In Dialogue with Andrea Henson: Why I chained myself to a fence to defend my clients

On August 7, 2024, Caltrans sent CHP officers to 3441 Louise Street in Oakland to remove the family living on an empty lot there. The state removed their RVs, their sheds and all their belongings from the property. According to their attorney Andrea Henson, Director of Operations for the homeless advocacy and legal aid group Where Do We Go, the family only received two days’ notice of the eviction.

It was, literally, an eviction. They were tenants at this property, and they had a sublease to prove it. The family who lived there contained two elderly, disabled, and sick individuals, as well one person with a heart condition. Such an abrupt move would have serious health implications for each of them. What’s more, these people were not classifiably “unhoused.” Henson believes this eviction was illegal, and she was going to try to stop it. 

Braced for time, she started to write a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Caltrans, hoping to win the family some time. She worked through the night, and realized that she might not finish writing the TRO with such limited time.

She chained herself to the property before Caltrans arrived, and they arrested her for it. Even though, Andrea argues, Caltrans was the one breaking the law.

I spoke with Andrea on the day of her arrest. She stayed in the office after-hours to talk to me. It was 5 p.m., and she had been fighting for well over 24 hours without any sleep, but held on for this conversation. Our interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Laura A. Zink: Why did you chain yourself to a fence for these specific clients? What was at the heart of the issue? 

Andrea Henson: They have a right to be protected by the 14th amendment right to due process. Caltrans just can’t say, ‘We don’t have to do that,’ right? No matter what, no matter where they live, they have a right to due process. 

Caltrans leased the land to another organization, who then rented space to [my clients] to put their RVs there. Now, they stopped paying during COVID, but it doesn’t matter [in this case]. Anytime you have a tenancy, tenant laws are very strong, so you have to follow [due] process. 

LZ: What process was Caltrans supposed to follow to give these tenants due process? 

AH: [They] have to follow the tenant protections, which is giving proper notice. And then you follow up with that, and you would file with the court, either an unlawful detainer or forcible detainer. 

And then, after they do that, the tenant gets five days to respond. That’s where they get to tell their side of the story to the judge. And then they go to settlement, and then they go to court. 

Then, if they get evicted, like if the judge [decides] they can’t pay the rest of their rent, then the judge has to issue an order. Then they have to get a writ from the sheriff. The sheriff comes and puts it on the door. And still, that writ says, you got to be out by this time. But if you leave abandoned property, the owner still has to keep that property for a certain period of time.

And Caltrans just said… 

LZ: “Fuck it?”

AH: Fuck it. We’re removing them. In two days. [Actually] in one day [because] they gave them two-days’ notice. And they’re very disabled. So they have RVs. They have sheds. Their RVs were registered though. 

How do you expect [them to be able to leave in two days]? You have knowledge that they’re disabled. You get the most money in California. You have a team of like 250 attorneys. I didn’t ask for [the tenants] to be there forever. I just said, ‘let the judge hear the TRO.’ They’re really disabled. It’s not right. That’s what it was. It’s not right. 

You can’t just say I’m above the law, but [Caltrans] did. 

And I’m one person. How many attorneys [does Caltrans] have? And I was up all night. I haven’t slept because, you know, no one funds this kind of work. The work that [Where Do We Go does], they don’t fund it. But it’s the most desperately needed. So I [chained myself to the fence] because I was so frustrated. I literally chained myself up and typed out my declaration for court. 

Like, I still was working. I was doing my declaration while I was sitting there. Because I had to finish. It takes so much work, and that’s why it’s really hard. 

But that’s why I felt like, “You know what? I have to do everything I can. [My clients] deserve it.” Because Caltrans was like, “No, we’re just moving forward.’” And I’m like, “What are you doing? What the fuck?’ So that’s why [I chained myself to the fence].”

LZ: What goals did you have going into this? 

AH: I have no idea, I just had to, to do something. I mean, a lot of what’s happening now, people are completely emotionally deprived. 

There’s a numbness now; there’s a lack of compassion. So I just thought, I’m gonna chain myself to the fence and keep working on my filing, and maybe the argument would win; maybe the argument would shine through. Caltrans, you’re the biggest fucking agency in California, and you like spending your time screwing, the most… It’s like shooting an ant with a shotgun. Like, what, what’s the point? 

LZ: Caltrans seems to be escalating their eviction of leaseholders in addition to unhoused people. Is this kind of action a rare thing for Caltrans? 

AH: No. I think we don’t know because [Caltrans] is not doing outreach. Governor Gavin Newsom says, “Oh, we’re all going to follow Caltrans because — and he says in his executive order — [they] do outreach.”

What I’ve said lately at all the Caltrans stuff is, ‘Who’s out here doing outreach? Why am I the first person that they talked to? Why did I find out that they’re tenants? How come no one came out here and met them? And so what happens when they don’t do outreach and what Gavin Newsom has just done [ the executive order]?

He’s ushered in an era of terror where anyone can get swept if you don’t look right, like they look homeless. No one asked them what their legal status was, and they don’t care because poverty is not pretty. They don’t care. They just wanted them out. 

LZ: If you could just take me through your experience of doing the protest. What were you thinking as the events unfolded? 

AH: I had no idea, because I’d never done this before. I’d never chained myself to anything. 

Osha Neumann sat on the ground [next to me]. We didn’t know what was going to happen. He held my hand, and we didn’t know. We didn’t know what they were going to say, or what they were going to do, or if they were going to be violent, or if they were going to…you know…

I have a relationship [with Caltrans]. I mean, they’re used to seeing me there. 

‘Oh, here comes Andrea again,’ you know? And so they know me, and I told them I wouldn’t be fighting this hard if this wasn’t really wrong. You guys know I’m out here. And I’ve talked to Tony Tavares, who’s the director now, of Caltrans. When he was here, he met with us. And I said, ‘I don’t know what your legal department is doing, but this is so egregious and so wrong. I wouldn’t be chaining my body up for nothing. I got so much to do, and y’all know this.’ 

So I went into it because someone has to do something. If the only place you can go get heard is court and you’re talking to lawyers and they don’t want to follow the law, then what are you going to do, right? 

LZ: Is this the first time that you’ve done a protest like this? 

AH: No, that was where [Where Do We Go] came from. The first time, we all refused to move. There were four women: Two very disabled and one whose boyfriend was just hit by a train over on Cedar. And everybody was just tired. And there was nowhere to go. And that’s why we called it Where Do We Go. The police came and they said, ‘Just go to Oakland.’ And we said, ‘No, no.’ And they said, ‘Well, you need to move.’ And we said, ‘No.’ 

I feel like that: To get trust, you’ve got to give trust. So, if I’m asking [my clients] to risk something, I better risk it, too. Otherwise, nobody’ll jump in with you. 

Protests are… a human right that is also written in law. 

I really didn’t even think I was protesting. I thought, ‘I need to get time. I need to get to the court. The court needs to see this.’ But [Caltrans and the CHP] stopped me, and I went to jail, but I wasn’t finished [with the declaration]. Because [writing one is] so much, it’s so labor intensive. 

LZ: What reaction did you get from the protest? 

AH: I think people understand, I think it’s hard because all those folks out there have a job. Right? They know. A CHP officer said his grandparents and his parents worked in the field. He knows. 

A lot of people know. But I always tell them. I went to the back after I got out of the jail, all the Caltrans guys, the contractors, and they go, “Andrea, did you really just go to jail?” And I don’t have any animosity because I know everyone’s role, right? Caltrans is going to fight me, but they’re wrong. You’re not getting under my skin because you’re being mean. [So] I went to Home Depot. I bought the chains. I bought the cheaper chains because, you know, I’m not gonna spend $100 on chains.

You could see, [the CHP] were all standing there watching. And you could see it in their face because they know, because I yelled out, I said, ‘I come from nothing.’ And they know they’re wrong. They know. 

LZ: Based on what happened, was this a successful protest? 

AH: It may have been seen [as successful to] other people’s eyes. I wish I could have stopped it. This is not easy work, right? We make things that are very horrible maybe a little less horrible. 

And they don’t care. They sent no [outreach] since April. I told them, and before April, they could have sent outreach. Governor Newsom says, ‘Be like Caltrans. They do outreach.’ 

They don’t. Every time I go out to Oakland, Lake Merritt, they don’t. They just move people. And in this situation where Lifelong [Medical Care] is like, ‘Here, they are disabled. I’ll give you their medical stuff.’ I sent it to Caltrans. I’m sitting there. I’m like, ‘He’s got a leaky valve. He got COPD. He got a kidney failure. He has heart failure. He has an irregular beat where he could go into a stroke. He fell down today because he can barely walk. He has severe arthritis. He has bad circulation in all his extremities. I have all the medical paperwork. They didn’t care. [Caltrans has] billions upon billions upon billions. 

And they just don’t care. To me, that is what’s so egregious. So when the governor and all them say, ‘Oh, you know, we’re doing whatever.’ They don’t care. Huh? At what cost? 

LZ: Last question. Where do we go now?

AH: I don’t know. It’s really bad right now. I’m going to go home and do my [legal] filings. Last night I didn’t know I was going to chain myself up. But I knew I had to do something. So, I think we’re in uncharted territories. And I think we just fight. Because it’s right. No other reason than it’s right.