Liberal Berkeleys Toughened Stance on Homeless Camps Is a Bellwether

Berkeley, Calif., long associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, has a reputation for erring on the side of compassion when it comes to the enforcement of drug use and homelessness.The city is such a liberal outlier that Vice President Kamala Harris downplayed her origins there as she tried to appeal to moderate American voters this year.So it came as a shock to Californians when Berkeley joined the scores of cities that have decided to tighten enforcement on homeless camps this year.

In the coming weeks, Berkeley authorities plan to target two sprawling encampments that for years have generated waves of rats, fires, complaints and police calls.“People are frustrated — even in this very progressive city that cares deeply about addressing homelessness,” Jesse Arreguín, the mayor of Berkeley, said this week.Berkeley is among more than 75 cities nationwide that have imposed new restrictions on homeless encampments since the Supreme Court decided in June to allow state and local governments to prohibit outdoor sleeping, said Eric Tars, the legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center in Washington, D.C., which has been tracking the legislation.About a third of the measures have been enacted in California, which is the nation’s most populous state and has a disproportionately large number of homeless residents.Other restrictions have been passed in the Midwest and South, as well as in Washington, Montana and other Western states covered by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which had previously banned governments from punishing people for establishing homeless camps....