James Cartmill, a veteran and resident of a homeless encampment in Berkeley, California, sits in a tent on the grass median in the middle of Adeline Street. (Photo: David Bacon)
Berkeley, California — By the time you read this, Berkeley’s intentional mobile homeless community will probably have been forced to migrate again, in yet one more forcible relocation.
A week ago, at five in morning, six city trucks and a U-Haul van pulled up at the tent encampment on a peaceful, leaf-covered median in the middle of south Berkeley’s Adeline Street. Each truck had two municipal workers on board. Half a dozen police patrol cars accompanied them, red and blue lights flashing in the dark.
MuZiK, a resident of the occupation, in her tent in the middle of Adeline Street. (Photo: David Bacon)
Brad, one of the camp residents, sounded the warning. Sleepy tent-dwellers quickly began to text supporters, warning that the city was threatening once again to throw tents and belongings into trucks and force people to leave.
“We went into delaying tactics while we got community support mobilized,” recalls Mike Zint, one of the leaders of this homeless community. “That doesn’t stop them, but every time this happens we get more support. So they sat there in their trucks for the next six hours — a dozen city workers and a code compliance officer, all on overtime. They took seven cops off patrol. And in the end, after all the arguments, we only moved about 200 feet, across the street. And how much did that cost?”
The occupation on the grass median in the middle of Adeline Street. (Photo: Davif Bacon)
This homeless community is not just a group of people trying to find a place to live. They call themselves an “intentional community” with a political purpose — forcing homelessness into public debate and defending the rights of homeless people. Homeless activists are fighting for the…