Berkeley landlord calls Ohlone Park encampment dangerous
Jossein Attar owns a rental property adjacent to Ohlone Park in Berkeley, and he said safety has gotten out of control.
"My father was an immigrant, and he built this place. It's been great until we've started having this problem," Jossein Attar told CBS News Bay Area.
His tenants are mainly UC Berkeley students, and Attar said he has been running out of options on how to keep them safe from the homeless encampments just steps away from their front door.
"Started out with three or four tents Now I think we're up to almost 50 tents and it goes all the day down to Ohlone, all the way down to Sacramento Street," he said.
He said he began noticing tents pop up about a year ago, wedged between the dog park.
"Homeless people going into my backyard, I've had a knife pulled on me in my own backyard, I've had people shooting up in the backyard," Attar said. "My tenants called me because they're afraid to go do laundry in the back because of people in the back," he said.
A sign is posted at the front of Ohlone Park, prohibiting unattended property and overnight camping. But that, however, is not the reality.
"A sad display of just poverty. This isn't fair for them. This isn't fair for us," Attar said.
He is a part of the "Save Ohlone Park" group, where residents are calling on city officials to provide increased community safety and shelter for the unhoused.
"The city says they're going to do stuff, but we haven't seen them do one thing. All they've done is built a fence around city hall and push the problem into the park," he said.
Berkeley is facing a barrier to building more shelters, however, with a nearly $27 million budget deficit in the next fiscal year. A city spokesperson responded to CBS News Bay Area's request for comment below:
"City staff are deeply aware of the issues that neighbors of this encampment have raised and we are working as quickly as we can to find solutions within the complex constraints of local codes and federal case law. We don't have any further comment. City staff also do not have any comment on the Governor's proposal."
Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom released a model ordinance on homeless encampment sweeps, including a 48-hour notice for the unhoused to vacate before any enforcement takes place while also providing guidance on where they could go.
But some community members say that is problematic, with the limited number of shelter beds available citywide.
Paul Kealohablake, a member of Where Do We Go Berkeley, said that plan is ineffective.
"There's no resolution in there. All it does is create a problem that is based on a punitive reaction, and we can't do that," Kealohablake said. He, along with members of the nonprofit organization, provides legal aid and resources to the unhoused. He said there should be collaboration in making more shelters available.
"They do not work. They remove the people from our site. That works I guess, but it doesn't really work on the real issues. The real issues are a lot deeper and a lot more complex than that," he said.
CBS News Bay Area spoke with Berkeley District 1 Councilmember Rashi Kesarwani, who oversees Ohlone Park.
"I can assure the public that the city is working hard to address the very serious concerns at Ohlone Park," Kesarwani said. She also added that with the governor's recent ordinance policy, given that it is optional, it would not be affecting Berkeley any time soon.
Kesarwani however declined to comment on a timeline for the encampment enforcement at Ohlone Park.
"This is not a naturally occurring form of homelessness. These were protest encampments to start with. I think they have grown, Ohlone park has certainly grown and not everybody may be aware that it started as a protest encampment," she said.
The councilmember added that the city has already poured millions of dollars into housing resources for those experiencing homelessness in Berkeley.
"We have master leased three motels, with a support of state funds and local matching funds. In the past, when we had closed a dangerous encampment, we have provided people 24/7 transitional housing for up to 18 months. We have also created two permanent supportive housing home key sites… we will be opening up 39 units on University Avenue. We have 739 homes in the pipeline at North Berkeley Bart with half of them affordable," she added.
Meanwhile, Attar said he hopes that there will be viable solutions to the homelessness crisis soon, to restore his hometown.
"When I was growing up here as a kid, people would play in the park. People would have picnics, kids would go out to study in the park, and now people are afraid to go into the park," Attar said.
Meanwhile, Kesarwani said there will be a public meeting for community members in the Aspen Room at North Berkeley Senior Center on May 22, from 5:30pm to 7:30 pm.
