Berkeley's approach to solving its high rates of homelessness has, over the past few years, been something to boast about, with a January 2024 count showing a 45% drop in unhoused people in Berkeley, according to Berkeleyside. Yet, Berkeley's new approach to encampments, reflected in a policy passed at the beginning of August, does not seem to be prioritizing the best interests of those experiencing homelessness. In the past, 'sweeping' of homeless encampments, which results in the removal of all people and items in encampments, could only occur when alternative shelter was able to be provided. Berkeley’s new policy changed that, allowing for six exceptions under which the city is no longer required to provide shelter for those displaced by sweeps. Providing the city more freedom to sweep encampments, displacing the people living there as well as their belongings, ignores the underlying causes of Berkeley's high homelessness rates and the problems that come alongside it, and the policy is not a long-term solution for the city or for those experiencing homelessness.
Berkeley has significantly fewer shelter beds than are needed, which is one of the main reasons there's a need for homeless encampments to begin with. As of January 2024's point-in-time count, there are 844 unhoused people in Berkeley. In comparison, according to a report from the city manager's office, in the beginning of 2023 there were less than 350 shelter beds in the whole city, with an additional 108 open only during the winter months. When comparing the need for both short- and long- term shelter to the supply that Berkeley provides, it becomes clear that there is a discrepancy between the amount of beds needed in Berkeley and what is currently being provided. As a result, there is no alternative for many of Berkeley's own experiencing homelessness except to live in cars, parks, other public spaces or in encampments. When policies are put in place that limit where people experiencing homelessness may go without providing alternatives, there becomes a problem where people can be repeatedly pushed from one location to another without ever being able to find more long-term shelter. Sweeps are not the solution to this problem or to the many other problems encountered by people experiencing homelessness, and instead make victims of the people that homelessness policy is meant to help instead of solving the underlying problems.
For the people forced to live in encampments, sweeps can be dehumanizing and traumatizing. The removal of belongings that oftentimes comes alongside sweeps, according to a report from the National Health Care for the Homeless Council (NHCHC), can destroy tents, bedding, food, and other items necessary for survival, as well as separating people from possibly life-saving or otherwise necessary medications. Berkeley's new policy, by allowing for further situations in which sweeping encampments can and will occur, will hurt people living in these encampments in more ways than can be anticipated. The lack of available shelter beds limits the living options available to displaced people, and will inevitably create a cycle of encampments being shut down before reappearing elsewhere and being shut down again.
Proponents of the updated policy and giving cities more flexibility to enact widespread sweeps often point to the unhygienic conditions that homeless encampments can foster, through lack of proper running water or toilets, and possibly unsafe practices for storing food. These concerns are valid and necessary to address, though sweeping encampments is not a long-term solution when there is still a lack of both short- and long-term housing to move people experiencing homelessness into when encampments are shut down. Berkeley's new policy will not fix these underlying problems, and instead perpetuates a cycle of forcing people experiencing homelessness from one public area to another. This cycle is harmful, dangerous, and inhumane. Berkeley needs to reverse course, placing less emphasis on sweeping encampments and instead addressing the underlying causes that force people into these encampments in the first place. Only then can real lasting change and progress, in community and in unity, occur.