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California
Related: About this forumEviction of 300-Person Encampment in California Shows Scorn for Right to Housing (Oakland)
truthoutThe words housing is a human right used to appear in bright colors on a painted placard at the gateway to Wood Street Commons, which until recently was the largest unhoused encampment in northern California. But this February, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) demonstrated how vehemently it disagrees with the placards assertion.
Caltrans, which owns the land under an enormous freeway interchange called the MacArthur Maze, has evicted more than 300 people who had lived there for years. The U.S. Constitution does not recognize a right to housing, Caltrans asserts.
In the end, Federal Judge William Orrick came down on the side of the state. For months, an order he issued in July 2022 had prevented Caltrans from evicting the camp dwellers. Orrick even endured criticism from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the order would delay Caltrans critical work and endanger the public. But last October, the judge finally accepted the agencys argument. I dont have the authority because there is no constitutional right to housing to allow Wood Street to stay on the property of somebody who doesnt want it, he admitted.
Caltrans, which owns the land under an enormous freeway interchange called the MacArthur Maze, has evicted more than 300 people who had lived there for years. The U.S. Constitution does not recognize a right to housing, Caltrans asserts.
In the end, Federal Judge William Orrick came down on the side of the state. For months, an order he issued in July 2022 had prevented Caltrans from evicting the camp dwellers. Orrick even endured criticism from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said the order would delay Caltrans critical work and endanger the public. But last October, the judge finally accepted the agencys argument. I dont have the authority because there is no constitutional right to housing to allow Wood Street to stay on the property of somebody who doesnt want it, he admitted.
In February the last of the camp residents were removed. As they left, a group of day laborers appeared, taking away belongings and discarding the trash left behind. They were some of Oaklands lowest-paid workers Mexican and Central American jornaleros who daily look for work on city sidewalks and parking lots. While they hauled out debris, the unhoused people who would soon be joining them on those sidewalks watched.
Much more and photo essay at link.
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Eviction of 300-Person Encampment in California Shows Scorn for Right to Housing (Oakland) (Original Post)
quaint
Mar 2023
OP
wryter2000
(47,474 posts)1. It's awful
Here in Oakland, they run off homeless people and put up fences so they can't come back. We have at least one location with tiny, tiny houses for people. We need to put up more.
quaint
(3,550 posts)3. SoCal treats unhoused worse than stray animals.
Just makes me cry.
Farmer-Rick
(11,416 posts)2. This is how capitalism works
Or doesn't work.
There are empty houses, malls and buildings all over the US. I see houses literally crumbling into wrecks every time I drive into town.
These houses use to be occupied before 2008. Now trees and bushes grow on the front porch. Siding peeling off the abandoned farmhouse that use to be a prosperous dairy before free trade.
And yet we have homeless people everywhere.
quaint
(3,550 posts)5. Empty houses, office buildings, and malls.
But no rooms for people.
Farmer-Rick
(11,416 posts)7. Exactly.
appalachiablue
(42,908 posts)8. ++
usonian
(13,852 posts)4. Money comes first. People last.
New, revised, "Christian" values.
Constitutional right to guns but not to housing?
Murica
quaint
(3,550 posts)6. Such sick priorities.