Oakland homeless plan: ‘outdoor Navigation Centers’ in Tuff Sheds

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Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is looking at three potential sites to set up camps accommodating up to 40 homeless people each — except that instead of living in tents, they’ll be living in Tuff Sheds.

“Our goal is to get these established in time for the rainy season,” Schaaf said Tuesday.

The Oakland City Council has allocated more than $550,000 for the first of three of what Schaaf described as “outdoor Navigation Centers,” which in addition to the 20 prefab Tuff Sheds, would include toilets, fencing, security and daytime staff managers.

The plan, however, will need private help as well.

Oakland has seen a mushrooming of homeless encampments in the past year, some spilling into the streets with clutter and debris.

Schaaf said the goal was to get the camps “off the sidewalks” and its residents into “safety and services.”

The sites under consideration are:

•A city-owned lot at 3831 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in West Oakland.

•A city-owned parcel at East 12th Street and 23rd Avenue near the Fruitvale District that is already the site of a homeless encampment.

•And a parcel on the border of West Oakland and Jack London Square that Caltrans recently sold to a developer. The site has already have been leased to Pacific Gas and Electric Co., and it’s unclear if the utility would be willing to share it with homeless people.

Schaaf said she needs private donors and organizations to help pick up the tab — including paying for the sheds, which cost about $3,300 each. Residents would live two to a shed and be limited to stays of six months.

The city is also considering enlisting volunteers to help manage the centers, similar to an arrangement at the short-lived Village Encampment in Grove Shafter Park earlier this year.

While relying on volunteers isn’t ideal, Schaaf said, “We have a crisis, and we are moving as quickly as we can in a way that’s responsible and compassionate.”

The Tuff Shed shelter plan would be similar in many respects to San Francisco Navigation Centers, where homeless people are placed in sheltered dorms while getting services aimed at getting them into permanent housing.

San Francisco’s program has encountered resistance from neighbors, and Schaaf said she fully expects the same “legitimate concerns” from Oakland neighbors as well.

But she said the three initial sites already have homeless camps on them or a camp nearby, and the idea is to “reclaim the sidewalks” for the public and provide a safer and healthier environment for everyone.

At the same time, Schaaf said the city is removing hazardous street encampments. Three camps were removed last month, including one known as the Living Room at 85th Street and International Boulevard in East Oakland, where children on their way to school were forced to walk in the street to get around the camp. The other two camps were on 29th and 30th streets between Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Telegraph Avenue, and on MLK Way near Grand Avenue and San Pablo Avenue.

The new Navigation Centers would follow other models the city has tested, including the Compassionate Communities program, which ran a sanctioned camp with portable toilets, wash stations and regular garbage pickup near 35th and Peralta streets, and under Interstate 580.

That camp was eventually ordered shut down after a dozen tents caught fire and neighbors complained repeatedly.

Schaaf said the city would continue providing portable toilets and other sanitary services at other camps to avoid a hepatitis A outbreak like the one that has hit homeless sites in San Diego County. That outbreak has killed 16 people and sickened hundreds more since November.

A recent countywide survey found 2,761 homeless people live in Oakland encampments, up about 25 percent in the past two year. Dozens of encampments have popped up throughout the city, including around the city’s rejuvenated Lake Merritt.

As a result, Schaaf, who faces re-election next year, has been walking a fine line between city residents demanding that City Hall clean up the streets and those calling for greater compassion.

In her latest budget, the mayor has proposed spending $185 million over the next two years on homelessness, though most of that money is intended for affordable housing and keeping people from losing their homes.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross