With the current Encampment Management Policy we have only seen things get worse over the past five years. Encampment growth has surged, public safety is at risk, and the burden has fallen unfairly on a few districts, including District 3. This is unacceptable. 
We cannot continue to wait for a long-term housing solution to materialize. This new policy provides the tools to address unsafe, inhumane encampments today. Conditions like fires, violence, and blocked sidewalks hurt everyone, housed and unhoused. 
This policy is not about giving up on housing—it’s about finding a balance that is fair. It’s time to stop pretending that inaction is compassion and to instead restore safety, fairness, and accountability to all of Oakland. Let's pass this policy and fix our home!

I support the proposed changes. I live between Jack London and West Oakland. I've been threatened and harassed by people who have set up camp just feet from my house. I'm forced to live in an unsafe area now because the city has neglected my street. This cannot continue. It's been so bad since the pandemic. We need to fix this please. The city should help us and enforce laws like they do in other cities.

I've called the Oakland 311 so many times to get help cleaning up and they always say they can't do anything and to contact the Encampment Management Team which has been completely overwhelmed. The one time the Encampment Management Team came it took 3 months to even do a cleaning. Then they never came back. Oakland Police won't do anything unless you catch someone on camera trying to stab you on the street. It's so ridiculous. I have a big heart for people but this has just completely soured me. It's just not fair the way the city neglects the needs of residents in favor of the homeless.

I strongly urge the council to adopt the Encampment Abatement Policy and put our city on a path toward recovery. Oakland cannot wait any longer.
Oakland residents deserve safe, clean, and healthy neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the current Encampment Management Policy has failed to deliver on those basic expectations. It has left too many areas of our city overrun by unsafe conditions that hurt families, small businesses, and even the unhoused themselves.
It is time for a new approach. The Encampment Abatement Policy represents a balanced step forward. It prioritizes restoring public spaces while also trying to link people to the housing and services they need to move off the streets for good. This is the type of pragmatic, compassionate action Oakland needs.

My community in West Oakland is a disaster area with "campers" confronting residents, occupying children's playground grounds and destroying parks. The camps attract illegal dumping and the city just had to remove 25 tons of trash from one location. We're spending millions of dollars and achieving nothing for those in real need.

I support the new Encampment Abatement Policy because the last five years under the 2020 policy have only made things worse. Encampments have grown, conditions have become more dangerous, and neighborhoods—especially in Districts 3 and 7—have been left to carry nearly all the burden while other parts of the city are mostly shielded. That’s not fair, and it’s not sustainable. I'm so tired of the argument that permanent housing is ready, but that excuse has been used for decades while nothing changes on the ground. Of course long-term housing must remain the goal—and this policy doesn’t stop that. What it does is finally give Oakland the ability to address unsafe encampments now, instead of allowing them to spiral out of control for years at a time.

Encampments are not humane. Fires, violence, untreated mental illness, and blocked sidewalks hurt everyone, housed and unhoused alike. A lot of people opposing these changes have never lived next to an encampment. They're up in their fancy house in the hills away from what's actually happening. Pretending that leaving people in these conditions is “compassion” has only deepened the crisis.

This policy is about balance: continuing to push for housing and services while also restoring safety, fairness, and accountability across all districts. Oakland cannot thrive if some neighborhoods are written off as dumping grounds. Let's get this done and fix our city

I’m a social worker and have experience supporting people who are unhoused throughout Oakland. Over the past year, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the encampment sweeps throughout the city have become even more brazen and inhumane.

Data shows that sweeps simply do not work. The city’s own website acknowledges that encampments have been targeted dozens of times and these cycles persist. Sweeps cause individuals to be disconnected from vital services, to lose their possessions, to destabilize them when they are already experiencing so many stressors.

As others have noted in their comments, the Mayor has committed to addressing this crisis by streamlining efforts into the Office of Homelessness Strategy. The plan is to centralize the city’s approach to tackling these challenges, where before these efforts were siloed.
The Encampment Abatement Policy will undermine the Office of Homelessness Strategy before it even gets started. These challenges are pressing and require a coordinated response, not reactionary, dehumanizing policies.
Please vote NO on the proposed Encampment Abatement Policy that is up for vote this September.

I am substitute for OUSD and a former employee of city of oakland: i have lived in District 3 and 1 each for many years. During my time as an educator I have encountered many students who were marginally housed, living with their families in vans while they're family figured something else out. All of the current social services are in Oakland, as well as frequent bus lines to stores with EBT, urgent care, schools, mutual aid & non profit groups---majority of residents who are unhoused or marginally housed in this city are also from Oakland---all of these are reasons why people live out of vehicles in Oakland specifically. There are no shelter beds available in Oakland. So where are people supposed to go? Our federal government has abandoned all semblance of pretending to care for anyone but the white and wealthy. Housing prices are only rising, as well as unemployment--and again--all the social services/and majority of mutual aid groups are in oakland. When the cuts to medicaid, SNAP, social security hit fully in 2026, and along eith the impact of tarrifs (after trumps midterm election) more and more people are going to be living out of their vans--not less, in the coming years (as was already following the general trend) and i think the council knows that. To pass a bill that criminalizes people living in vans, knowing folks will continue to live in vans, but now go to jail for it--possibly performing free labor, or be locked up till they can post bail is akin to eugenics.

I support this. Having worked in a homeless shelter for seven years, this issue is NOT a homeless problem, it is a DRUG problem. People come here because there are no police, no enforcement, and no prosecution for open drug use. The people I cared for came from other cities and other states. You are attracting drug tourism, and crime is rampant. Clean up the city. Find solutions for SUBSTANCE ABUSERS. They may have homes and families. They need rehab, not housing. They just overdose and die in temporary housing.

Our street are not safe for elderly and disabled folks. This weekend in elderly woman was walking in a mentally old man was screaming in front of her I was with my dog and I ended up walking her home and she looked at me and she said I'm so tired of this and it should not be like this she was terrified this is not okay

I support this. The encampments have caused major safety concerns for all residents around it. I personally have been affected by this and live in the area. My cars been stolen. Broken into many times. I’ve had shootings happen right outside my house next to encampments. To sit there and prioritize “being nice” to the homeless while abandoning all the people who live in houses near encampments is not right. Any of these people in the comments opposing this must live in a nicer area away from encampments. Any homeowner who’s stuck next to this squalor is stuck and in support. We shouldn’t be forced to sell our homes and move simply because homeless decided to make our streets and neighborhoods a he11 on earth.

In general, I support this policy. We need to make adjustments as the challenges of homelessness evolve. There are several beneficial aspects of this plan, including greater specificity regarding what is and isn't urgent, as well as guidelines we need for high-sensitivity and low-sensitivity areas. Having the homeless on sidewalks is hurting businesses and communities, and we need to do more to revive Oakland's business community and make our communities safer. Allowing car towing is important, but I would want to ensure that people can reclaim their car and belongings without incurring fees and are provided with information on available services. I am also concerned about arresting homeless people. We can't criminalize being homeless; housing is a human right. There should be clear guidelines around that; if someone is posing a danger to the community, which we have seen at Lake Merritt with arson, they should not be allowed to continue to pose that threat. But where is CARES court in this? Often, if someone is chronically homeless, posing a threat, and refusing services, there is a mental health component, and CARES court is a more humane way to treat this situation and help people move into services. Bottom line, we have to do something about the growing homeless situation in Oakland, and Oakland can't be an outlier in the larger Bay Area community, and so I urge the Council to move forward with this policy, with some modifications. It is a good step forward.

Supporting my position, I urge Council members not to simply repeal the 2020 Encampment Management Policy, but to amend and strengthen it into an Encampment Management Policy 2.0.

This means taking the best elements of both Exhibit A and Exhibit B. From Exhibit A, we need clearer enforcement tools in high-sensitivity areas, stricter vehicle rules, and predictable notice standards. From Exhibit B, we should adopt expanded hygiene services, stronger property protections, and the opportunity for co-governed encampments managed with nonprofits and faith partners that are required to collect and provide performance data and outcomes.

An EMP 2.0 would serve both the housed and unhoused by combining accountability with compassion: protecting neighborhoods while providing real pathways for sanitation, safety, and dignity. Council should act with balance and adopt a hybrid policy that restores public trust and lives up to Oakland’s values.

This policy isn't just inhuman, it is a waste of public funds which will worsen the unsheltered crisis in both the short term AND the long term. Rather than supporting the city and county's Housing First frameworks, a logical and proven solution to homelessness, the city council is sowing chaos and making it more difficult for residents to move into shelter and housing.

The EAP says it itself, there aren't enough shelter beds in Oakland. Yet the policy threatens to take away vehicles and RVs, the only shelter people are able to scrap together when they cannot afford the rent. Vehicles provide enough stability for unhoused residents to go to work. According to numerous studies and reports by UCSF, Boston Medical Center, and more, encampment eviction strips people of their documentation, medication, pets, shelter, their life, make it harder for people to get into housing. Studies show that It worsens mental health, and causes overdose and death - as we've already seen at E12th. This makes it worse even for housed neighbors, as people are left with nothing and forced into street homelessness.

The EAP then proposes to arrest anyone who camps somewhere with a "No Encampments" or "No Parking" sign. This is a blatant attack on human rights. Not only will this immediately flood and cost millions in police overtime, this will flood the criminal legal system, our emergency health services, and more.

These policies pave the way for increased rent prices. Say No, Stop Gentrification

The city just set up a office of homelessness. Why is this policy proposal being rushed? Let the new office handle this.

This policy is inhumane. Straight up. How could anyone with a good conscious propose or support this. We are better than this and we are smarter than this.

I tried calling the district 7 office to discuss my thoughts but the council member doesn't want to talk about it. I think that tells you everything you need to know.

If you're not willing to talk about a policy that you proposed, you shouldn't have proposed it.

I live in D3 and the current policies around encampments are not working. Encampments block sidewalks making some blocks and underpasses unsafe for residents. Parks have been fenced off because once encampments take over they turn into drug markets. These locations attract illegal dumping and debris fires. We walked by the charred remnants of a trash fire on 32nd Street just yesterday that spread to a fence outside an apartment building. Oakland needs to foster community, people should be able to interact safely in public spaces and not cede them to drug markets and illegal dumping grounds. If Oakland wants to fix homelessness then we need to expedite development and build more homes. If encampments are going to be allowed they need to be in designated areas not on random sidewalks and parks. Otherwise all we are doing is creating are inhumane and unsafe conditions.

I moved to Oakland in 2013 and have a lot of love for Oakland. I oppose this proposal. This encampment policy is cruel and is not the solution. The solution is dedicating resources to address homelessness, not criminalizing those that are experiencing homelessness. We need to continue to focus on supporting those most vulnerable and align with the mayor's 5-point strategic action plan.

I have lived in Oakland for 11 years. I live in District 6. I owned and operated a small farm in the East Bay for 7 years, and am now a Garden teacher at an elementary school in my neighborhood.

The 2025 Encampment Abatement Policy is cruel to our unhoused neighbors, forcing people sheltered in vehicles onto the streets, and allowing for the arrest of unhoused people for no crime other than being poor. This is not a time to align with Trump's authoritarian executive order calling for increased criminalization of homelessness, but to resist and invest in housing solutions that will benefit ALL Oakland residents.

I drive by the corner of E 12th St and High St daily on my way to work. At this intersection next to the E 12th St encampment, I watched a neglected corner transform into a garden. The residents of the encampment are a community, who cared for one another and for the streets that council member Ken Houston claims to want to “clean up.” The garden at E12th and High is still tended by the residents of the 12th street encampment, whose community was violently “swept” by the city in the last couple months. There are still tomatoes thriving on the street corner. This garden is an example of real community care, the kind that we need in these terrifying times of rising fascism.

Vote NO on the proposed Encampment Abatement Policy that is up for vote this September. This policy would only lead to higher rates of mental health crisis, substance abuse crisis, and death. 

I am D1 resident and work in D3. The existence of encampments is a massive failure of our society but this proposed legislation does NOTHING to address the root causes to undo our crisis of homelessness. I'm in strong opposition to it.

The heart of the policy fast tracks more violent displacement and does not propose any pathways to housing people. Long term housing is essential if the City is to address public safety needs of ALL Oakland residents. Presently Black people account for 47% of the homeless population, compared to 11% of the general population in Alameda County. This policy will disproportionally impact Black and disabled Oaklanders but has no current equity-based practices or analysis included. Encampment sweeps don't solve homelessess. Oakland spends $1800 per hour on sweeps. We cannot afford to spend more money on ineffective policies in the midst of a budget crisis.

We need to try new ideas and evidence-based strategies. Measure W is a county-wide sales tax that will raise $1.4 billion dollars for homelessness solutions and Oakland has to coordinate it's response in alignment with the county. The Mayor’s new Office of Homelessness Strategy is excluded from this policy and encampment team that it is supposed to oversee. This Encampment Abatement Policy should not be rushed through before the new office is able to work. We are in dire need of solutions but this proposed Encampment Abatement Policy is not one of them.

I’m a 19 year D3 West Oakland homeowner. My neighbors and I have seen the effects of concentrated street encampments worsen dramatically in the last 3 years – increasingly unsanitary conditions, drug dealing and prostitution, RVs catching on fire and violent confrontations. Our block has had encampments around us on three sides at times. You have to think twice about going for a walk (never had to in the past); sidewalks are regularly blocked; some neighbors have faced knife or gun threats; residents and businesses are giving up and leaving. These conditions hurt everyone — the unhoused, the housed, and the local companies trying to stay afloat.

I respect those who oppose this legislation on humanitarian grounds and agree that unhoused people need more housing options and assistance. But the current hands-off approach on street encampments has failed. Oakland must redouble its efforts to secure safe and sanitary alternatives (like sanctioned RV sites and transitional housing) but combine that with a firm commitment to keeping public streets and sidewalks clear.

I strongly oppose this legislation. It is not rooted in any data-driven or equity-based practices, it contradicts the Mayor's 5-Point Plan to address homelessness, the new Homelessness Strategic Plan, and the Department of Race and Equity mission and goals. It will criminalize thousands of our most vulnerable neighbors while offering them no where to go!! Spending millions of dollars criminalizing and disappearing our unhoused neighbors is not the answer. Open public land and provide a safe place for folks to be - we need real solutions not wasteful sweeps.