OAKLAND — A group of homeless plaintiffs won $250,000 from the city after settling a lawsuit that accused officials of improperly evicting their East Oakland encampment.
The City Council approved the settlement Tuesday morning in a unanimous vote, with Councilmembers Treva Reid and Loren Taylor absent. The settlement stems from a lawsuit filed in 2018 by residents living in an encampment community at Edes and South Elmhurst avenues, which included women and families who didn’t feel safe in other camps. Residents of the camp, dubbed the Housing and Dignity Village, originally sued in an attempt to stop the city from clearing the camp and displacing more than a dozen people. Their efforts were unsuccessful, and athe city to go through with the removal.
And city workers trashed some residents’ belongings, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyers. Even when items were saved, the city didn’t have a policy in place for residents to retrieve their belongings, according to the lawyers.