Berkeley officials have begun clearing a large homeless encampment at 8th and Harrison streets after the area was declared a fire hazard and public nuisance, with the city also citing a deadly leptospirosis outbreak linked to rats as one of the reasons the site now needs to be dismantled and cleaned.
KTVU FOX 2 reporter Amanda Quintana was at the encampment as police moved in, taped off parts of the area and began notifying residents that tents, structures and other property had to be removed, while city crews later brought in heavy equipment to begin clearing what had become a sprawling site across multiple blocks.
The operation follows a long legal fight over the encampment and comes with special requirements for some disabled residents, even as people living there and homeless advocates say many still have nowhere clear to go once the tents and belongings are removed.
Police Move In After Notices Are Posted
Quintana said notices had been posted days earlier telling residents they had to leave and remove their belongings from the street.
When she arrived, however, much of the encampment still appeared intact, with tents, personal items and other material spread across a broad section of the neighborhood.
Berkeley police then began moving through the area and speaking with residents, while workers eventually started dismantling structures and loading debris into trucks.
Quintana emphasized that the portion visible on camera represented only a small part of the encampment, which stretched across several blocks.
For people who had been living there for months or longer, the cleanup was not simply a matter of packing a few bags and walking away. The size of the camp, combined with the number of belongings and the uncertainty over where residents could relocate, made the process much more complicated.
Legal Battle Had Delayed Earlier Cleanup Efforts
The encampment has existed for years and became the subject of a legal dispute after the Berkeley Homeless Union sued the city, temporarily halting previous plans to clear the area.
A federal judge ultimately allowed Berkeley to move forward, but required the city to make special accommodations for disabled people living at the site.
Those accommodations include assistance with moving and storage of belongings.
Berkeley Homeless Union president Yesica Prado told KTVU that seven people had already been approved for those protections, while she had submitted requests for 19 more shortly before the sweep began.
Prado argued that the city was not fully following the court’s requirements, particularly when it came to replacing essential items destroyed during the cleanup.
“They have the right to get replacement gear,” she said, pointing to tents and bedding being removed without what she believed was adequate replacement support.
That dispute is likely to remain one of the most sensitive parts of the cleanup, because the city is acting under a court order that allows the encampment to be cleared while also requiring specific protections for some of the people being displaced.
Residents Say They Have Nowhere Else To Go
Elester Shelton, who lived in one of the tents in the path of the cleanup crews, told Quintana that he had struggled to regain stable housing after losing his apartment about a year and a half earlier.
He said he receives roughly $340 a month in general assistance, which leaves him with very little room to pay for housing or other basic needs.
“I’d be thankful for a cot,” Shelton said. “I’d be thankful for any type of roof over my head.”
He said he had been evicted from his Hayward apartment and had not been able to secure permanent housing since.
Now, with the encampment being cleared, Shelton said he had no clear idea where he would go next.
“I’m kind of in limbo,” he told KTVU.
That uncertainty captures the basic problem behind encampment sweeps. Removing tents can address immediate safety and sanitation concerns at one location, but unless people have somewhere else to live, the underlying homelessness does not disappear.
Rat Problem Became A Public Health Concern
City officials said the encampment had also become dangerous from a public health standpoint.
The fire marshal declared the area both a fire hazard and a public nuisance, while officials said rodent abatement was needed because of the large rat population.
Quintana reported that a leptospirosis outbreak had begun around the encampment last year, first circulating among dogs and rats before spreading to at least two people.
One person died and another was hospitalized, marking the first known human leptospirosis cases in Berkeley in more than a decade.
The disease can spread through contact with urine from infected animals, including rats, making dense encampments with uncontrolled rodent populations especially concerning.
Dozens of rats were still visible around the site as the city moved forward with the cleanup.
That changes the nature of the debate somewhat, because the city is not dealing only with complaints about tents or appearance. Once a site is connected to a deadly infectious disease outbreak, the public health argument for intervention becomes much harder to ignore.
Advocates Say The City Is Moving People, Not Solving Homelessness
People living at the encampment and advocates helping them said the cleanup felt more like displacement than a solution.
Malia Goulart, who had lived there for about three weeks, told KTVU she believed the city should be offering more assistance instead of simply forcing people out.
“If the city really cared, they would honestly provide these people with assistance and not just bully them out,” she said.
Goulart became emotional as she described the people she had met at the encampment, arguing that many had reached homelessness through a chain of difficult circumstances rather than criminal behavior.
“They’re treating us like we’re criminals and we’re not,” she said.
Prado also said she had spent time driving around Berkeley with residents trying to identify possible places where they could relocate, but found very few realistic options.
She said some people were considering staying nearby on sidewalks until city crews left and then attempting to set up again because they had nowhere else available.
City Says Leaving The Site Is Still Necessary
Berkeley officials acknowledged that clearing the encampment does not solve homelessness, but argued that the current location had become too dangerous to leave in place.
Peter Radu, an assistant to the city manager, told KTVU that officials understood people needed somewhere to go and said the city would continue working with residents.
At the same time, he said remaining at the encampment was not a safe option.
“Literally anywhere is better for them than here,” Radu said, describing the cleanup as one step in a larger process.
People living in vehicles at the site are being allowed to remain inside those vehicles, according to the posted notices, although property left outside can be removed and stored by the city.
The notices also warned that people who refuse to leave could face citations or arrest.
Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii’s office struck a similar tone, saying that simply clearing an encampment does not end anyone’s homelessness.
“It just changes where the immediate problem of homelessness is visible,” the mayor’s statement said.
Ishii’s office said the city’s ultimate goal remains getting people into long-term, stable housing.
Cleanup Leaves The Larger Problem Unresolved
The city now faces two issues that are difficult to separate.
On one side, officials are dealing with a site that has been declared a fire hazard, is heavily infested with rats and has been linked to a leptospirosis outbreak that killed one person.
On the other, many residents being forced to leave say they still have nowhere safe or permanent to go.
Quintana’s reporting showed those two realities playing out at the same time, with police and heavy equipment moving through the camp while residents and advocates tried to figure out what would happen after the cleanup was finished.
Berkeley can remove the tents, clear debris and begin rodent control, but even city officials acknowledge that those steps do not address the deeper housing problem that created the encampment in the first place.
For now, the immediate public health and safety concerns have forced action, while the question of where displaced residents will live next remains largely unanswered.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
