Berkeley Homeless Ask for Community Support
A week and a half ago, for the seventh time, a group of homeless Berkeley residents, gathered together under the banner of First They Came for the Homeless, were evicted from the space they were existing on... and told to go elsewhere, but given nowhere to go.
As the evictions have continued, the City of Berkeley has confiscated more and more of the meager possessions of these homeless residents, dumping them into huge piles and "storing" them - when they haven't been destroyed or stolen - at the Berkeley Transfer Station near 2nd and Gilman, miles away from anywhere.
While some possessions have finally been located and recovered (this only after the intervention of Mayor-elect Jesse Arreguin and Councilperson-elects Davila and Hahn), much of what was recovered was damaged. None of the confiscated goods were tagged or inventoried, as required by procedures laid out by the City of Berkeley for removing homeless possessions out in public places. (We will not debate here the insanity of taking homeless people's dignity and means of survival by confiscating their last remaining possessions...)
What the future may bring is unknown but they have been left in place to the North of Berkeley's new City Hall for about ten days now, and with the Mayor-to-be's placement of an item on the next City Council meeting that would
2. Direct the City Manager and Chief of Police to permit camping on designated public property, unless conditions arise posing an imminent threat to health and safety.
they may find a safe place to exist in the not-so-distant future.
First They Came for the Homeless is now asking for donations to repair and replace their gear, so that they can stay warm at night and protected from the rainy cold. They have set up a GoFundMe.
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