It’s a scene that has become more and more common as Oakland’s homeless population continues to surge: Growing tent encampments blocking the sidewalks on 29th and 30th streets under Interstate 980, forcing pedestrians and people in wheelchairs into traffic.

“I have a dog, and I like to walk. I like the neighborhood, but you just can’t walk on the sidewalks there. We have parents pushing babies in strollers down the street. That’s not right; you don’t want to walk in the street,” said Scotty Harrison, who lives in the Pill Hill neighborhood.

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Months after residents started complaining about the encampments, city crews cleared the sites Tuesday.

“We are closing them due to a number of factors, the biggest being the lack of pedestrian access that they have created,” said Joe DeVries, an assistant to the city administrator.

While the city routinely cleans homeless encampments but often does not clear out people living in them, the ones on 29th and 30th blocked sidewalks on both sides of what are major pedestrian routes, DeVries said.

“They are important routes to two grocery stores, Grocery Outlet and Sprouts. It also connects to Westlake Middle School on Harrison and all those health facilities at Summit on Pill Hill,” he said of the pathways. “Especially for residents who don’t have cars, these are important routes.”

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The only other options for pedestrians and bicyclists traveling between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Telegraph Avenue and Broadway are to walk several blocks to 34th Street or down to 27th Street, which is a high-traffic street, DeVries said.

The problem is made worse because parking is allowed on both sides of the 29th and 30th underpasses.

“A pedestrian is stuck, especially those in wheelchairs. You can’t get off the sidewalk easily because the cars are there,” DeVries said.

Unlike some other homeless encampments, the ones on 29th and 30th were in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

“We would hear reports of drug dealing, trespassing on people’s properties. Someone tried to break into a home in the middle of the night; there were scary moments,” DeVries said.

Some people from the encampments were using neighbors’ outlets to charge cellphones, and when residents blocked the outlets, they were threatened, he said. There also were complaints of indecent exposure and at least two fires reported.

“It has been a nightmare. I come home, and there are people lying in my yard. It’s scary,” said one neighbor who would not give her name because she said she feared retribution.

“I’m concerned for myself, I’m concerned for people in wheelchairs, I’m concerned for people using walkers, but I’m most concerned for students. There’s no way they can walk by the tents, and with the cars parked there, it pushes them into the street,” she said.

The city has received formal Americans With Disabilities Act and other complaints because the sidewalks were blocked, DeVries said. The city did a cleanup at the sites two months ago and warned people there that both sides of the sidewalk could not be blocked, he said.

“We are concerned about places where public right of way is blocked; it presents a problem,” said Oakland spokeswoman Karen Boyd.

The city has sent outreach workers to the two encampments about 15 times and spoken with 25 people living there, DeVries said. Five accepted assistance to work toward getting housing, but many refused, he said. The city posted notices 72 hours in advance warning that the camps would be cleared, DeVries said. Many people moved before Tuesday.

But some people at the encampment said the notices were posted Monday, not 72 hours in advance, and they had not been contacted by any outreach workers.

“We have had a fairly dramatic increase in the number of people on the street,” Boyd said. A January survey showed a 30 percent increase in the number of homeless people living in Oakland in the past two years.

But most encampments are not being closed, Boyd said. “Our approach is not to just chase people all around the city,” she said.

Oakland is trying to address some of the sanitation problems. The city gives people in the encampments 72 hours to move their belongings before public works crews go in and clear debris and power wash the sites, and then people return.

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“We’re taking a very compassionate approach. The solution to homelessness is housing, but it is going to take some time to address the magnitude of the problem. Meanwhile, we are looking at places where expansion is creating a safety hazard,” Boyd said.

“It’s challenging,” Boyd said of the situation. “People who are unsheltered are living in difficult situations. But those impacts are being felt by people in the surrounding area, the residents, the businesses.”