Bay Area authorities are in the final stages of closing the region’s two largest homeless encampments, displacing hundreds of unhoused people as they clear massive clusters of tents, shacks and broken-down vehicles that have drawn complaints for years.
The closure of the camps – one by the San Jose airport and one off Wood Street in West Oakland – is part of a regionwide push to crack down on encampments that were allowed to grow while people sheltered in place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local officials, state agencies and even Gov. Gavin Newsom say shutting the sprawling, often unsanitary camps is necessary to protect public health and safety. But the process in both cities has been fraught, peppered with everything from lawsuits and protests to a train collision.
And both Oakland and San Jose have struggled to find enough housing and shelter placements for everyone uprooted from the camps, leading to fears residents will be pushed to new encampments. The two cities’ efforts highlight the challenges communities throughout the Bay Area are grappling with.
