Berkeley Marina Homeless RV Community Gets Short Reprieve
BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- A makeshift community of campers and RVs, ordered to leave the Berkeley Marina parking lot, were given a short reprieve Monday by city officials who rejected a more longer term solution.
Among the proposals before the Berkeley City Council at its morning meeting was to immediate have police clear the parking lot, to give residents a 30-day reprieve, to install portable restrooms and dumpsters or to allow the vehicles to remain in place during the city's the Fourth of July celebration and the Berkeley Kite Festival.
After much debate, the officials decided to allow the homeless community to remain in place in front of the now closed HS Lordship Restaurant until the end of the week.
Public notices were posted around the community last week, warning the people living in the vehicles they could be fined or even arrested if they remained in the parking lot.
Amber Whitson, who lives in the community, says it "is an average neighborhood."
"Almost all of us work," she told KPIX 5. "This is an average neighborhood, but in an unaverage spot...We would prefer not to be shooed along like street trash because we are not."
There were many supporters for allowing the vehicles to remain in place at least for the remainder of the month. But others were not in favor of the proposal.
"I don't think we concede public space to solve this (homeless) problem," said Berkeley resident Alex Sharenko. "I don't think that is a solution."
Sharenko believes the council should be focused on a longer term homeless solution.
"I think this initiative (allowing the campers and RVs to stay) is short term thinking at it's worse," he said. "I think it's going to cost the city a lot of money and it's not really going to solve the problem."
For now the community has until the weekend with the RV owners required to pay a $50 fee.
