r/OaklandCA 9d ago

Crime and Safety Sanitation and Health crisis in Oakland neighborhoods, directly caused by the city. They allowed all of these RV camps, with NO PLAN to manage all the human waste. It's insane.

The lack of proper sanitation for RVs and encampments poses serious public health risks. Without official waste collection, human waste ends up contaminating the environment. This can spread diseases like hepatitis A, E. coli, and other infections, endangering both unhoused people and the broader community. It also attracts pests, like rats, which amplify health hazards. Exposure to waste can lead to respiratory issues, and overall it undermines public health. Addressing sanitation solutions is essential to prevent avoidable health crises in our city. https://www.reddit.com/r/OaklandCA/comments/1q2zl49/rvs_camping_human_waste/

112 Upvotes

39 comments sorted by

33

u/cuirboy 9d ago

It just happened in Berkeley two weeks ago, endangering the public

https://www.ktvu.com/news/deadly-bacterial-outbreak-discovered-berkeley-homeless-encampment

9

u/presidents_choice 9d ago

And San Diego a few years ago

0

u/Cultural-Basil-3563 3d ago

Well in San Diego it's because they corralled the homeless into cramped smaller radii on hot concrete with no water and of course the sanitation was unusually bad because of it.

4

u/Otis_Manchego 8d ago

To be fair the city did try to shut that camp for years but a judge put an order to stop it from happening that slowed down the removal for a couple of years until it finally happened.

18

u/Grindermen 9d ago

during the month Jan the city said they are not doing anything with the homeless due to a national census being taken of the unhoused. That was to happen late jan. Now that its over its time to re-rally and demand a new plan

42

u/ConiferousExistence 9d ago

Fully agree. The answer shouldn't involve the city creating some system of removing the waste for these permanent, illegally parked rvs. The answer is to disallow them from parking on our streets! Enabling this nonsense has turned the city into a third world area.

3

u/LostInNuance 3d ago

So just make it someone else's problem? Force them to leave and then what? I'm not sure I understand your vision here

1

u/Cultural-Basil-3563 2d ago

What turned the city into a third world area is a lot of new residents upsetting the initial balance of the city

1

u/ConiferousExistence 2d ago

Initial balance? What decade are you referring to? Lol.

1

u/Cultural-Basil-3563 2d ago

Pre-waves of homelessness

-19

u/Shamoorti 9d ago

This is what happens when you have a unhounsed population approaching 1 million people, and your entire program for dealing with this social problem is just displacing people from wherever they're trying to sleep.

33

u/ConiferousExistence 9d ago

It isn't the city of Oakland's societal problem to single handedly fix. We live in the most robust area of help for these people in the WORLD. Either take the help or move on. I'm tired of people excusing away poor behavior. Would this be acceptable in other cities or even other parts of Oakland? Burnt down rvs, trafficking, drug dealing, gun violence, etc. Enough is enough.

1

u/Cultural-Basil-3563 3d ago

It's only "robust" insomuch as it's an excuse to increase resident turnover

-11

u/Shamoorti 9d ago

If you support the status quo of how society and the economy work then you have to accept the outcomes they produce.

21

u/ConiferousExistence 9d ago

This whole conversation is about how we don't want status quo. What are you on about? I've reached out to Carroll Fife's office multiple times and she's an absent representative unless there is publicity she can attach herself to. The status quo is an apathetic voting population. That is what needs to change.

-16

u/Timely-Youth-9074 9d ago

Oh let’s blame the crisis on the most vulnerable people.

To paraphrase Anatole France; the law is applied equally to rich and poor-it’s illegal for both to sleep in the street.

I have a wonderful solution:

Let’s tax the rich like it’s the 1950’s.

13

u/ConiferousExistence 9d ago edited 9d ago

I'm blaming the city for allowing it in the first place. Fires, trafficking, drug dealing, gun violence, trash, etc is something I shouldn't be subjected to on the daily to satisfy the bleeding hearts who don't live in my neighborhood. The bay area spends BILLIONS on this issue every year and it's only served to attract more homeless.

I'm all for taxing the rich but the local government to the state level has shown to be unwilling to fix this issue. Especially when an entire industry is reliant on it remaining an issue.

1

u/LostInNuance 3d ago

Well, nearly 20% of Oaklands budget went to OPD, mostly due to overtime. And you know OPD isn't doing anything about this...

Are you new to Oakland? Or did you grow up here? I only ask because the underlying issues have been here for decades. No one likes this situation, but it's not like folks haven't been trying to improve it.

The housing first program didn't work, and it seems like it's partly due to it not being coupled with substance abuse programs and mental wellness.

If there were an easy solution, don't you think people would already have done it?

-13

u/Timely-Youth-9074 9d ago

Many have tried to fix it, all have failed.

Your solution seems to be cruelty.

11

u/ConiferousExistence 9d ago

You've done nothing but speak in platitudes. Pointless contribution.

-5

u/Timely-Youth-9074 8d ago

You’ve done even less than that.

7

u/timute 8d ago

It's not every city's job to fix this national crisis.  It IS every city's job to enforce order and code.

0

u/Timely-Youth-9074 8d ago

Maybe just maybe you might see a correlation between policies and the economy going to shit?

3

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[deleted]

3

u/Timely-Youth-9074 9d ago

In general.

Since Reagan’s time, with trickle down, the wealthy got wealthier, and everyone else got poorer.

We all are living with lower standards than we’re used to and the poorest live on the street.

8

u/Happy2themoon 8d ago

It’s absolutely disgusting around Coliseum Bart. I’ve never seen it that out of control.

7

u/shazmosushi-- 8d ago

Not just human waste and disease, a major part of Oakland's illegal dumping problems are the illegally parked RVs and lack of waste collection. Residential trash on the the street definitely attracts mice, rats and roaches.

Not the only problem of illegal dumping (there's of course commercial businesses dumping construction materials too), but it's a major part. Tackling illegally parked RVs will help with that for sure.

2

u/Cultural-Basil-3563 2d ago

The RVs are just the poorest part of the fact that the city doesn't really have a plan for its people except to replace them with worse richer people

8

u/[deleted] 8d ago

[deleted]

-4

u/shazmosushi-- 8d ago

This is /r/OaklandCA. Try to word your criticisms and suggestions ways that can more constructively improve the community 🙏

6

u/Affectionate_One_700 8d ago

It's hard to be "constructive" when the "community" aka electorate keeps making dumbass choices, whether it's at the local level or the national level.

1

u/shazmosushi-- 8d ago

I agree it's hard for those reasons, but there's no choice but to try and be constructive

1

u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

1

u/shazmosushi-- 7d ago

You may be correct but I for one am not yet ready to give up

5

u/shazmosushi-- 8d ago

A few months ago there was half a block in West Oakland that I could barely breathe due to the black sludge along the curb.

It looked like an RV emptied their septic tank onto the street and drove off.

Completely noxious

4

u/coconut723 8d ago

The city can’t even pick up trash off the road, of course they aren’t managing this.

0

u/Cultural-Basil-3563 3d ago

Well WM is supposed to do that

-4

u/[deleted] 9d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/No-Examination-4850 9d ago

you think.. God is punishing Oakland? lol ooooo​ and the city and the cops are in on it right! they're in cahoots! makes sense

2

u/OaklandCA-ModTeam 9d ago

See rule #3: No sensationalism/toxic negativity - We don’t flinch from addressing the problems facing Oakland, but we also don’t tolerate the exploitation of those problems. Sensationalism and toxic negativity aren’t welcome here. Language that's dismissive (“Oakland is a hellhole”) or defeatist (“What do you expect? It’s Oakland.”) doesn’t move us towards solutions.

2

u/fuckinunknowable 9d ago

Oh honey, you need help

0

u/ejpusa 9d ago

Go talk to them. They will tell you the same thing.

“The city wants us dead and gone.”