We know this is a registered issue with the City of Oakland but when is it going to get dealt with? This has been going on for far too long. It is both a health and a safety issue.

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!

If you want to seriously help change the 42nd Street freeway overpass so that pedestrian/residents can safely walk on the sidewalk between the Longfellow and Temescal neighborhoods, please write an email to Councilmember Dan Kallb at dkalb@oaklandnet.com and copy his assistants, Monica Harris mmharris@oaklandnet.com and Oliver Luby at oluby@oaklandnet.com. The Temescal and Longfellow neighborhoods are in Councilmember Kalb’s district. The more people that reach out to the councilmember about this challenge, the quicker it will be resolved.

Councilmember Kalb will be having an open community meeting with the public on 8/5/17 from 10am to 1230pm at 4150 Piedmont Ave (Gaylord’s Caffe) and on 10/7/17 from 10am to 1230pm at 6500 Shattuck Ave (Nomad Cafe). If you want to talk to Councilmember Kalk directly about this issue, you can reserve a 20 minute slot by emailing Monica Harris at mmharris@oaklandnet.com. Meetings with the Councilmember to talk about the frustrations at the 42nd Street overpass will make change happen.

I and all my neighbors (many who have lived in the area for more than 50 years) are tired of the ridiculous conditions at 42nd Street. The street is completely blocked and isn’t safe for residents in the area or for the homeless living under the overpass. The City of Oakland shouldn’t let crucial pedestrian connections points such this turn into garbage dumps, homeless encampments and an environment which fosters criminal activity. Oakland will never turn into a truly pedestrian/ walkable city with type of activity on its sidewalks.

Councilmember Kalb: Less talk, more action.

Kalb is totally unresponsive to my emails. Oliver also unresponsive. Left a long voice mail message - wanted to speak with someone rather than email. Easy to email - no physical connection. i feel like working to unseat Kalb and certainly not vote for him in the new race for....whatever.

Another group around China town was suggesting taking our useless elected officials to small claims personally to keep the tax payer from pick up the tab? The City's enabling and pandering of these people who are completely unwilling to help themselves needs to end.

I'm about to start bombarding them with emails as well as calls! It's pathetic that they don't even acknowledge this pathetic situation. They aren't going to be happy hearing from me.....

i'd be willing to go to city hall with a delegation and deal directly with the powers that be.

I have called and emailed. There is just a blanket response that there is nothing they can do until they solve the homelessness problem. Kalb even suggested to me that I simply use the 45th Street underpass. He is of no help and I certainly will not vote for him. I am confident if this wasteland was next to his family he would have a different attitude.

to The Longfellow resident above: that's real hopeful - YIKES - we know how responsive the city has been in trying to solve the homeless problem. I totally agree with you about Kalb. I know he's running for State Rep in the next election - instead of voting for him i'll vote for the other candidate or not at all. kind of like using 45th rather that 42nd. OMG!!!

forgot to ask - is the blanket response from the city?

Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns with our office. We understand that this is a consistent trouble spot for encampments and I agree that this one is out of control in terms of garbage accumulation. I am also sorry to hear that those that are residing in the encampments appear aggressive. I know that must be upsetting and scary.

Homelessness is up in general and the City of Oakland, in partnership with Alameda County and other municipalities are working strategically to at least begin to address this very complicated and very large problem.

Councilmember Kalb has requested that the Human Services Department provide a status report on what can be done to address this within our budget, how much certain paths to ending homelessness would cost, etc. To read the reports in full, please click here: https://oakland.legistar.com/calendar.aspx Once there, please scroll down to the 5/30 council meeting, then scroll to item 12 and click on “View Report”. There is a main report and three supplemental reports.

For an assessment of what the homelessness problem looks like County wide, please see this infographic: http://everyonehome.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Everyone-Counts_Alameda-ES-5_12.pdf

I hope this offers some perspective on what we are working on to address the more broad problem of homelessness. I also hope to see the issue of 42nd street addressed soon as well.

Or this:

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. We hope to see changes very soon.

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 t different location and may possibly return back to Frog Park at some point. We need to work on permanent solutions to this problem.

City Council is doing the groundwork to pass a new 2 year budget at the end of June. 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 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.