Eviction of Homeless in Berkeley Sparks Melee

About 35 activists for the homeless were evicted early Wednesday from a house they took over last week, and supporters responded by knocking over garbage cans, setting trash fires and throwing rocks at a police barricade outside the dwelling.

Several protesters scuffled with police during the vandalism, which began about 6 a.m. when police removed squatters occupying a house owned by the University of California, police said.

Two UC Berkeley students were arrested, police said.

Later in the day, about 150 demonstrators threw rocks and bottles at police in riot gear before the officers pushed the crowd away from the building. Police reported no injuries, although several protesters complained of being struck by officers’ night sticks.

The activists had taken over the house on Haste Street, four blocks south of the campus, on March 9, breaking in through boarded-up windows.

The university ordered the eviction after the city fire marshal inspected the three-story house Tuesday and declared it a fire hazard.

The eviction was carried out by university police, with Berkeley officers standing by.

The building, a student counseling center that had been vacant since 1979, will be torn down this week to make way for student housing, university officials said.

About 15 protesters initially responded to the eviction by throwing trash containers into the street in an attempt to block traffic on nearby Telegraph Avenue.

Police chased the group toward the campus, where one student, Camille M. Caprioglio, 21, was arrested and charged with malicious mischief, disturbing the peace and interfering with a police officer.

A larger number of protesters then regrouped on campus and marched back to the dwelling where police had formed a barricade.

In the ensuing confrontation, a second student, James L. Parker, 24, was arrested on charges of assaulting a police officer with a rock and giving false information to a peace officer.

Oscar Gutierrez, one of the evicted squatters, said, “It’s a crime to have that house vacant with people in the streets.”

The squatters, a mixture of homeless people and activists, include members of the 10th Street Homeless Collective, which staged an 18-month occupation of an abandoned Berkeley house owned by a bank. The group was evicted from that house on March 8 after disputes with area residents.

The latest standoff had tested the tolerance of a community that prides itself on its progressive politics. Berkeley this year plans to spend more than $600,000 to provide food, shelter, health care and other services for an estimated 1,600 to 2,000 homeless people. The university runs an 80-bed shelter on campus property.

The 10th Street Collective has become something of a cause celebre among campus and community activists. Ironically, the house is only one block from People’s Park, which has been the site of disputes involving the homeless, among other things.

Members of the collective said they believe that traditional solutions--such as shelters--fail to help homeless people repair their lives because the homeless do not help run the programs.

The homeless must seek “empowerment,” said collective member John Michael Jones, instead of just “a cot and three meals a day.”