Caltrans homeless settlement money could be stretched thin by hundreds of claims
A court has given attorneys two more months to keep cataloging all the items homeless people say Caltrans trashed while clearing camps in Alameda County.
Attorneys representing homeless people in Berkeley, Emeryville and Oakland reached a $5.5 million settlement with Caltrans in February over claims that the department’s seizures violated homeless people’s constitutional rights.
The settlement’s deadline to file claims was Oct. 16. The Alameda County Superior Court has extended the deadline to Dec. 14, acknowledging that the coronavirus outbreak has further complicated the difficult claims process, said East Bay Community Law Center attorney Osha Neumann.
“We thought we’d be going out into encampments, having meetings,” Neumann said. “Obviously all that wasn’t possible. We had to pivot and figure out how are we going to reach all the people out there, many of whom don’t have phones or have intermittent connections to phones.”
About $1.3 million of the settlement will go to homeless individuals. They’re each eligible for up to $5,500 in compensation to cover the monetary value of lost items as well as the emotional distress caused by the losses. The settlement covers items lost in homeless camp cleanups from Dec. 13, 2014 through October 2019.
Neumann said a group of 70 attorneys, volunteers and students who have been processing the claims have heard from more than 700 people. The maximum claim amount could be reduced if the $1.3 million doesn’t cover all the claims, he said.
He said their emotional distress has been extensive.
“People think of homeless people as having nothing but garbage, dirty old clothes, a mattress with some stains,” he said. “Yeah they have that, but they have lives and they’ve carried things with them from their prior lives, things that are important to them.”
Thirty-two people have said Caltrans threw away the remains of their deceased loved ones, he said. And they’ve lost mementos such as photographs of deceased relatives, lockets with strands of hair and family heirlooms, he said.
Neumann said the claims process involves cataloging losses and trying to narrow down when Caltrans cleared items from camps. A judge is acting as claims administrator. Receipts aren’t needed, Neumann said.
The agreement dedicates $700,000 to hire someone at the Homeless Action Center to connect homeless people with housing services and to help them manage any property loss in the last three years and in the future. The agreement includes $3.5 million in attorney’s fees.
The agreement also adds requirements that Caltrans post notices in advance specifying when they will clear camps. And under the agreement, workers must bag and store certain items, including those that look like they might be worth more than $50.
People who lost items during camp clearings in Berkeley, Emeryville or Oakland in the five-year span ending October 2019 can call the hotline for the Caltrans claims process at 510-467-0105.