u201cI\u2019m very in line with this.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee hasn\u2019t publicly taken a stance on Houston\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n The message \u201c4: We want decent housing fit for shelter of human beings\u201d is seen on a structure at a massive homeless encampment in Oakland.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s strategy would cost $406 million per year\u00a0\u2014\u00a0$284 million more than what the city and county currently spend on homelessness in Oakland. Achieving all that the plan envisions\u00a0\u2014\u00a0increased rental subsidies for prevention, funding for interim and supportive housing, and improved case management\u00a0\u2014 would require a major infusion of new funds from Alameda County, as well as philanthropic organizations and potentially even a new bond measure.<\/p>\n Lee is pushing for Oakland to receive some 65% of funds raised through Measure W, a 10-year 0.5% tax measure passed by Alameda County voters in 2020 that is expected to raise some $1.4 billion for homelessness and social services. Lee is justifying concentrating the funds in Oakland, given the city carries the majority of the county\u2019s homelessness population. But while Lee has support from some county supervisors, like former Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, it\u2019s unclear how the rest of the supervisors might come down on the funding allocation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee also aims to raise money through philanthropy, and potentially an additional ballot measure. Miya Saika Chen, Lee\u2019s chief of staff, said that Oakland has up-front commitments and is working to bring in additional donors, too.<\/p>\n Lee\u2019s plan indicates she may also ask voters to pass a new tax, though Chen said it\u2019s too soon to know how much the city would ask for.<\/p>\n Oakland residents already pay for two 0.5% sales tax increases \u2014 one for the county, and another for the city, which go toward their general budgets and to fund homelessness programs and other services. They have also voted twice in the past decade to increase their property taxes to pay for $1.4 billion worth of bonds.\u00a0<\/p>\n A sign stating, \u201cThis site is closed; no dumping; no encampments\u201d is posted near a massive homeless encampment at the intersection of Brush Street and San Pablo Avenue in Oakland.<\/p>\n Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n And in June, the city will also ask for a $192 annual parcel tax<\/a> to raise some $34 million annually to balance its budget.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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