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Conductors of a citywide survey on the homeless will present their results to the city council tonight, indicating a strong demand in Berkeley for a legal campground, an expanded shelter system and storage facilities. 

Members of the non-profit organization, Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, interviewed members of the city’s homeless population. The 100 respondents were found in shelters, on the streets, and at service-provider centers.  

“Sleep deprivation is the No. 1 problem people talk about,” said Michael Diehl, a community organizer for BOSS.  

He added that of the 52 people who reported sleeping either outside or in a vehicle, 70 percent said they do not have a safe place to sleep. 

Diehl said the survey was conducted, in part, to justify the city council’s April 28 approval of the Homeless Human and Civil Rights Resolution, which made the enforcement of Penal Code Section 647(J) a low priority. The law states that it is a misdemeanor to lodge “in any building, structure, vehicle, or place, whether public or private, without the permission of the owner or person entitled to the possession or in control of it.”  

Critics charge that the law prohibits sleeping anywhere in public.  

“In essence, homelessness itself is criminalized by punishing people for doing things in public because they don’t have a place to do it in private,” said Tirien Steinbach of the East Bay Community Law Center. “Sleeping, drinking, eating, or littering. Things that are basically because of homelessness, there isn’t a choice where people do these things.”  

Steinbach was not involved in the survey. 

Of the survey’s 100 respondents, 61 percent were male, 39 percent female. Sixty-one percent of respondents were African-American, 27 percent white, 7 percent other. According to Diehl, the remaining 5 percent of respondents did not fill out this portion of the survey.  

Just under half of the respondents reported having a physical disability, 42 percent reported mental health problems, 36 percent of respondents reported using drugs, while a quarter said they frequently used alcohol. 

While 7 percent of respondents did not finish high school, 81 percent reported having received a GED or higher level of education. The remaining 12 percent did not fill out this section of the survey, Diehl said.  

A vast majority of individuals surveyed said they were unemployed. Just less than half said they did not have a safe place to store possessions. Diehl said storage facilities are key in finding work and creating stability for the homeless.  

“When people are looking for work they lose their papers,” he said, adding that storage lockers would allow them a place to store resumes, clothes, and other possessions. 

The survey also showed more than three-quarters of those asked said they would use a public campground within Berkeley city limits if available.