Global Courant
OAKLAND, California – Drug use, drug trafficking, prostitution, fights, and heaps of litter are common sights in the rougher parts of town, but when Oakland police moved several RVs and their occupants outside the building Elecia Holland manages, the new landscape scared off potential renters.
“We’ve seen drug use, we’ve seen drug dealing, we’ve seen them bring stolen cars here and break them down for parts,” Holland told Fox News. “We see people who are sex workers going across the street into one of the burned-out RVs, and you know.”
The view from Holland’s Oakland apartment. Garbage and a diesel generator are outside an occupied RV that has been there for months. (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News)
“So we see all those things that come with people living criminal lifestyles,” she continued. “People don’t want to see that.”
The campers were moved to the street in the Netherlands in the spring of 2022 when police broke up a nearby camp after a fire and neighbors complained, she said.
“The RVs that are actually in front of our property and the RVs that are behind our property were towed here and ordered by the Oakland Police Department to park here,” she told Fox News. “We’ve seen them do it.”
According to city data, homelessness in Oakland more than doubled between 2015 and 2022, bringing the total number of unprotected persons to 5,055. More than half – 58% – of Oakland’s homeless population live in RVs, trucks or cars, many parked on the side of the road or under highway overpasses.
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The Oakland Police Department and Fire Department have dealt with homeless camps catching fire for years. Last year, the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom sent a letter to city officials saying their approach to encampments was “simply unacceptable.”
The 2022 letter also noted that Oakland has received a total of $4.7 million over the past two years to address homeless camps.
Holland and several of her tenants have repeatedly contacted police to request that the RVs parked outside their building be moved and have reported the myriad crimes committed outside their windows.
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“The police have been here several times when we called them, and they say their officers say there’s nothing they can do,” Holland said. “We had a sergeant tell our tenants who lived two doors down to just move.”
“City officials and police will not do anything about the homeless problem here,” she added. “It was therefore difficult to rent out the vacant space.”
Burnt furniture, food, car parts and other personal items in the aftermath of a fire at a 2021 homeless camp in Oakland. (@OaklandFireCA via Twitter)
According to a survey of 1,270 residents, more than 35% of Oakland residents said homelessness is the most pressing issue the city needs to address in its 2023-2023 budget. The same survey showed that 63% of residents disapprove of the work of the city government.
Holland said the people living outside her building are stealing electricity and ignoring local noise and sanitation ordinances.
“You’d be kicked out of your house if you lived on someone’s property like this,” she said.
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Residents in her building worry about retaliation if they call the police about the people living outside, because the people living in the RVs “see where they live.”
The apartment building has reduced the cost of its vacant units by as much as 40% since last year.
“This year we had two tenants move because of the noise” from the RVs and their generators, Holland said. “Many of our tenants have recently moved out of Oakland.”
A boat leans on a raised RV parked on the street outside the Exchange Studios in West Oakland. Local residents say the vehicle has been there for months. (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
Holland said the way to solve the growing problem of homelessness is to get people off the streets and seek help.
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“Being allowed to sit here on their own devices, I mean it’s a death sentence for them and it doesn’t help them at all,” Holland continued. “It’s actually inhumane.”
Oakland Police Department has not returned a request for comment.
Click here to watch the full interview with Holland.
Ramiro Vargas contributed to this video report.
Jon Michael Raasch is an associate producer/writer at Fox News Digital Originals.
Police towed campers from a homeless camp to her street. As residents leave, ‘our tenants have left’
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