Berkeley takes tougher stance on homeless encampments after Supreme Court ruling

The City of Berkeley is making major changes to the way it handles homeless encampments by giving the City Manager's office authority to clear out two major areas of unhoused residents that the mayor says have been problematic for years.

One of the encampments is at located at 8th Street and Harrison Street, while the other is along 2nd Street.

The change comes after the recent Grants Pass v. Johnson U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says cities have the authority to do sweeps even if there aren't enough beds to house all of the displaced residents.

"Basically now, you mostly got to walk down the middle of the street because, you know, the sidewalks are blocked. I have a son in a wheelchair. If I had to bring him down here, where would his access be?" said Howard Levine who owns Alliance Graphics.

Levine's business is a specialty shop that does embroidery and screen printing. Their front door faces the encampment on 8th Street.

"A lot of the people living are out here seem like they have some issues. They have substance abuse issues or mental health issues," Levine told CBS News Bay Area.

He says he understands why the city feels the need to take action, he's seen the fires and trash, the rats, and the human waste.

"I don't think just sweeping them up and moving them out and dumping them somewhere is the solution," Levine said.

"I've actually been parking at the RV on this specific street for the last seven years," said Yesica Prado, who considers the encampment home.

Prado has been here since 2016 when she was a graduate student at UC Berkeley.

"I had to make a tough choice between rent and tuition, right? I obviously chose to go to school instead of paying rent. And then I ended up buying an RV," she said.

Prado recently founded the Berkeley Homeless Union - a group that said it will file a federal lawsuit against the city to block any kind of enforcement actions.

"This has been a place where everybody has come to for many years, so if you're trying to clear this camp, there is no alternative solution for many of the people here," she said.

"It's not safe for people to live on the street, it's not safe for people to live in dangerous conditions," Mayor Jesse Arreguin told CBS News Bay Area.

Arreguin said the city has had outreach services at the camp every week for years trying to offer housing alternatives, but it's gotten to the point that more enforcement action was needed.

He said the city of Berkeley spends more per capita on homelessness solutions than any other city in Alameda County, but one city can't solve the problem alone.

"We really should be working together as a region for how we are going to address the issues of homelessness and particularly how we deal with street encampments, and not have one city do one thing and another city do another thing, because it's just going to push people from city to city," said Arreguin.

Compassionate enforcement is what the mayor is asking for, but realistically what does that look like? The answer is different depending on who you ask.

"Homelessness isn't a problem the city can solve. It's a state problem, it's a county problem, it's a national problem," said Levine.

As for the timing of any type of clearing or sweep of this area, the mayor says that will be up to the City Manager's office.

The vote Tuesday night allows city staff to have full authority to move forward at any time.

A separate group of Berkeley businesses have gotten together and filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the City of Berkeley alleging the city isn't following its own nuisance laws by allowing the encampments along Harrison Street to stay. The lawsuit is demanding the streets be cleared.