Berkeley Marina RV dwellers forced to move

ABC 7 News – By Laura Anthony

BERKELEY, Calif. (KGO) — The city of Berkeley has forced a group of homeless people living in RV’s and campers in a parking lot near the marina to move along. It comes after 18 months of negotiations between the city and the RV dwellers.

“We are in essence economic refugees,” said Amber Whitson, one of three dozen people who had been living in an RV near Hs Lordships at the Berkeley Marina. That is until the city put up no parking signs, and blocked off the lot over the weekend.

“We are families, disabled people, individuals, a lot of people have jobs,” said Whitson. “Living in vehicles is becoming a reality for more and more people, not just in this city, but across the country.”

Whitson and the others–including 8 children– have moved down the road literally, to Marina Boulevard, where the city started delivering warning citations, almost immediately.

“The situation they’re up against is that Berkeley has essentially made it illegal to live in a vehicle anywhere within the city limits,” said Osha Neumann, with the East Bay Community Law Center.

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