Oakland’s use of state funding shines a light on the unseen expense of encampment closure
Over the last year, the City of Oakland has endeavored to close three long-standing homeless encampments with support from the state’s Encampment Resolution Fund (ERF) grant program. The program is intended to help cities sweep encampments by funding the development of supportive services that transition residents into shelter and, eventually, long-term housing. However, three recent closures provide a window into the challenge of coupling supportive resources with the disruptive nature of forced encampment operations, at a time when Oakland’s unsheltered population vastly outweighs its available services.
In May, the city closed the third and final encampment targeted by the ERF grant, East 12th Street, leaving dozens of residents without supportive housing alternatives.
“Everybody got moved around. Some of us don’t have a place to stay,” Bartholomew Drawsand said, an Oakland native who has lived unsheltered for 16 years. “I’ve lost a lot of property, I had to leave everything. The past three nights I’ve been sleeping in a chair.”
Oakland received its $7.2 million award notice from the ERF program in April 2024 to close long-established encampments at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 23rd Street, Mosswood Park, and East 12th Street. Residents of the encampments were projected to transition into interim housing at the Jack London Inn before moving into permanent supportive housing.
But unexpected delays in hotel acquisition complicated this plan, and the city was unable to secure the Jack London Inn due to complaints from neighboring businesses. These delays soon collided with the city’s new approach to sweeps under an executive order from former Mayor Sheng Thao, which announced that the city would be cracking down on encampments regardless of shelter availability. A subsequent surge in closures dispersed hundreds of unsheltered Oaklanders into new and existing encampments, and inflated the populations of encampments that would soon be closed under the ERF grant.
The Fallout on MLK
Residents of the Martin Luther King Jr. Way (MLK) encampment were intended to be the first beneficiaries of ERF funds. The community was large, stretching north to south on MLK between 23rd and 25th streets, and branching out to intersecting roadways. According to its ERF application, the city planned to move many of the encampment’s 68 “observed” residents directly into the Jack London Inn, but documents obtained by Street Spirit through public records requests show that delays in hotel acquisition did not suspend its plans for the closure.
In an internal email between staff working in the Housing and Community Development Department, dated September 6, 2024, one official stated that Governor Gavin Newsom directed the city to “close the encampments,” even though “under ERF they are supposed to be moving directly to a site.”
“Governor is saying close it,” the email reads, “which is at odds with our commitments under ERF.”
The City of Oakland did not respond to Street Spirit’s requests for comment.
On September 16, the city’s Encampment Management Team began a week-long operation to clear the long-standing encampment on MLK. A city-issued statement on September 20 noted that, of the “approximately 35–40 people living at the encampment,” 16 residents were offered interim housing at existing community cabin sites, nine were enrolled in medical respite care programs, and 12 opted to “self-relocate.”
In a November 4 report regarding lease authorization for a new hotel site, Assistant City Administrator LaTonda Simmons stated that the “12 residents who opted to [self]-relocate are actively supported and engaged by the City of Oakland outreach teams. When [the hotel] opens to interim housing, the 12 will be offered interim housing opportunities.”
On May 13, eight months after the sweep of MLK, city officials reporting to the Life Enrichment Committee provided an update on outreach retention of those 12 residents, stating that only six accepted housing placement at the newly acquired hotel. Of those six individuals, one had secured a room at the site, one had recently passed away, and the remaining four would move in “after” the city finishes encampment operations along the East 12th St. corridor.
A number of former MLK encampment residents attended the May 13 meeting, signing up for public comment to reiterate their exclusion from the ERF program. Donald Sims Jr., who spoke with Street Spirit during the sweep last September, addressed the committee with tears in his eyes.
“I’ve been homeless out here for two year now…I’ve put my name on many lists,” Sims said, “I’ve got debilitating health problems, both physical and mental…I try to work, I try to do whatever I can…I’m losing my family because I can’t get no stability, and I just want to know if I can get some shelter.”
ERF Hotel Opens, Mosswood Park Closed
One year after receiving its ERF award notice from the State of California, the City of Oakland finalized the purchase of a new hotel: the Extended Stay America (ESA) at 3650 Mandela Parkway, nestled between the Target and Best Buy parking lots near the Oakland-Emeryville border.
The hotel site—acquired in partnership with nonprofit service provider Housing Consortium of the East Bay (HCEB) and housing developer Memar Properties, Inc. (MPI)—would include 105 units of interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples until May 2026, then be redeveloped into 125 units of permanent supportive housing (PSH). According to the city’s ERF application, interim shelter recipients would receive “a private room with a bed, private restroom, refrigerator, closet/dresser, microwave, and desk space.”
Residents of Mosswood Park had expressed ample interest in the hotel program, which opened its doors the same day encampment operations began on April 21.
City officials stated during the May 13 Life Enrichment Committee meeting that 36 individuals from Mosswood moved into the ESA hotel.
David “Paco” Peeler Jr.—who grew up in Berkeley and has lived in Mosswood Park for a decade—is one of those 36 occupants. Peeler said that upon move-in, he was disappointed to find his room gutted of the promised amenities.
“They’re removing the furniture, the refrigerators, and the televisions from the rooms,” Peeler said, “There’s a bed. That’s it. They took out the sinks, they took out the stoves…like, damn, we have to drink water from the bathroom?”
In response to Street Spirit’s inquiry regarding the removal of room amenities, MPI president Ali Kashani stated that two-burner cooktops and refrigerators were removed from rooms and stored on-site “for reinstallation [during] the PSH phase of the project.”
“We could not afford to buy 125 new sets of appliances for the PSH phase,” Kashani said, “The shelter occupants are being fed three meals a day.”
According to onboarding documents reviewed by Street Spirit, interim housing residents are not allowed to cook inside their rooms. Peeler also said that prepackaged meals provided to residents are small, leaving him hungry, and necessities such as toilet paper are not provided.
For Peeler, this led to an erosion of trust in the program, and its ability to deliver on the support it advertised.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Peeler said, “I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to not be on the streets. But for them to have so much money, and the way they’re treating us, there’s something wrong.”
A New ‘Core Census’
The next group slated to move into the ESA hotel were the people living along East 12th St. between 14th Avenue and Fruitvale BART. The City of Oakland posted closure notices at the encampment at the end of April. Soon after, tensions between residents and city officials hit a breaking point during a meeting at the East Bay Asian Youth Center, which city officials had organized to keep local business owners abreast of their encampment closure plans.
Unaware of the meeting until that morning, encampment residents and their advocates quickly organized a carpool system to the community center and filled the room to capacity.
After brief presentations from city officials and HCEB regarding the closure and hotel transition, the floor was opened to residents’ questions.
“The people who don’t get picked to go to the hotel,” one resident prompted, “what happens to them?”
“There was a core census that was developed that started six months ago,” Assistant City Administrator G. Harold Duffey replied. “Of that core census, there were 79 individuals that were identified.”
“But there’s more than 70,” another resident interjected, “I live there. I know there’s more than 70. So where are they going to go?”
“I’m not going to fight with you,” Duffey responded, “More people have migrated to the area, and it’s been a long time. I want to make sure that we acknowledge that. We thought that we were going to have this grant done and ready to go months ago.”
The city’s original ERF application stated that a total of 150 people were living between the three encampments they planned to close, noting that another 60 may move to the sites through the grant term. It estimated that 210 people would transition into the interim housing program, and 180 would move into permanent supportive housing.
But in the months leading up to the hotel announcement, city officials conducted a revised “core census” operation to “refine” encampment population numbers and establish “a more equitable method for determining residency in the [ERF] program,” according to the 2025 ERF Annual Report. The count utilized a three-tier category system based on length of tenancy: core census individuals who have lived in an encampment for “the past year”; former core census individuals who “previously lived” in an encampment but were not present during census operations; and “floaters” who moved to an encampment after the census was conducted.
Long-time residents on East 12th St. reported that absence from the encampment during business hours—due to work, hospitalization, errands, or appointments—limited participation in the census, which would incorrectly categorize their tenancy, if at all.
Closure of East 12th Street
The lack of clarity about the new core census created a sense of panic among residents as operations began on May 12. Around 8AM, the Encampment Management Team (EMT) established a safe work zone perimeter around a two-block section of the East 12th St. median, a densely populated area spanning from 16th to 18th avenues.
Residents and advocates scrambled to remove belongings and tow RVs before city workers approached their camps. At any point, police officers could order them to vacate under the city’s safe work zone ordinance, which says that failure to disperse could result in arrest with a misdemeanor charge.
‘Mr. Lee,’ a seven-year resident of the encampment, said he worked with the city to ensure residents were counted for the new census, and was still trying to connect “floaters” to city outreach teams during the operation.
“I did some intake here, for people to go into the Extended Stay,” Lee told Street Spirit as he connected a tow hitch to his disabled neighbor’s RV. “But from the information I know, we only have 57 rooms [at ESA].”
Mr. Lee—who is recovering from a stroke—accepted a room at the hotel, but refused to leave the encampment operation until other disabled residents were safely relocated.
“I’m going to move in,” Mr. Lee said, looking back at his friend’s RV, “but especially with her, I want to make sure she goes in first. She was burnt badly, so she needs a room.”
Throughout the day, residents not included in the core census group gathered at a mutual aid tent outside the safe work zone, hoping to connect with outreach teams and secure placement at the hotel.
Talya Husbands-Hankin, a long-time advocate with Love & Justice in the Streets, recounted the intake process for one of those residents, who had lived on East 12th St. since 2018. Although Husbands-Hankin attested to the fact that the resident had lived in the encampment for seven years, outreach workers from Operation Dignity said the resident would need to submit documentation proving his length of tenancy at the encampment in order to secure a spot.
“We have long-term relationships with this community, whereas Operation Dignity has gone out—even over a year or six months—and can still miss people. And they did,” Husbands-Hankin said.
The resident ultimately secured a room at the hotel using paperwork from Roots Community Health, a nonprofit clinic that provides medical care at the encampment. But Husbands-Hankin considers the resident’s program approval a matter of happenstance.
“If you’re not just sitting still and waiting for a service provider to come count you one day—or even multiple days—you’re left out,” Husbands-Hankin said. “It doesn’t take into account the reality of people’s lives.”
Inside the safe work zone, city workers barrelled through a row of wooden houses along the East 12th St. median, bulldozing structures downslope until they crumpled on the street below.
At one point during the clearing, workers were alerted to a voice coming from an adjacent structure and powered down their machines. Police surrounded the door of the building and discovered a woman was still located inside. She exited promptly with a duffel bag as the EMT continued demolition, pushing her house down the median into a burgeoning pile of debris.
By the end of the first week, the East 12th St. median was cleared of all self-built structures. In the coming weeks, the city plans to place fencing around the site to prepare for the installation of “riprap”—deposits of rock normally used to protect shorelines—to ensure new encampments don’t grow in its place.
The Death of James ‘JT’ Thomas
Operations continued on May 19 targeting smaller encampments further down East 12th St., but mid-way through Monday’s sweep, tragedy engulfed the East Oakland corridor.
Just after 12PM, a deceased encampment resident was discovered inside his RV. James ‘JT’ Thomas, aged 57, was a newer member of the East 12th St. community, having moved his RV there after encampment operations near the Oakland Coliseum last February. Due to his length of tenancy, Thomas was considered ineligible for core census status.
According to a reasonable accommodations request submitted during the Coliseum closure last February, Thomas suffered from severe back pain due to a recent head-on collision and was unable to lift heavy objects. Advocates who filed the request told Street Spirit that the City of Oakland did not respond. They also stated that Thomas did not drink or smoke, but was in poor health after suffering six cases of COVID-19 over the past five years.
Residents and advocates gathered for a memorial march on May 22 in honor of Thomas’s life. An advocate who spoke at the gathering recounted that—regardless of his waning health—Thomas regularly supported unhoused Oaklanders caught in the crosshairs of city sweep operations.
“He knew so many people and had friends all over this town,” the advocate said. “If [the city was] sweeping people he knew, [Thomas] was there with his van up and running…As [the city] made more laws to criminalize us—to make it that much harder to survive—he didn’t give up…He kept doing what he could with what he had, even up to the very end. Thank you, JT, for all those lessons.”
On May 23, the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau stated the cause of Thomas’s death is still under investigation and will be confirmed in the next six weeks.
$66 Million to House 125 Next Year
Oakland announced the completion of East 12th St. operations on May 23, stating 70 people moved to the new hotel and six into a medical respite program, but adovcates told Street Spirit that encampment closures on adjacent streets continue as scheduled through June 6. Displaced residents who did not qualify for a hotel room or other city-sponsored housing programs will continue to live unsheltered.
According to a May 27 statement from HCEB, “21 of the 105 rooms are currently available for incoming participants.” The statement also says the program is “accepting individuals as they are referred by the City and the outreach team.”
Husbands-Hankin believes current approaches to encampment closures in Oakland are both harmful and ineffective, draining limited city resources that would be better spent bolstering service programs and affordable housing projects.
“What’s so clear,” she said, “is that the city is continuing to prioritize policing—pouring resources into police presence at violent sweeps—when those funds could actually be used to support and serve community members who are forced to live outside.”
She noted that residents regularly lose property, precious belongings, documents, and prescription medications during encampment operations, and cities rarely follow their “bag and tag” storage policies. Forced to start over again, those who are not offered shelter disperse to new or existing encampments, which are eventually identified and targeted by future Encampment Management Team operations.
“And no housing is being provided,” Husbands-Hankin says. “We have to be clear that we’re talking about transitional shelter being offered to people.”
Even for those who have moved into Extended Stay America, the pathway to permanent housing is circuitous. At the end of the one-year interim housing program, MPI plans to redevelop the hotel into 125 units of permanent supportive housing, to be operated by HCEB. The project—which includes property acquisition, costs for redevelopment, and management of both interim and permanent supportive housing programs—will cost $66 million, with $7.2 million being funded by the city’s ERF grant award.
It is unclear if residents of the interim shelter program will receive permanent units after redevelopment begins in May 2026. Supportive housing referrals, managed through Alameda County’s Coordinated Entry System, are granted based on risk assessment and housing availability. Due to local shortages in available supportive housing, approximately 50 percent of Alameda County’s 9,450 homeless residents do not qualify. As a result, individuals who accept interim housing through city programs are not guaranteed a supportive housing referral.
Applicants who receive Coordinated Entry referrals are often relocated to other Alameda County cities in order to secure a permanent dwelling. Those who are not accepted frequently time out of interim housing programs and exit back to the streets. Two interim shelter sites on Wood Street in West Oakland, which house roughly 90 people in total, are slated for closure on June 30.
“The entire framing and context of this grant is encampment resolution,” Husbands-Hankin says. “The point is to sweep an encampment, versus a framework that’s about housing and stability.”
Bradley Penner is the Editor and Lead Reporter of Street Spirit.