Oakland in crisis: Shocking images show homeless encampments in dystopian California city as vagrants openly defecate on the streets and locals declare it a 'war zone'

By Ruth Styles In Oakland, California, For Dailymail.com

Published: 19:20 BST, 15 July 2024 | Updated: 12:50 BST, 16 July 2024

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It could be a scene from Mad Max: on one side of the street, a man lies sprawled on a heap of trash and prostitutes work in broad daylight while on the other, a row of stolen cars are stripped for parts in front of a straggle of shabby tents.

But this is no horror movie: it is modern-day Oakland, San Francisco’s smaller, shabbier neighbor and a place that has become synonymous with mass looting, rampant crime and sprawling homeless encampments that cover entire city blocks.

Surveying the devastation, a resident who asked not to be named told DailyMail.com: ‘This place… It makes San Francisco look like paradise.’

The encampment, sprawled along the side of the 880 freeway across from the city’s famous Embarcadero, is one of 170 such homeless camps blighting Oakland.

A stone’s throw from downtown is another huge encampment with a sign that welcomes visitors to ‘the ghost town’ while another, set up in an underpass, has a huge graffitied sign that reads: ‘F*** this dystopia’.

And dystopian is what it is: filthy tents, people openly defecating in the streets, hollow-eyed zombies jacked up on fentanyl and mounds of trash everywhere you look.

As a result, the city’s progressive mayor Sheng Thao and DA Pamela Price are both facing recall elections in November – Thao after she was caught up in an FBI corruption probe and Price over her ‘woke’ refusal to prosecute low-level criminals.

In February, California Governor Gavin Newsom was forced to flood the city with California Highway Patrolmen in a bid to shore up the city’s flailing police department – left leaderless for over a year due to Thao’s decision to fire Chief LeRonne Armstrong after he turned whistleblower.

But despite their efforts, crime has continued to shoot up with burglaries up 23 per cent compared to last year and motor vehicle thefts up by a whopping 44 per cent.

Meanwhile, the homeless population now stands at a record 5,490 – double what it was 10 years ago – with 67 per cent of the unhoused living in camps on the street.

Earlier this moonth, a 76 gas station run by Yemeni immigrant Sam Mardaie on the city’s East Side was ransacked by a mob of between 80 and 100 people.

Mardaie later described the situation as ‘unbelievable’ and said he had been underwhelmed with the police response.

He told Fox: ‘We got no excuse from them, not even an apology [for] not even showing up, not even having the courtesy to show up even.’

‘I would understand if they came in an hour or two hours later after the incident, but not until 2:30. That's the time they showed up

The week before, a man was caught on camera beating an elderly woman and stealing her possessions before attacking a good Samaritan who attempted to come to her aid.

Over the first weekend of July, three people were murdered in three days – all shootings and all independent of each other.

Ken Houston, 60, the director of the city’s Beautification Council and a community activist who revels in the nickname ‘son of Oakland’ says the city is the worst he has ever seen it and describes the situation as being like a ‘war zone’.

Houston said: ‘We're in war times. I mean, we had three homicides in three days – one person ran up into the store around my corner and killed them in the store.

‘That's war when you have trash being dumped on the street where kids have to walk around it and it has contamination in it.

‘When your seniors can't even walk on their sidewalks, when you're scared as a senior to walk down the street [for fear of] getting robbed, beat thrown down.’

Making the situation worse is Price who he says has fostered an approach to crime that is so lax, criminals refer to her as ‘Auntie Pam’ because they know they can expect a slap on the wrist from her and nothing more.

Houston explained: ‘They [criminals] had a healthy fear and respect back in the day of the law.

‘They have no fear of the law right now. They feel that they won't be prosecuted, which is one of the main issues, and that's why the DA is facing a recall because she's one of the main problems.

‘I run across the individuals that commit the crimes. I hire the individuals that commit the crimes. I help them change their lives. And I hear it from them that I'll be out tomorrow if I get arrested.

‘They call her Auntie Pam. That right there is what they call her – Auntie Pam.’

Houston, a third-generation resident of East Oakland, says the city’s enormous homeless encampments and rampant crime are connected and he has been trying to change the situation by conducting clean-up operations, block by block.

He hires ex-criminals to work on his projects with the aim of teaching them a trade and getting them back to work and a fruitful life.

During his daily clean-up operations, he says he has found everything from body parts to needles and even an FBI ID card – stolen from an agent working in the city.

Houston said: ‘I’ve found bullets. Knives, prescription vials of blood, 765 needles, used needles, in a park.

‘I found everything except for a body. And the reason why I didn't find the body is because the morgue had already picked them up.’

In a statement, Thao said she is working hard to address both issues but also said she does not intend to take advantage of the Supreme Court’s recent Grants Pass ruling.

That decision, handed down two weeks ago, allows city officials to clear homeless encampments and enforce no camping laws, overturning rulings by judges from the 9th Circuit that covers the West Coast who had banned it on human rights grounds.

Thao said: ‘The Supreme Court ruling does not change what my administration has been focused on and committed to from Day One.

‘The best way to prevent homelessness and to create long-term solutions is to create more affordable housing units

But. the problems in Oakland just keep mounting. In May, DailyMail.com reported how the city removed traffic lights from a busy intersection near one of the major homeless camps because because electrical boxes that controlled the lights were repeatedly tampered with and copper from them was stolen.

On one occasion the malfunctioning lights sent a truck into the fence of Tam Le's repair shop.

'If you really want to fix the stop sign, I think you really have to clean up this homeless encampment,' he said. 

Le said several of businesses have already closed in his area on E. 12th and he isn't sure 'how long we're going to be here'.

'Because once they (occupants of the homeless encampment) move to our side of the sidewalk, we will be gone,' he added.

Mayor Thao said: ‘The City Team continues to work tirelessly to address the critical needs of our own city. 

'This is why we are also taking steps to strengthen our encampment management policy, to ensure that this ruling is not used as an incentive for other cities to push their homelessness crisis into nearby cities.

‘We have a responsibility to address the homelessness crises with compassion and humanity by moving people into temporary, and ultimately, permanent housing so they can live with dignity.’

But Houston remains unconvinced. ‘Public health and safety, environmental protection – that is what creates a healthy, safe, and enjoyable city.

‘Who doesn't want to have a city where you rest your head that’s enjoyable. Pleasant. Everybody wants to be able to go home and live in peace. Here, people live in fear.’