By Alastair Boone

Alastair Boone is the Editor in Chief of Street Spirit.

On September 19, two elderly and disabled women refused to leave their tents as California Highway Patrol officers threatened them with arrest. The women-named Mama Bear and KC-are in their sixties. Both are in wheelchairs. Both have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get housing. And they weren't alone-a third woman, Piper, remained in her tent, grieving the recent death of her boyfriend, Fixie. 

The women were exhausted. For weeks prior, they had been bounced around the same intersection count¬less times. From their tents, they can look out and see land owned by two government agencies: an alley owned by the City of Berkeley on one side and a large parcel of dirt owned by CalTrans on the other. And since the beginning of September, residents report that evictions have ramped up. One week, CalTrans comes and evicts them from the dirt parcel, forcing them to pack up and walk across the road to the alleyway. 

The next week, the City of Berkeley comes to evict them from the alley, so they move back across the road to the dirt parcel. Mama Bear had moved six times when she decided to refuse. KC had moved seven times over a three-week period. Piper simply refused to leave her tent.

The three women were not arrest¬ed, and as of this writing, their tents remain in the same place. But their act of resistance is part of a growing movement that began on September 4, when the encampment underneath the University Avenue overpass was targeted by what advocates are calling a coordinated eviction effort between the Berkeley Police, CalTrans, and the California Highway Patrol.