BUZZ
Berkeley city officials have been trying for years to shut down a large and disease-ridden homeless encampment next to UC Berkeley. They finally got their wish.
Earlier this week, “police and city officials descended on the controversial site with bulldozers and hazmat suits to evict 21 unhoused Berkeley residents following a court order from a federal judge stemming from a longstanding legal battle,” the Daily Californian student newspaper reported.
The infamous encampment had gone viral once again in late August thanks to a video taken by a parent dropping her son off at UC Berkeley that showed large camping tents, trash, sleeping bags, garbage, tarps, dirty mattresses, bikes and other debris piled up in heaps and spilling out into the street for several blocks.
The encampment had been officially deemed a fire hazard by public officials, with community services also noting “dead rats all over the streets,” as well as regular instances of “visible bodily fluids and feces” on the ground, as The College Fix reported.
It was also the location of a leptospirosis outbreak.
Homeless advocates had fought efforts by city officials and local business owners to shut the encampment down, even filing a lawsuit to block efforts to clean it up.
“The sweep follows a Sept. 11 notice by the city calling for nonexempt encampment residents to remove ‘all tents, structures, or other items on the streets and sidewalks’ by Sept. 15,” the Californian reported.
MORE: Viral video of huge homeless encampment near UC Berkeley prompts alarm
