Hot Topics · Who controls the beds? Berkeley homelessness spending and oversight — Steve Kromer for Berkeley City Council D1

The short version

The county, not the city, decides who gets most of Berkeley's shelter beds. As of August 2024 there were 320 shelter beds in Berkeley. The Homeless Response Team had direct referral authority over 56. The other 264 are managed by the Alameda County Continuum of Care and are, in the Auditor's words, "outside the HRT's direct control." The city's own 2024 gap analysis goes further: new permanent supportive housing built here "is not guaranteed to go to people experiencing homelessness in the city."
Measure P is projected below zero this year and $22.8 million below zero by 2029. It is a transfer tax on property sales, so it swings with the housing market — $20.6 million in FY2022, $6.5 million in FY2024. Spending did not swing with it. The City Manager's own projection shows the fund balance at −$1,231,027 in FY2026 and −$22,789,927 by FY2029 on current allocations. Measure W, effective January 2027, adds an estimated $2–4 million a year — but the tax is collected at close of sale, so the city's own revenue report books just $1.5 million in FY2027 and about $3 million a year after. That does not close it. And both measures are general taxes: Council "shall consider, but need not follow" the Panel of Experts' spending recommendations.
Two three-year plans, overlapping populations, no shared scorecard. Berkeley is one of three city health jurisdictions in California — with Long Beach and Pasadena — so it writes its own plans. The Community Health Improvement Plan names behavioral health a priority. The Behavioral Health Services Act plan lists Public Health among its stakeholders. Different money, different cycles, different commissions. The CHIP says of itself: "The CHIP is not a strategic plan for either the HHCS Department, or our Public Health Division. Rather, it is a vision for improving the health of our community citywide." A citywide vision is a fine thing to have. A departmental strategic plan is a different thing — and I could find no document that is one.
Forty-three percent of the city's FY2024 service contracts had no documented competition — and the fix has been sitting in committee since April. The Auditor found 94 of 218 contracts, about $43 million, without documented competition; 95 active contracts that began at or under the $50,000 threshold and were amended upward by an average of $218,026; one HHCS youth case-management contract that went from $50,000 to $737,092.
The city cannot publish the vacancy rate for the department that delivers these services. Citywide it is 13.6% — 211.69 of 1,559.54 positions vacant. A rate for Health, Housing & Community Services specifically does not appear in the budget book, in the Auditor's reports, or anywhere else I could find. The Health Officer post was filled on an interim basis from September 2023 to June 2025.

Where I stand

Measure it. Then fund it.

Some of this clearly works. Berkeley has won three state Encampment Resolution grants — People's Park, the Harrison Street corridor, Second and Cedar — worth about $15 million. Those motel rooms, together with the Measure P–funded beds at the Berkeley Inn, are the 56 the Auditor counted as city-controlled: filled by Berkeley's own outreach teams rather than the county queue. And since February 2026 a newer program, CareBridge, has added 30 rooms at the Signature Inn under an $8 million state grant — "a no-match grant with no impact on the City's General Fund" — where Berkeley police identify candidates and the provider screens and admits them, also outside the county queue. (CareBridge is a post-arrest diversion program; the city is explicit that "being unhoused is not the criteria.") These are real results, won by staff who wrote good applications — one was declined once, and they went back.

But a city spending $25 million a year should be able to hand a resident one table showing where it went and what came back. Until it can, every allocation vote is a vote taken on faith. I'm not asking to cut it. I'm asking what it bought. Five asks — each one a report, not a program:

Ask 01 One table, every site: who pays, who refers, who got in.
For each shelter, motel and supportive-housing site the city funds — the funding source, who controls referrals (city, county Coordinated Entry, or the provider), and the share of placements in the last twelve months who were Berkeley residents. The Auditor already built the bed count. Finish the table.
Ask 02 A five-year Measure P sustainability table before the next allocation vote.
The fund goes negative on the City Manager's own numbers, and the Homeless Services Panel of Experts recommends allocations one year at a time. Council should not allocate FY2028 money without seeing FY2028–2032 revenue under three housing-market scenarios, and what each program is funded at when the transfer tax comes in at FY2024 levels.
Ask 03 One HHCS outcomes dashboard that both three-year plans report into.
Pick ten numbers — shelter exits to permanent housing, crisis calls resolved without transport, time-to-fill for clinicians — and publish them quarterly against both plans. If the CHIP and the BHSA plan cannot share a single baseline, they are not coordinating. They are coexisting.
Ask 04 Vacancy and time-to-fill, by division, every quarter.
The Auditor flagged a 19% citywide vacancy rate in 2023, second-highest of the nine Bay Area cities it compared. Three years on, the city still publishes one number for roughly 1,560 positions. Break it out by department and division, with the median days a posted position stays open. You cannot plan a service around staff you cannot count.
Ask 05 Bring the contracts ordinance to a vote — and make it cover amendments.
The proposed amendment to BMC 7.18 would require competitive solicitation above $100,000. It was referred to the Budget & Finance Committee on 27 April 2026 and has not reached Council; the July meeting it was scheduled for was cancelled. It needs two additions: an amendment that pushes a contract past the threshold should trigger the same rule, and the annual report should be a standing Council item rather than a records request.

To be clear about what this is not

This is not an argument to cut Measure P, close a shelter, or sweep anyone. Berkeley voters passed Measure P with 72% and Measure W with 61%; that purpose is legitimate and I will defend it. My standard on encampments is the same one I apply everywhere else on this site: no closure without a documented offer of placement, and published 30- and 90-day outcomes for the people who were there.

It is also not an accusation against HHCS staff or against any provider. I have not found, and do not assert, that a particular contract was awarded improperly or that a particular program underperforms. The claim is narrower and, I think, harder to argue with: this is a system nobody measures end to end.

The record

Eight years, one tax, one queue

Every item below is traceable to a public document linked at the bottom of this page — mostly City Auditor reports and City Manager memoranda to Council.

November 2018
Measure P passes with 72%. The transfer tax on property sales over $1.5 million rises from 1.5% to 2.5%, and a Homeless Services Panel of Experts is created under BMC 7.52.190 to recommend how the money is spent.
Fiscal year 2022
Measure P revenue peaks at $20.6 million in the pandemic housing market. It falls to $14.1 million in FY2023 and $6.5 million in FY2024 — roughly a third of the peak, in two years. Program commitments made at the top of the market do not fall with it.
February 2022 – September 2024
Three state Encampment Resolution Fund grants: $4,708,015 for People's Park to the Rodeway Inn; $4,931,058 for the Harrison/8th/I-80 corridor to the Super 8; and $5,395,637 for Second and Cedar to the Howard Johnson — declined by the state in April 2024, resubmitted, and awarded in full on 27 September 2024. These grants — together with Measure P–funded beds like the Berkeley Inn's — are the placements Berkeley fills through its own outreach rather than the county queue.
June 2023
The City Auditor reports a 19% citywide vacancy rate, the second-highest of nine Bay Area cities compared.
September 2023 – June 2025
The Public Health Officer post is filled on an interim basis for close to two years. The previous Health Officer is retained on a coverage contract at $50 per hour or $1,200 per day, not to exceed $120,000. Dr. Noemi Doohan is appointed permanently on 3 June 2025.
October 2023 – September 2024
The Homeless Response Team pauses weekly case-conferencing with service providers for roughly a year, and cannot itself perform Coordinated Entry assessments — the entry point to county shelter and housing — until September 2024.
9 July 2024
The city's gap analysis reaches Council. People referred to permanent housing in north Alameda County spent an average of 280 days on the queue, and fewer than a quarter were housed within a year of referral. The report states plainly that because Coordinated Entry triages county-wide, "new PSH beds in Berkeley are not guaranteed to go to people experiencing homelessness in the city."
November 2024
City Measure W passes with 61%: it removes Measure P's 1 January 2029 sunset and adds tiered rates up to 3.5% from 1 January 2027, for an estimated $2–4 million a year. Because the transfer tax is paid at close of sale and the fiscal year turns in July, the city's revenue report books $1.5 million in FY2027 and $3 million a year from FY2028. (Not to be confused with the county's Measure W, a 2020 half-cent sales tax.)
28 March 2025
The City Manager's memorandum on Measure P puts the projected fund balance at −$1,231,027 in FY2026, −$10.1 million in FY2027, −$14.4 million in FY2028 and −$22,789,927 in FY2029 on current allocations — projections that do not include future Measure W revenue.
April 2025
A citywide hiring freeze is imposed against a $27 million deficit.
16 July 2025
The Auditor's report on the Homeless Response Team: 56 of 320 beds under direct city referral, more than twice as many people unsheltered on a given night as there are beds, and outcome reporting that omits Coordinated Entry assessments and shelter enrollments. Recommendation 3.1 asks the city to "expand reported outcomes that align with the HRT's goals and define how they will be measured."
29 July 2025
A Council worksession puts FY2025 homelessness spending at $25.4 million across 36 projects and 16 providers — with Measure P now 31% of the total, down from roughly two-thirds the year before. The gap is filled by federal (29%) and state (25%) money.
September 2025
The Community Health Improvement Plan is published, prepared with consultant JSI Research & Training Institute under a contract not to exceed $274,413 from a state public-health grant. In its own words: "The CHIP is not a strategic plan for either the HHCS Department, or our Public Health Division. Rather, it is a vision for improving the health of our community citywide." Implementation runs in phases through 2028.
30 September 2025
Council accepts an $8 million state Proposition 47 grant — "a no-match grant with no impact on the City's General Fund" — for CareBridge: 30 rooms at the Signature Inn, 1761 University Ave, for people arrested for nonviolent, low-level offenses. Berkeley police identify candidates; Options Recovery Services screens and admits them — no county Coordinated Entry involved. Opens February 2026.
19 February 2026
The Auditor publishes City Contracts: Outdated Process Led to Non-Competitive Contracts. 94 of 218 FY2024 service contracts — about $43 million against $102 million competed — lacked documented competition. Thirty-eight percent of waivers did not clearly meet the Purchasing Manual's criteria. The city "did not centrally track waivers … in an electronic format." Thirteen recommendations.
27 April 2026 – present
An amendment to BMC 7.18 requiring competitive solicitation for services above $100,000 is referred to the Budget & Finance Committee. It is listed as unscheduled in June, set for 23 July, and that meeting is cancelled. The committee due date is 13 October 2026. As of this writing it has not reached Council.
June 2026
Council approves the three-year Behavioral Health Services Act plan on consent — $11,695,372, $12,046,232 and $12,407,620 in state base allocations across FY2027–29. One week later it adopts a budget eliminating 138 positions, ending "the last General Fund–funded mental health crisis response" and transferring vector control to the county. (The same budget cuts STAIR operating funding 23% — but there the document shows its work: the reduction "aligns with the 25% reduction in bed capacity" from rebuilding congregate trailers into 32 single-occupancy cabins. That is what a priced, explained cut looks like.)

The money

A fund that swings with the housing market, spending that doesn't

Measure P revenue by fiscal year, and the City Manager's own projection of where the fund balance lands if allocations continue as they are.

Fiscal year	Measure P revenue	Projected fund balance, year end
FY2019	$2.9M	—
FY2020	$9.5M	—
FY2021	$10.9M	—
FY2022	$20.6M	—
FY2023	$14.1M	—
FY2024	$6.5M	$5,583,073
FY2025	$8.2M projected	$2,603,208
FY2026	$8.6M projected	−$1,231,027
FY2027	—	−$10,099,726
FY2028	—	−$14,409,877
FY2029	—	−$22,789,927

Revenue FY2019–FY2025 and all fund-balance projections: City Manager off-agenda memorandum, Measure P and Impact on Homeless Services in Berkeley, 28 March 2025. FY2026 revenue projection: HSPE allocation item, 29 October 2024. Projections assume current allocations continue and exclude Measure W revenue, which begins January 2027. One caution: the memo's own narrative says the deficit "will grow to $19.8 million" by FY2029 while its table shows the −$22,789,927 ending balance above — a roughly $3 million internal discrepancy the memo never explains. This page uses the table; either number is a fund tens of millions short.

The other scored pot: community agency funding

Measure P is not the only money that gets scored. Berkeley pools its General Fund human-services dollars with federal CDBG, CSBG, ESG and HOME-ARP, Measure E, Measure U1 and state pass-throughs into a single four-year community agency cycle (July 2024 – June 2028), about $10.9 million a year. Four bodies score it: the Homeless Services Panel of Experts scores the largest share — $4,833,223 for alcohol and drug treatment, emergency shelter, housing navigation and rapid re-housing — with commissions for human welfare, housing and youth scoring the rest. This is the structured, criteria-based allocation process the rest of this page keeps asking for. It exists. It should be the model, not the exception. (One stream has already hit the wall: state HHAP money — Berkeley is too small to receive it directly and gets pass-throughs — paid $603,000 a year for 24/7 shelter operations until it ended on 31 December 2025.)

56 / 320

Shelter beds under direct city referral, Aug 2024

31%

Measure P share of FY2025 homelessness spending — $7.8M of $25.4M

280

Average days on the north-county housing queue

94 / 218

FY2024 service contracts without documented competition

Not published

Vacancy rate for HHCS, the department that runs all of this

The structural problem

Two three-year plans that never meet

Berkeley is one of only three city health jurisdictions in California (with Long Beach and Pasadena) — and one of only two city behavioral-health jurisdictions (with Tri-City, serving Pomona, Claremont and La Verne). State money arrives here directly rather than through Alameda County, and the city writes its own plans. That is a genuine advantage — it also means nobody upstream is checking whether the plans line up. These two cover overlapping populations and share no baseline, no target and no report.

Community Health Improvement Plan

BHSA Three-Year Integrated Plan

Published September 2025, horizon 2025–28.

Written by consultant JSI Research & Training Institute, contract not to exceed $274,413.

Money CDPH Future of Public Health grant — $874,346 a year, at least 70% of which must go to permanent staff.

Names behavioral health as one of four priorities.

Says of itself "The CHIP is not a strategic plan for either the HHCS Department, or our Public Health Division. Rather, it is a vision for improving the health of our community citywide."

Implementation phased through 2028; the "Action" phase began April 2026, with working groups reporting to the Community Health Commission.

Approved 16 June 2026 on the consent calendar, horizon FY2027–29.

Written by city staff, reviewed by the Behavioral Health Commission.

Money Behavioral Health Services Act — $11.70M, $12.05M and $12.41M in base allocations across the three years.

Lists the Public Health Division among its stakeholder organizations.

Approved one week before a budget that eliminated the city's last General Fund–funded mental health crisis response.

The crisis-response handoff nobody has put in writing

The budget that eliminated the Mobile Crisis Team says the city "will rely on Alameda County, which is a County responsibility." That responsibility is real: under the Disability Rights California v. Alameda County settlement (November 2023), the county must "provide mobile crisis response services on a county-wide basis" and maintain at least nine mobile crisis teams. But the county's own settlement-mandated assessment, published January 2025, counted Berkeley's city-run Mobile Crisis Team toward that countywide capacity — and then concluded the mobile-crisis need was fulfilled. Berkeley has now eliminated the team the county was counting. The team was already running five days a week against a seven-day design before the cut. I have found no written commitment from the county about what replaces it inside Berkeley. Getting one — with response times — belongs on the next councilmember's desk in the first month.

What I could not confirm

The final shape of the FY2027 cuts. The elimination of the Mobile Crisis Team, the vector-control transfer and the STAIR reduction are in the City Manager's proposed budget and were reported as adopted by the Berkeley Scanner and the Daily Californian. I have not read the adopted budget resolution itself. If it differs, this page changes.

County crisis coverage inside Berkeley. The county's settlement obligation is "county-wide," but Berkeley runs its own behavioral-health jurisdiction and the settlement never names the city. Whether county teams will actually cover Berkeley calls at former Mobile Crisis Team levels is, as far as I can find, written down nowhere. If someone has that commitment on paper, send it to me and I will link it here.

The status of the contracts ordinance. "Has not reached Council" is true as of the last Budget & Finance agenda I could find. If the committee has acted since 21 August, tell me and I will move the date.

FY2026 Measure P line items. The Homeless Services Panel's recommendations were referred back by the Budget Committee as already covered by the adopted biennial budget, so I cite them as recommendations rather than as adopted amounts.

The federal case

The closure procedure is now a court order

The sharpest outside audit of this system is not the Auditor's. It is happening in federal court. Since February 2025, the Berkeley Homeless Union's lawsuit over the Eighth and Harrison corridor encampment (Berkeley Homeless Union v. City of Berkeley, N.D. Cal. 25-cv-01414) has put the city's closure practices in front of U.S. District Judge Edward Chen — and the closure the city has been trying to carry out now runs on the court's schedule, under conditions the court wrote.

February 2025
The union sues over the planned closure of the camp at Eighth and Harrison streets. The case is assigned to Judge Edward Chen.
3 April 2026
On cross-motions for summary judgment, Chen rules the city may close the encampment — and that its sidewalk-space enforcement, its vehicle practices and its refusal to provide relocation assistance and storage violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He rejects the union's requests for an indefinite pause on abatement, guaranteed shelter and enforcement-free zones. Both sides claim a win.
22 July 2026
In a separate disability-rights case, Prado v. City of Berkeley (23-cv-04537, also before Judge Chen), the court certifies a class action: all unhoused people with disabilities in Berkeley, plus a subclass living in vehicles who cannot comply with the 72-hour parking rule. The record reported at certification: roughly 959,800 pounds of material disposed of across 52 encampment closures in three years, against about 34 notices filed for property retrieval. That case is headed to trial in 2027.
6 August 2026
Three days after the city's vacate deadline at Eighth and Harrison, Chen halts the closure with a temporary restraining order — asking, among other things, whether $100 gift cards satisfy the requirement to replace destroyed sleeping bags and clothing.
15–20 August 2026
On August 13 Chen denies the union's motion to block the closure — the court "expects the Harrison Encampment will, in short order, be abated" — but orders the city and the union to walk the streets together and identify relocation sites for the 23 residents with disability accommodations. On August 20 he enters final judgment with a permanent injunction extending that relief "on a permanent basis, to all members of BHU throughout the City of Berkeley": individualized, fact-based findings before any vehicle used as shelter is towed or destroyed; no tent destroyed under the sidewalk-space rule without an individualized assessment, with the right to relocate the tent or receive a replacement; 72 hours' written notice before property is seized or destroyed; and, for members whose disability prevents them from moving their own belongings, physical help and 90-day storage. Denied: any pause on closures pending shelter availability, enforcement-free zones or city-sanctioned encampments, and extended notice periods.
28 August – 8 September 2026
Status conference on the joint site search August 28. The closure notice posted August 25 covers the corridor from San Pablo Avenue to the railroad tracks between Codornices Creek and Gilman Street, and sets September 8 as the deadline to remove tents and property — removal begins on or after that date. Vehicles are not required to relocate. Requests for disability accommodations, including a larger tent, are due to the city by September 1.

Set the injunction next to the standard I stated above — no closure without a documented offer of placement, and published 30- and 90-day outcomes for the people who were there. A federal judge has now ordered the documentation half of that standard: notice in writing, assessments on file, property accounted for. That is what happens when an institution cannot show its work — someone else ends up ordering it to, line by line, after eighteen months of litigation. The half no court can order is outcomes. Whether the people moved out in September are housed in October and December — publishing that is still the city's choice. It is the choice this page is about.

Look it up

Don't take my word for it

Everything on this page is sourced to a public document. If you think I've read one of them wrong, tell me and I'll correct the page.

Beds, placement and the county queue

Berkeley City Auditor, Homeless Response Team: Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Procedures and Better Track Outcomes (July 16, 2025) — the 56-of-320 bed finding, the case-conferencing pause, and the outcome-tracking recommendations.
City of Berkeley, Gap Analysis of Berkeley's Homelessness System of Care, Council Item 16 (July 9, 2024) — the "not guaranteed" finding, the 280-day queue, and the share housed within a year.
City Manager, Comprehensive Summary of Berkeley's Homeless Response, worksession Item 02a (July 29, 2025) — $25.4M in FY2025, 36 projects, 16 providers, and the funding-source split.
Encampment Resolution Funding, Round 1, Council Item 4 (April 26, 2022) — $4,708,015, People's Park to the Rodeway Inn.
Encampment Resolution Funding, Round 2, Council Item 5 (July 11, 2023) — $4,931,058.
Encampment Resolution Funding, Round 3, Council Item 4 (November 19, 2024) — $5,395,637; declined April 22, awarded in full September 27, 2024.
Proposition 47 Cohort 5 grant acceptance, Council Item 3 (September 30, 2025) — the $8,000,000 CareBridge grant; "a no-match grant with no impact on the City's General Fund."
Proposition 47 Local Advisory Committee brief (October 2025) — the 30 rooms at 1761 University, the BPD-identifies / Options-screens admission pathway, and eligibility rules.
Berkeleyside on the Berkeley Inn (December 8, 2022) — beds "filled through the same city outreach process as before, under the city manager's office."

Measure P and Measure W

City Manager, Measure P and Impact on Homeless Services in Berkeley (March 28, 2025) — revenue by fiscal year, $69.2M spent through FY2025, and the fund-balance projections. (Two cautions: the memo's FY2024 figures — ~$35M spent, Measure P ~66% — are arithmetically inconsistent with its own revenue table, and its narrative gives a $19.8M FY2029 deficit against the table's −$22,789,927. This page uses the table only.)
City of Berkeley, Measure P & Measure W — passage margins, the tiered Measure W rates, the January 2027 effective date and the $2–4M annual estimate.
Homeless Services Panel of Experts, Measure P Allocations, Fiscal Year 2025-2026, Council Item 22a (October 29, 2024) — the FY2026 revenue projection and the recommended line items.
Berkeley Municipal Code 7.52.190 — the Homeless Services Panel of Experts and its advisory role: Council "shall consider, but need not follow" its recommendations.
FY2026 Mid-Year General Fund Revenue Report (February 26, 2026) — the Measure W revenue line: $1.5M in FY2027, $3.0M in FY2028 and FY2029.
Human Welfare & Community Action Commission agenda (February 7, 2024) — the community agency allocation table: $10,929,937 annual pool; HSPE's $4,833,223 share and its four categories.

The two plans, and public health

City of Berkeley, Berkeley Wellness Blueprint — Community Health Improvement Plan (September 2025) — the four priorities and the "not a strategic plan" sentence.
Contract No. 32300185 amendment, JSI Research & Training Institute, Council Item 05 (February 25, 2025) — the $274,413 not-to-exceed and the Future of Public Health funding source.
Behavioral Health Services Act FY26-27 – 28-29 Three-Year Integrated Plan, Council Item 19 (June 16, 2026) — the base allocations and the stakeholder list.
Appointment of Public Health Officer, Dr. Noemi C. Doohan, Council Item 6 (June 3, 2025) — "one of three City health jurisdictions in California," and the interim period since September 2023.
Health Officer coverage contract, Dr. Lisa B. Hernandez, Council Item 3 (January 21, 2025) — $50 per hour, $1,200 per day, $120,000 not to exceed.
California Conference of Local Health Officers, fact sheet (March 6, 2025) — "the 61 legally appointed physician health officers in California, one from each of the 58 counties and the three cities of Berkeley, Long Beach, and Pasadena." Vernon also runs a city health department, but it is an environmental-health agency with no physician health officer; Los Angeles County is its local health jurisdiction.
California Department of Public Health, Future of Public Health funding letter, FY2025-26 — Berkeley's $874,346 allocation and the 70%-permanent-staff requirement.
DHCS, BHSA County Policy Manual, §2 (June 23, 2026) — "Counties and two city-operated mental health authorities receive these funds monthly."
Disability Rights California v. County of Alameda, settlement agreement (effective November 7, 2023) — "provide mobile crisis response services on a county-wide basis"; the nine-team minimum.
U.S. Department of Justice findings on Alameda County's mental health system (April 22, 2021).
Alameda County Behavioral Health, Mobile Crisis Assessment findings report (January 2025) — counts Berkeley's Mobile Crisis Team toward countywide capacity; lists its actual five-day schedule.

Contracts and staffing

Berkeley City Auditor, City Contracts: Outdated Process Led to Non-Competitive Contracts (February 19, 2026) — 94 of 218, the waiver findings, the $218,026 average amendment, and the $50,000-to-$737,092 HHCS contract.
Councilmember Kesarwani and Mayor Ishii, Amendment to BMC Chapter 7.18 to Explicitly Require Competitive Procurement for Services — the proposed ordinance, referred April 27, 2026.
Budget & Finance Policy Committee packet (May 14, 2026) — the item listed as unscheduled, with an October 13, 2026 due date. The committee's meetings page shows the July 23, 2026 meeting cancelled.
City Manager, Proposed FY2027 and FY2028 Biennial Budget, Council Item 21 (May 19, 2026) — 211.69 vacant of 1,559.54 positions, the 138 eliminated positions, the Mobile Crisis Team language, vector control and the STAIR reduction.
Berkeley City Auditor, Staff Shortages: City Services Constrained by Staff Retention Challenges and Delayed Hiring (June 22, 2023) — the 19% rate and the nine-city comparison.
STAIR Center rebuild contract, Bay Construction Co., Council Item 36 (June 25, 2024) — "replacing the congregate sleeping trailers with thirty-two (32) pre-manufactured single-occupancy sleeping cabins."

The federal litigation

Order of Judge Edward M. Chen, Berkeley Homeless Union v. City of Berkeley, 25-cv-01414 (May 21, 2025) — the case number and judge; the order sending the Ohlone Park claims to a separate action.
Prado v. City of Berkeley, 3:23-cv-04537, Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse — the disability case's docket and history.
Daily Californian, on class certification in Prado (July 2026) — the two certified classes, AR 10.1 and BMC 14.36.050, and the disposal-versus-retrieval figures.
Courthouse News, on the summary-judgment hearing (March 20, 2026).
Berkeleyside, on the April ruling (April 8, 2026) — the city may clear the camp, with conditions.
Berkeley Scanner, on the temporary restraining order (August 6, 2026) — the gift-card, storage and tent-assessment questions, and both sides' filings.
Berkeley Scanner, on the joint site-survey order (August 15, 2026).
Daily Californian, on the collaboration order and the August 28 status conference (August 17, 2026).
Order re Motion for Final Judgment, Dkt. 326, Berkeley Homeless Union v. City of Berkeley (August 20, 2026) — the permanent injunction: its extension to all BHU members citywide, each category of relief granted, and the relief denied. The seven individual claimants are named in the public order; their names are redacted in the copy posted here. The unredacted original is on the court’s docket.
Order Clarifying Injunctive Relief, Dkt. 322 (August 13, 2026) — the denial of the union's motion to block the closure, the joint street review, and the August 28 status conference.
City of Berkeley, Public Notice of Encampment Closure — Harrison Corridor (posted August 25, 2026) — the corridor boundaries, the September 8 deadline, the vehicle exemption, and the storage rules.
KALW, on the permanent injunction (August 25, 2026).

Reporting

Berkeley Scanner, on the proposed budget (May 19, 2026) — the HHCS position cuts and the deficit figures.
Berkeley Scanner, on the budget's adoption (June 25, 2026).
Berkeley Scanner, on the hiring freeze (April 25, 2025).

Tell me where I'm wrong More Hot Topics

Berkeley controls 56 of the 320 shelter beds inside Berkeley.