{"id":268233,"date":"2026-04-15T01:08:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268233\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T01:08:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T01:08:28","slug":"oakland-can-now-clear-homeless-tents-tow-vehicles-without-offering-immediate-shelter-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/268233\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland can now clear homeless tents, tow vehicles without offering immediate shelter \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 City officials can now clear homeless encampments and tow vehicles used as shelter<\/a> without first offering immediate housing, a sharp change of direction in Oakland\u2019s approach to homelessness.<\/p>\n

The new policy approved Tuesday shifts the city from managing encampments to clearing them, allowing workers to act without first securing shelter.<\/p>\n

Oakland has struggled to provide enough temporary beds to homeless residents amid local shelter closures, but a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2024 cleared the path for cities to ban encampments.<\/p>\n

In a 5-1\u00a0vote, with one abstention, the Oakland City Council approved stricter rules for vehicles that remain parked in front of residences for months on end and tents that generate waste and, in some cases, hazardous fires.<\/p>\n

Those living in encampments can be redirected to areas in which schools and businesses are not within close proximity and won\u2019t be subjected to arrest or citation.<\/p>\n

Under the new policies, workers must provide a week\u2019s notice to an encampment\u2019s residents before clearing it and offer shelter to displaced tenants \u201cas soon as it becomes available.\u201d<\/p>\n

The city can move more quickly, providing up to three days notice if there are immediate concerns in an area, such as fires, illegal wiring or criminal activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving with no fixed address does not confer the right to engage in dangerous or illegal behavior,\u201d said Councilmember Zac Unger, who represents North Oakland and voted to adopt the new rules. \u201cThat needs to be dealt with, just as if somebody is living in a home that they rent or own.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s decision offers a formal rebuke to city policies during the COVID-19 era, which prioritized the well-being of homeless residents over more sweeping encampment clearings.<\/p>\n

\"OaklandOakland City Councilmember Ken Houston, left, and Oakland Interim Mayor Kevin Jenkins react after participating during the Oakland Ballers open tryouts at Raimondi Park in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, March 8, 2025. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

It follows a trend in Oakland away from the policy leanings of progressive activists in favor of a tougher-on-crime approach that includes robust police surveillance.<\/p>\n

Votes for the new rules were secured by Councilmember Ken Houston, who represents the furthest-flung southeastern neighborhoods that deal with illegal dumping and blight, as well as Council President Kevin Jenkins, whose own district is in East Oakland.<\/p>\n

Houston has maintained that his policies do not significantly differ from\u00a0Mayor Barbara Lee\u2019s own prescriptions for homelessness, which mainly involve widespread construction of affordable housing.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents and businesses are suffering \u2014 they\u2019re being pushed around,\u201d Houston, whose blunt, often-freewheeling approach<\/a> has raised eyebrows around town<\/a>, said in a recent interview. \u201cI\u2019m puzzled why this has taken so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cities across California and Gov. Gavin Newsom have urged more sweeping encampment clearings.<\/p>\n

But in Oakland, where the homeless population is well over 5,000 by official estimates, some advocates have questioned whether tent clearings create a whack-a-mole problem \u2014 given that most homeless residents have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a designated space where folks understand they can live \u2014 not live \u2026 where they can survive. Because that\u2019s what people are attempting to do,\u201d said Councilmember Carroll Fife, who abstained from voting on the new policy.<\/p>\n

\"ChiefChief Homelessness Solutions Officer Sasha Hauswald speaks during a Homelessness Commission meeting at City Hall in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fife, who represents parts of downtown and West Oakland, said she never received an answer from Houston or city officials about where displaced homeless tenants would go if their vehicles were towed or tents carted off.<\/p>\n

Councilmember Noel Gallo, the least active of Oakland\u2019s eight representatives in council discussions, voted against the new policy, placing blame on city workers who have been slow to respond to service calls about illegal dumping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m reaching out to the churches to allow, perhaps, their parking lots to become places where we can drive and park, temporarily,\u201d Gallo said at Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

Houston and Jenkins also noted they are working to identify areas that could be defined as \u201clow sensitivity\u201d \u2014 where clusters of people living temporarily would not cause immediate harm.<\/p>\n

Nearly 100 speakers at Tuesday\u2019s meeting addressed the city\u2019s newfound approach to encampments.<\/p>\n

Damion Scott of East Bay Housing Organizations said Tuesday the city\u2019s green light to displace homeless residents would reliably direct them to lower-income neighborhoods instead of wealthier communities in the Oakland Hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe solution to our housing and homelessness crisis \u2014 and in California, for that matter \u2014 is more services and more affordable housing,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

On the other side, Houston and the council found support from residents who said the prevalence of homeless encampments hurt lower-income residents the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy tenants are teachers, food servers and other local workforce,\u201d said Nick Myerhoff, a landlord who owns several properties across Oakland. \u201cTheir rights matter, too. Who\u2019s speaking up for them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Shomik Mukherjee is a reporter covering Oakland. Call or text him at 510-905-5495 or email him at shomik@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 City officials can now clear homeless encampments and tow vehicles used as shelter without first offering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,184,7,332,405,1493,1011,1336,181,23,100,143,145,144,13,385,94685],"class_list":{"0":"post-268233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-east-bay","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-homelessness","14":"tag-housing","15":"tag-housing-crisis","16":"tag-latest-headlines","17":"tag-local-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-oakland","20":"tag-oakland-headlines","21":"tag-oakland-news","22":"tag-politics","23":"tag-regional","24":"tag-social-alert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}