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Alameda Police Department

This is a problem that continues to resurface. Would like to see the police department address this more proactively and not have to wait for it to be reported by a citizen.

Police will say "Homelessness is not a crime". That's all well and good, but technically it is not legal to live on public property, no more so than I can go to a national park or state park and just live there permanently. It may not be illegal to be homeless, but it is illegal to live on public property that is not zoned or permitted for camping or habitation. If we don't enforce our laws it will end up looking like parts of Oakland with hundreds of people and tents overflowing onto sidewalks and streets, creating a public hazard from fires, fights, drugs, traffic obstruction, etc.

My point, which seems to have been rejected above, is that I've seen the police respond to these reports by saying "Homelessness is not a crime". But of course, living on public property is illegal isn't it? I can't just go to a National Park, State Park, public beach, etc., and just set up camp and live there. I can't even build a shed on my property if it's too close to the property line. I'll be cited and fined by the city. Our concern is that if we allow encampments to grow, they will grow to resemble the ones in Oakland and San Francisco where scores of tents, people, furniture, garbage and bicycle parts litter the sidewalks and streets, creating a safety hazard.

I agree with Steve. I hear that a lot that homelessness is not a crime. However, loitering and vagrancy is a crime. Clearly our police department has not been given direction regarding how to respond to homeless issues. That needs to change.Steve is right, as it is not okay to set up camps on our public property. While we need viable options for the homeless we need to continue to push back appropriately when they start to form. I have been harassed by the city about the location of a fence on my property and it's proximity to the sidewalk, but it's okay to put up a tent on public property?
Doesn't make sense.

Littering is a crime.

Also as a friendly reminder to everyone, APD has been continously ignoring the large and rapidly growing criminal/drug addicted homeless element that has been spreading into the marina village shopping center and plaguing nearby businesses. These transients have been permitted to abuse drugs and loiter aroudn this area for quite some time with total impunity courtesy of the thoroughly useless alameda police department that doesn't actually enforce any known laws on the island (aside from occasionally ticketing otherwise law abiding citizens for doing 5mph over the speed limit while conveniently neglecting to follow basic traffic laws themselves, like using turn signals for instance). The transients regularly steal cars from various parking lots in this area to chop them up for scrap in Oakland to subsidize their drug addictions, steal bicycles and regularly ride around the area on them, regularly steal shopping carts from the lucky's and cvs to use as personal storage, and also like to harass shoppers at marina village while under the influence of hard drugs like meth. thanks apd!

Well said. It's also not legal to loiter, panhandle, disturb the peace, urinate in public, be drunk in public, walk around high etc. All of which the homeless do. It's almost as if someone were deliberately trying to ruin this town by encouraging homeless people to come here.

If I littered out of my car window I would be cited - why are we not all held to the same standards?
Please clean this up and do not allow Alameda to become an extension of Oakland.

David Diaz unfortunately APD has already proven to us all that they couldn't care less about enforcing laws or the residents of this island. the only thing they're after is easy money. that's why they prey on law abiding taxpayers and ticket us for doing 5 mph over the speed limit while giving degenerate thugs a free pass to break as many laws as they want, even after people record them doing it on video for a whole year and report it to apd daily. apd still lets criminals get away with crime they only prey on law abiding tax payers because we're easy targets; we won't resist and we will actually pay the fine, so we're just easy cash cows for apd. apd dont care about enforcing laws and they'd never actually try to stop a real criminal because they're cowards and afraid they'd get hurt

It's been 3 months since my last comment here so thought I'd just drop and post a periodic reminder to everyone monitoring this issue that to this day, APD still couldn't care less about us or enforcing the law. Remember guys, APD is not here to protect and serve this community, they're only here to protect and serve themselves. I just had a wonderful e-mail conversation with the chief and suffice it to say, his response has completely cemented everything I've been saying about this department for the past year. They really, REALLY do not care about us at all.

This is Caltrans property. City has contracted Caltrans to take action and is willing to coordinate efforts to clean-up the encampment. Caltrans has to initiate the closure of this encampment, as this is their property. Outreach is aware of this site and visits the encampment regularly to offer services and connect individuals to resources.