Oakland’s Wood Street Encampment Is Officially Gone, Displacing Hundreds.

Fighting eviction at the The Village in Oakland, Calif. Photo courtesy of KCBS Radio

Written by M.T. Agha

What was once known as Oakland’s largest homeless encampment has now mostly disappeared. The encampment on Wood Street in West Oakland, which previously spanned several blocks and had housed hundreds of people in the past has been cleared out indefinitely. The only semblance of what was once a giant encampment is a few tiny houses and some vehicles on the lot that spanned between 18th and 20th streets.

The last group of residents, a group of 15 or so, clung to their homes and belongings on Monday morning in efforts to protect them from destruction while police officers and city workers continued to bulldoze the encampment around them. Several cars were also towed off the premises. A small group of activists tried to prevent work vehicles from entering the lot by holding hands around the tall fence encircling the encampment. 

According to Oakland’s city administration, the encampment has been cleared in order to allow for the construction of a 170-unit affordable housing development. All while during the encampment closure, which began on Monday April 10, 48 residents have been moved off the premises, while 36 of those agreeing to be sheltered at Oakland’s “community cabins” located a few blocks away. Seven more former encampment residents moved to one of Oakland’s RV “safe parking” lots, according to the city administration.

“The city is taking a thoughtful, deliberate and compassionate approach to closing the Wood Street encampment,” said La Tonda Simmons, the current acting homelessness administrator of Oakland according to Oaklandside. The city has been slowly clearing out the encampment over the span of two weeks to give the residents time to clear out their belongings and relocate. Simmons said that the city has been working with community groups for months to assist in designing a shelter program and support services for the Wood Street encampment residents.

However, others don’t see it that way. “We have lived under constant stress, constant duress. We have been under siege for years, just because we are here and we are an inconvenience,” says Jared Defigh, who was living at the Wood Street encampment for a year before its demolition. 

Kimberly King, a psychology professor at Laney College who is part of the Poor People’s Campaign says that “City, county and state governments have decided to prioritize real estate development and profits over a human right to housing” in an interview with ABC News, and that some of the city administration’s relocation efforts do not meet the needs of the needs of the people.

Oakland claims that since the shutdown of the encampment, its workers has removed 300 tons of trash and towed 29 vehicles, including six vehicles that were considered stolen. The remaining residents worry that they’ll lose property as the evacuation continues. 

City and state officials have claimed that the encampment was a potentially hazardous place to live if the residents were not in a monitored program such as an RV lot or a cabit site. According to the Oakland fire department, there had been about 100 fires at the encampment within the past year, including one that killed a man when his RV caught fire. 

Caltrans cited safety concerns after it closed a portion of the Wood Street encampments last year, following a period of protests and the involvement of a federal judge, who briefly halted the evacuation operation from taking place. 

“They want us out of sight and out of mind,” according to longtime Wood Street resident Lydia Blumberg. “It would be nice if they worked collaboratively with us, like we’ve been asking for years.” According to Blumberg, residents had been pleading with the city administration to provide dumpsters to the encampment, since the accumulation of their trash began to attract illegal dumping. As of Monday morning, most of the encampment is gone–however still left behind is the cob structures that comprise Cob on Wood, a hub built by encampment residents and a nonprofit that provided Wood Street residents with a free store, kitchen, health clinic, performance center and garden.