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OAKLAND — Tow trucks showed up Tuesday at a West Oakland homeless encampment and started towing out dozens of cars and RVs — to get the parcel ready as a sanctioned RV site.

But the vehicles weren’t towed far — just onto the nearby street.

The city is prepping the 4-acre lot on Wood Street between 28th Street and West Grand Avenue to be the city’s third sanctioned RV camp, which will have room for at least 60 of the people who were living at the encampment. City officials wouldn’t say how long it will be before the site is ready for people to move in, though.

Around two dozen people showed up Tuesday morning to protest the clearing of the lot, chanting “shame” and yelling at police officers and tow truck drivers.

Most of the encampment residents were either gone or were preparing their RVs and cars to be moved to the street. Advocates also were taking pictures and keeping an eye on things to make sure the city lived up to its promise that it won’t impound any of the vehicles used to shelter people.

Homeless supporters said Oakland should leave the vehicle dwellers alone and instead invest more money into providing permanent housing for the homeless.

Well over 100 homeless people currently live at the lot in RVs, cars and makeshift structures. The lot’s owner, GameChanger, has agreed to lease it to the city at no cost for the next two to three years, and pay the estimated $250,000 bill to tow more than 100 vehicles out Tuesday and Wednesday. The city will then pay for the lot to be cleaned and graded and have electrical lines and other amenities put in.

While the RV park is being prepared, the city is allowing the encampment residents to move onto Wood Street itself. Tow trucks on Tuesday morning were moving most of the vehicles — even ones without wheels — onto the Wood Street curbside.

The encampment residents had mixed feelings about it being cleared out. “Metal Bob” Rosenberg said the lot needed to be cleared, but he’s not in favor of a city-sanctioned RV lot.

Phavia Mapp, whose RV was towed out of the lot Tuesday morning, said she is glad the city is cleaning up the lot, since it was filled with debris, but felt less safe having her RV on the street.

“I don’t know if I’m going to get robbed, or if I’m going to get towed,” Mapp said.

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Letters: Why blame Newsom? | Success story | Champion of ethics | Contradicted column | Legacy of failure | Reflecting us all Encampment resident Dani Smith said she has moved from place to place while being homeless, and finally felt like she had a more stable living situation.

“It’s been like this for years. It’s always been unclean, and people made dwellings work. I don’t understand why they want to take everybody’s homes,” Smith said.

Mavin Carter-Griffin, who runs one of the groups called the “Wood Street Collective,” said she was in favor of the RV park. She said the debris and broken-down cars scattered around the lot have become a health hazard. But she hopes that when the RV park does open that it offers more activities and freedom than the sanctioned RV parks and the Tuff Shed sites, and that the residents can have a say in how the park is operated.

When the park does open, it will accommodate at least 60 vehicles, Assistant to the City Administrator Joe DeVries said Monday. Residents whose vehicles were working were encouraged to either go to the Beach Street RV park, where a handful of spots are open, or park at one of the nearby churches that are willing to let RV dwellers stay overnight in their parking lots.