As I passed by this incredibly disgusting and filthy area yesterday, I saw a homeless man with his pants down, taking a crap right in the street. Not only that, all of the people down there now seem to actually be selling drugs and using them as well. CLEAN IT UP! I'm tired of being made to feel like I have to feel bad for these people. For those of us that pay our insanely high property taxes to live nearby this area, we shouldn't have to look at this wasteland every day. It's horrible. The city keeps saying they have acknowledged this problem yet it's been this way, and is getting worse, for months. FIX IT!

Why is homeless & trash an Oakland only issue? Why is Oakland the only city tolerating this? It should be addressed at the county level, which should include Public Works services from ALAMEDA, Albany, Berkeley, Emeryville, PIEDMONT San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Hayward, Dublin, LIVERMORE, PLEASANTON, Union City, FREMONT, & Newark. Many of these cities have haulers that haul & dump their trash on Oakland city streets.

Oakland has Zero enforcement of illegal dumping and litter laws. Once waste management took over picking the bulk of illegal dumping in Oakland they jacked the rate at the Davis street land fill. So we have even more illegal dumping at the expense of the city tax payer and the city garbage rate payer. Seems like a win-win for Waste management.

let's all address the mayor and our city council members (and the grand jury?) on this one ... its accelerating at a nasty pace ...

I've been so fed up and infuriated over this and have written the office of the Mayor many times with, you guessed it, absolutely NO response. What a surprise right? Government "at work" is a joke.....

Another person suggested taking our elected officials to small claims court. I will have to take a look at what they signed in there oath of office and if there is a precedent case where public officials can be sued and not the city? Don't get mad get even.

David Coleman, that sounds like a huge undertaking but one I think that is deserved and worthwhile. Keep us posted if you take that route!

We all need to write emails and call Councilmember Kalb (this area is in his district) about this challenge. He also has open community meetings once per month so meeting with him in person will help even more. The more he is pushed on this public health and safety challenge, the quicker change will occur!

Is there a NextDoor Group for this area?

I posted on another report - I have written to Kalb several times. I have written to the Mayor too. We have made police reports over being threatened. Nothing seems to matter. So frustrating.

Maybe if the camps move to the Council members front doors, there will be action. Can we start having the trash dumped on their front yards?

Here is my response from Monica in Kalb's office;

Thank you for contacting Dan about this. The City of Oakland in conjunction with Alameda County and several other municipalities have been doing a number of things to address the historically high homeless problem that we are seeing.

We are aware of the issues at 42nd Street and have reported this to Public Works several times over the past few weeks. I was told by the Call Center Manager of Public Works that 42nd Street has been added to the priority list for clean-up but we have not been given a date certain for when action will be taken. We hope to see changes very soon.

Public Works is overwhelmed with a large backlog of requests to abate homeless encampments because as you know, the numbers are greater than anything we have seen in the past and Oakland Public Works is understaffed on top of that.

The larger issue is that the homeless individuals are very likely to find another nearby park or underpass to set up camp and we will be in the same situation, at a different location. We need to work on permanent solutions to this problem.

Dan has stated publicly that one of his biggest budget priorities is to address not only short-term solutions of services that our homeless population needs but also the long term solution- housing for the homeless. Please see Dan’s budget priorities here: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/government/o/CityCouncil/o/District1/Issues/Budget/index.htm

The City of Oakland’s Human Services Department has also completed a report, requested by Councilmember Kalb, that details what our options are given our current budget and what we could possibly see in the future if we partner with other entities. The fact is, the City of Oakland cannot take on all of these costs independently. The initial and supplemental reports can be seen here. Please also see the Alameda County homelessness report:

http://everyonehome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Everyone-Counts_Alameda-ES-5_12.pdf

I hope this adds a bit of perspective. This is an issue that requires a vast amount of coordination throughout multiple agencies within Alameda County and beyond. We are hoping to get state and federal grants as well because the problem is so massive that we cannot solve this issue without additional assistance.

Basically, they will try to solve homelessness in Oakland before they do anything in the underpass. Awesome Mr. Kalb. Trash build-up and criminal activity will just have to be tolerated while Oakland solves it budget issues.

Oakland Public Works is Understaffed ==> HIRE more people. Hire the homeless to clean the areas. Other cities provide vouchers for hotels & food.

Hire? How about community service for all the trouble they cause. Plus a lot of them already receive SSDI to go along with all the free stuff heaped on them by there advocates. No bills, no rules and no responsibilities = zero motivation to change.

This area remains too dangerous for residents to pass through yet school is starting in two weeks. How will the children attending NOCC, Park Day or Oakland Tech get to their classes? Do we want elementary children walking through this area?