Crackdown on the Homeless in Santa Cruz
Pull quote:
“And in Santa Cruz, officials have waged a crackdown to clean up the city,
sending urban campers elsewhere, including to Berkeley…”
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Berkeley buys more beds for emergency shelters
http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86%257E10671%257E1130283,00.html
City rejects idea of legal ‘peace camp’ for homeless population
January 23, 2003
By Mike Adamick , STAFF WRITER
BERKELEY — Just weeks after homeless advocates held a “camp-in”
demonstration downtown, Berkeley leaders paid for 30 more emergency shelter
beds, although the idea of a legal “peace camp” has met resistance.
In the first in a series of budget sessions, Berkeley leaders received a
stark glimpse Tuesday into the city’s ability to help rising homeless
populations in troubling economic times.
Crackdowns on homelessness elsewhere in the Bay Area, coupled with rising
budget deficits and slumping state and federal subsidies, will likely
overwhelm the city’s homeless-care programs, officials said.
“It’s really a tragedy when you consider we have models that do work and we
could, if not eliminate homelessness, at least drastically reduce it, if
only the federal government would put up a decent amount of resources,”
said Stephen Barton, the city’s housing director.
The budget meetings, expected to run through May, are designed to help the
city develop the budget for the coming year. In one of its first actions,
the City Council approved a plan to spend $10,000 on emergency shelter beds.
The plan adds an additional 30 beds to the city’s stock of about 200 beds,
which includes permanent shelters and winter shelters.
But with a homeless population estimated at 1,000 to 1,200 people, the
newly-funded shelters are just a drop in the bucket.
Mayor Tom Bates said emergency shelters aren’t enough. He wants to see more
transitional housing services.
“That’s the real problem as I see it,” Bates said.
The new shelter funding came on the heels of a public protest at Civic
Center Park in late November.
Homeless advocates had set up camp at the park, hoping to call attention to
the lack of affordable housing in the city and to the lack of emergency
shelter beds.
The Berkeley Homeless Union also wanted to see the city create a legal
camping ground for homeless people, a “peace camp” where squatters could
sleep freely and safely.
The city has tried that before, only to have violence overcome the camps,
officials said.
“Every encampment in Berkeley over the past 20 years has after a few days
been overrun by people with histories of violent behavior, or major
substance abuse problems,” Barton said.
“It sounds good on the surface, but it will not create a living situation
that would be good for most people.”
Next month, the city will re-examine the number of homeless people living
in the city by conducting a citywide count.
Officials predict that turbulent economic times, coupled with homeless
crackdowns elsewhere, will lead to increased numbers of homeless people in
Berkeley.
In San Francisco, voters approved a measure in November that will cut
general assistance checks, more than $300 — to homeless people in favor of
providing more concrete services. And in Santa Cruz, officials have waged a
crackdown to clean up the city, sending urban campers elsewhere, including
to Berkeley, Barton said.
While Berkeley has been successful in getting more than 350 people off the
street permanently, Barton said, the city knows it is up against the wall
because of money problems and rising homelessness.
