Berkeley declares homeless camp a nuisance, plans crackdown
BERKELEY -- The city has declared a homeless camp under Interstate 80 on Gilman Street a public nuisance and has given residents until Tuesday to clean up the growing mounds of trash or crews will remove all the property there.
The homeless camp under the freeway sprung up in May after neighboring Albany pushed out a long-standing group of campers who had been on bay front land near Golden Gate Fields for years.
The area on either side of Gilman Street under the freeway overpass is piled with food waste, old bikes, shopping carts, tents, tarps, mattresses and sleeping bags. The population of the camp varies by day as people come and go. The California Highway Patrol also has posted a notice at the camp telling people they need to go or face "citation or arrest."
A letter from Berkeley's Environmental Health Division posted on cement pillars of the overpass said: "The accumulation of food waste, trash, debris, personal belongings and animal waste must be removed completely and disposed of properly."
full: http://www.insidebayarea.com/breaking-news/ci_26118937/berkeley-declares-homeless-camp-nuisance-plans-crackdown
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The underside of the Gilman Street overpass is a vast improvement, he said. Fewer rats, for starters. Better food options. More tolerant passersby....
Many decamped to Berkeley, and some officials there have accused Albany of dealing its homeless problem to its neighbors.
"Should we now pay our homeless to go somewhere else, like Oakland? Berkeley doesn't do that," said Berkeley Councilwoman Susan Wengraf. "It's very frustrating, because I think Berkeley pays an unfair burden for the region's homeless problem. Albany didn't take responsibility."
Berkeley, like SF, seems to be suffering from homeless overload, and is starting to turn against them.
It nearly passed a sit-lie ordinance! 
