Berkeley will give Bayer pharmaceutical stretch of road that has homeless encampment

CBS News

3 days ago

The Berkeley City Council on Tuesday night approved the plan to give away a portion of a city street to Bayer Pharmaceuticals – a street that's home to a sizeable homeless encampment.
"I'm a treasure hunter. I find some amazing things," said a man who lives in a tent on Carleton Street.
He said he goes by the name "Cowboy" and runs an outdoor thrift store at the end of Carleton, right up against the wall of Bayer pharmaceuticals' Berkeley campus.
"I just give things away to people who can't afford them. And for the people who can afford them, I charge them a modest or even lower than modest price," said Cowboy.
He's one of the unhoused residents living in the stretch of Carleton Street that on Tuesday night the Berkeley City Council decided to give to Bayer, a 27,500 square foot stretch of road that dead-ends into Bayer's campus with Bayer-owned buildings on both sides.
A city of Berkeley staff member addressed the city council at last week's meeting to discuss how the encampment would be cleared.
"We would have staff go out and talk with people to the extent we had shelter opportunity, we would offer that, and to the extent we don't, we don't," the city staffer said.
The Bayer campus in Berkeley is 46 acres and is home to research labs as well as manufacturing facilities, mostly for specialty medications. The pharmaceutical giant sent a representative to the council meeting last week when the transfer of the land was first discussed.
"We have reported multiple fires at this location. I also need to make sure there is a safe place for people to work, and we can maintain the safety of the medicines we produce for people," said Jennifer Cogley of Bayer.
"I think it's more so we're an eyesore. People don't like looking at the trash, looking at the people, looking at whatever we are doing over here," said former unhoused resident Jasmine Blacks.
The father of her young son is an unhoused resident on Carleton Street.
Blacks said clearing the encampment only moves the problem elsewhere and doesn't do anything so actually solve the homelessness crisis.
"Cowboy" is now left to figure out what to do with his outdoor market.
"I don't know. It came here little by little over the course of seven or eight months via bike, so where there's a will there's a way," he said.
Bayer Pharmaceuticals said it approached the city asking to take over ownership and maintenance of the street.
They've done that in the past with other dead-end streets that are adjacent to the campus. CBS Bay Area reached out to the Berkeley mayor's office and the city administrator's office, asking for a timeline and process as to how the encampment might be cleared or relocated.
No one from the city responded. A Bayer representative said in an email that the transfer of the property will take at least 30 days.