I made a comment yesterday on CBO’s Facebook page that mayoral candidate and CBO member Seneca Scott quite properly rapped my knuckles for. I had written that I support Carroll Fife’s plan to house 1,000 homeless people at the old Oakland Army Base; I’ve been calling for that for a year, and I was glad to see her come around.
Seneca wanted to know if I’d read Fife’s proposal, and I had to admit I had not. What I supported, I explained, was the concept of moving 1,000 homeless people to the Base. Seneca wasn’t buying it. “How can you write that you support her plan when you haven’t even read it?” Fair enough; mea culpa.
So I went online looking for the plan. In point of fact, there is none, just a bare-bones outline in a May 11 memo from Estelle Clemens, at Oakland’s Human Services Department, to City Administrator Ed Rieskin. Yesterday, the City Council was scheduled to vote on the matter; at the time of writing, I don’t know what the outcome was.
The Clemens memo, “Informational Report on Using the Former Oakland Army Base as a Homeless Intervention Site,” says that, following toxic mitigation of the soil, the site will include cabins for 1,000 people, with full electricity, water and plumbing, bathrooms with sewer connections, and paved roads. The estimated cost of establishing the site is $5.4 million. After that, it will cost $18 million annually to maintain. The memo adds, somewhat ominously, “The City has never undertaken and had services needed for an intervention of this size. The increased level of services needed for an intervention of this size may have greater costs…”. However, “There are currently no funds identified for this effort.” The Council instructed the City Administrator, Reiskin, to seek Grant funding.
The Clemens/Fife plan (if we can call it that) is a good start, but insufficient in its current incarnation. I would call for at least two major components to be added:
• The security of the inhabitants must be protected. I’m told experts believe that housing 1,000 homeless individuals on a single site will almost certainly result in fighting and violence. Homeless people will not want to live in a massive camp unless it’s safe. Therefore, the city is going to have to ensure the presence, 24/7, of private security guards (not cops!), hired with input from the residents themselves.
• The deal should only be passed if campers who refuse to leave their sites (in parks, on the street, under overpasses, etc.) are required to leave, under penalty of forceful arrest. We can’t invest all this money in a big project if there remain hundreds, or even thousands, of recalcitrant campers from one end of Oakland to the other. The City Council should swallow its historic reluctance to get tough with homeless people and include this requirement in any legislation they pass.
P.S. The decisive vote by San Franciscans to recall Chesa Boudin is encouraging. A liberal city giving the boot to a progressive D.A. is national news. On the other hand, it looks like Pamela Price is ahead for Alameda County D.A. Sad. Just when the rest of the country is rejecting super-liberal D.A.s, Alameda County is doubling down on them. If she’s really elected, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, especially for our cops.
Steve Heimoff