|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
At a chain-link fence on the edge of Oakland’s Brush Street, a paper sign reads “No Trespassing.” Behind it, the remnants of a once crowded camp, a bike wheel and a single blue tarp, sit in the dust.
Since the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson’s decision last June, in which the Court ruled that cities can enforce public camping and sleeping ordinances against people experiencing homelessness, even if there is a lack of adequate shelter, Alameda County’s debate over homelessness has intensified: sweep or don’t sweep.
Now, after a year of encampment clearances, a different question is emerging: How to build steady exits to housing, treatment, and stability before people cycle back to the street.
Alameda County’s latest Point-in-Time Count found 6,343 people living outdoors. And, while the count was slightly lower this year, the total number of people experiencing homelessness in Alameda County has increased by 121.2% over the past 10 years. Yet all hope is not lost. The California Community Care Expansion program and the county’s Measure A1 both provide funding for housing opportunities.
In the meantime, some cities are getting creative. Berkeley redirected $10 million from its 2018 Measure P to bolster homeless services, including $2 million for the Pathways STAIR Center. The 45-bed shelter reports that in its first year, 84% of clients moved to permanent housing, while just 4% returned to homelessness.
The model is straightforward: Outreach workers visit encampments, offer transport and connect people to a low-barrier site where pets and partners are welcome. Meals, storage, and a roster of services, from drug, alcohol, and mental health counselors to family reunification experts, round out the support.
Former City Councilwoman Sophie Hahn, who was very involved with the opening of the STAIR Center, said the STAIR Center reflects the urgency Berkeley feels about the plight of those living on the streets.
“Your City Council believes homelessness is a human-rights abuse,” she said. “We are committed to the humanitarian imperative of getting people housed, but also giving them relief from the harshness of life on the streets.”
Small steps like these hint at the kind of infrastructure needed countywide.
This series of articles opened with the question posed by Grants Pass: Should cities within Alameda County clear encampments simply because they can?
After months of reporting and researching, the picture is more complicated, and more hopeful. Berkeley’s STAIR Center shows that when funding, outreach, and low-barrier services align, people find their way indoors.
The challenge now is to match those successes with resources big enough for the scale of the crisis. Alameda County has begun to chart the path; the work ahead is to build on these early gains until steady exits from the street are not the expectation, but the rule.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
State finds Dublin day care center responsible for toddler’s death, imposes fine of $10,000April 21, 2026 10:00 pm
