BERKELEY — A group of homeless people announced Saturday afternoon they were setting up a protest camp at the Old City Hall.

Members of the group, which calls itself First They Came For The Homeless, have been camping since early 2017 on a grassy strip along Adeline Street and the BART tracks about a half-mile south of the Ashby station.

On Wednesday, BART, which owns the strip, posted trespass notices there, giving occupants 72 hours to take their belongings and move out. The previous day, a federal judge denied a request by attorneys representing several of the camp residents for a preliminary injunction that would bar the city and BART from evicting them.

The judge, William Alsup of U.S. District Court for the Northern District Court of California, also ordered the city to submit by Nov. 28 a practical plan for sheltering its homeless population during the coming winter.

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“We have set up a protest camp,” FTCFTH member Adam Bredenberg said Saturday, adding that a Berkeley police lieutenant had told the group they cannot stay overnight.

“Before we arrived, there were two people camping here,” Bredenberg said. “They have been sleeping on the property for days or weeks. I’m afraid we’ll be cited if we stay. I consider this a violation of our First Amendment rights.”

Berkeley police spokesman Lt. Andrew Rateaver, asked how the police department would react to the setting up of the camp in front of the Old City Hall, said in an email Saturday: “BPD is responsive to calls for service. Any action we take involves a range of circumstances. To mention anything to you in this context wouldn’t be appropriate.”