Oakland estuary pirates symptom of broader Bay challenges

In one of the first public meetings since the Alameda boating community raised the alarm over a “pirate” crime wave in the Oakland Estuary, the state agency in charge of ensuring the wellbeing of bay waterways agreed the situation was unacceptable.

But it offered no imminent solution to a crime spree that reached a fever pitch a month ago when dozens of small boats and dinghies were stolen, stripped for parts and often sunk, and 70-year-old and 80-year-old boaters were embarking on vigilante-style missions to retrieve them. Boaters talked of “hand-to-hand combat,” and it seemed only a matter of time before someone got hurt.

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“I understand the frustration of the people who actually live on the water because it’s impacting them and their daily lives,” said Marie Gilmore, the chair of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

In the meeting this week, members of the boating community again expressed their concerns about crime and “anchor-outs”– a catch-all term for boaters living rent-free in public waterways across the Bay Area in the Oakland estuary.

But as presentations by the Oakland Police department, the city of Oakland and the Alameda Police Department showed, Oakland can’t solve its “pirate” problem unless it fixes its homeless crisis first. The enforcement challenges that exist in the Bay are complex and the estuary in particular seem to be falling through the cracks.

The City of Oakland still only has one full-time marine patrol officer, although he is in the process of training others. An officer from the Alameda Police Department said that they only have the staffing to put a patrol boat out on the water three times a month. The Coast Guard, which has a base in the estuary, a thin channel of water separating the cities of Oakland and Alameda, has promised greater collaboration with the two departments, but it’s unclear how that aid will manifest.

Meanwhile, Oakland is facing an astounding degree of homelessness. In a report, city staff argued that action on the estuary is hamstrung by laws governing how they clear encampments and the sheer number of people who remain unhoused.

Although the city’s report highlighted the long-term efforts they’re taking to address homelessness, a plain-language summary of their stance could be boiled down to one simple idea: ‘We get that you’re worried about the estuary, but we’re underwater right now’.

“We want to make sure the commission understands the level of homelessness the City of Oakland is grappling with,” said LaTonda Simmons, an assistant city administrator. “The city is struggling to keep up with the growth of encampments.”

According to Simmons, the number of homeless encampments in Oakland was assumed to be about 150 in 2020. By 2023, that number had grown nearly tenfold to 1,300, which Simmons said was likely an undercount. Today, the number of unhoused people in the city vastly outstrips the number of shelter beds available, and nearly 50% of all unhoused people in Alameda County live in Oakland.

Meanwhile, Simmons said crime has shot up in homeless encampments, citing drug dealing, violence and shootings that hamper cleanup efforts.

Given the framing of Simmons’ presentation, the real surprise may not be that concerns about homelessness and crime have spread to the estuary, but rather that it remained unscathed for so long.

“Clearly the problem has vastly outstripped your current resources to deal with it,” Gilmore said.

Still, at least for estuary advocates, the meeting showed that there have been some signs of progress. In the past month, both Oakland and Alameda received over $100,000 in funding from the Surrendered and Abandoned Vessel Exchange, a state grant program. City of Oakland staff said they would fast track that money, which can be used to remove abandoned and sunken boats from the estuary, through the City Council.

Joe DeVries, Oakland’s deputy city administrator, said the city will begin removing illegal live-aboard vessels from the estuary in December.

But as Simmons highlighted in her report, Oakland has struggled immensely with the cost and effort of clearing encampments on land, only to have people soon move back. Even if all illegal anchor-outs boats are removed from the estuary in December, there’s no guarantee they won’t return.