Fencing surrounding Civic Center Park has prevented community access to the area for over ten months, initially going up on Oct. 15, 2024 to prepare for construction work. Located across the street from Berkeley High School, the park is a frequently populated area of the city, where BHS students go to eat lunch and socialize. The park officially reopened on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025.
As a result of the fencing, an encampment of around 12 unhoused people who had previously been living at the park were required to vacate the area, including Bay Area local Jemia Wooten. “It’s just hard because it’s like they don’t find nowhere for people to go, so everybody just moves anywhere,” Wooten said.
Many individuals living in the encampment relocated to outskirts of the park, alongside the fences. Some members of the Berkeley community voiced concerns following these changes. In a community meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, BHS teachers advocated for their students’ need for a safe space to gather, which they’d previously had in the park. One major takeaway from the meeting was the community’s collective call for the city to take some form of action.
In April 2025, the fences were moved to cover the sidewalk and further block off all remaining grass areas. BHS junior Nell Harte works at the Saturday farmers market on Center Street. She said, “I remember coming back from spring break … I took a week off and I came back, and everyone was gone and the fences had expanded.”
Responding to concerns regarding the fencing expansion, the city issued a statement explaining the reason for construction, saying the fencing was necessary “to allow crews to do critical work” on the fountain, trees, lawn, and underground irrigation systems.
“It started off as just the park was getting fixed. And then they slowly started expanding (the fenced area) … until they closed off the whole block,” Ariana Ramos said. Ramos is a worker for Dorothy Day House, a homeless shelter across the street from Civic Center park. “It’s just a hostile way of moving the problem instead of helping people,” Ramos said.
Encampment sweeps like these have been largely made possible due to a policy passed by Berkeley in August 2024, which removed the requirement of providing shelter when sweeping homeless encampments under certain circumstances — included in this list is if “the encampment is located where the city has any authorized work to be done,” or if it interferes with city construction or maintenance activities.
A City of Berkeley document from its Sep. 10, 2024 City Council meeting notes that, “the city installed temporary fencing designating the area (near the Eighth and Harrison Street encampment) a pending construction zone … but the fencing was soon breached and the area was reencamped quickly.”
Shelby Them, a resident at the Dorothy Day House, explained that she believes after the fences around Civic Center Park come down, another encampment or similar situation will likely appear. Morales predicts the same, and said that he believes Berkeley will continue in this pattern of reactive action.
BHS teacher and Berkeley City Council member Shoshana O’Keefe is aware of the complexity and nuances of the situation. “I used to eat at that park when I went here (as a BHS student) and it’s the best place to eat. It’s important for students to get outside … and I think it’s a wonderful asset,” O’Keefe said, “Obviously, people who don’t have shelter need to sleep somewhere.” O’Keefe explained that sleeping in parks takes public space away from everyone, negatively impacting the city as a whole.
There is unanimous support within the City Council to work towards finding “alternate locations for people to stay until they have shelter,” O’Keefe said.
On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, an item beginning to address that goal was passed by the Berkeley City Council. Authored by O’Keefe, the item directs the City Manager to identify a list of potential relocation spots — with the purpose of establishing shelter sites to act as an alternative from camping at public parks. O’Keefe added that, “there is a Berkeley City Ordinance against camping overnight in a park. And my understanding is that ordinance will be enforced (at Civic Center Park).”
The park officially reopened on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025, to the fanfare of many BHS students. Civic Center Park is once again accessible to students, locals, and visitors. While some look towards the return of events and social activities, others anticipate certain familiar social rhythms eventually re-emerging. How the reopened space will be used, and managed by the city in the following months remains uncertain.