EDITOR'S NOTE: A previous version of this story stated that Gov. Newsom was incentivizing cities to pass encampment bans with $3.3 billion in funds for housing and treatment centers. The announcement of the $3.3 billion was made at the same as the push to get cities to ban encampments, but Newsom did not explicitly tie the funding to passing bans.
This story and interview aired in the May 21, 2025 episode of Crosscurrents.
For unhoused people, the courts are one of the more powerful tools available to challenge encampment sweeps and the laws that criminalize homelessness. But legal resources for unhoused folks are facing new challenges at a time when the state’s encampment crackdown is only escalating.
In May, Governor Gavin Newsom asked California cities to ban homeless encampments altogether. We hear the story of one man’s fight to stay in his RV, and how the changing landscape of legal aid is affecting cases like his.
Click the button above to listen.
Story Transcript:
ADRIEN: My name's Adrien Bouchard. I live on Eighth Street in Berkeley in a motorhome.
REPORTER: In the industrial neighborhood of West Berkeley, a group of about 45 people living in tents and RVs are parked along Eighth and Harrison Streets, wedged between a pottery studio and a Tesla Service Center. Adrien is 70 years old, and he’s lived in this community for the last eight years. He broke his hip while doing concrete work at house in the Berkeley hills around 2018 and he’s been disabled ever since.
ADRIEN: My hip gets so bad when it gets cold out that I can't even hardly move it… And now it hurts so bad it’s not funny.
REPORTER: He has to use crutches to get around, and he can’t walk for more than a couple of minutes. His RV helps him solve some of these problems.
PAM: [SQUEAK] Okay yeah so…Can you see it?
REPORTER: Yes.
PAM: Yeah. He uses that to pull himself up out of bed.
REPORTER: Adrien’s friend and neighbor, Pam, shows me around his RV home. She points to a rope he attached to the ceiling, which he uses to navigate the space.
PAM: It's a truck, uh, tie down strap. He's got it hooked on a hook on one end over here, and then he is got it hooked on...oh, around the cabinet down there.
REPORTER: These simple modifications make a big difference in Adrien’s life. But he’s in danger of losing his customized home.
The City of Berkeley plans to close this encampment, because they say it poses significant health and safety hazards, and that it obstructs the sidewalks and roads. The city declined my request for comment on this story, because the encampment is subject to three open lawsuits.
Adrien is a plaintiff in one of these lawsuits: Berkeley Homeless Union v. City of Berkeley. And, it’s been successful in delaying the closure of this encampment so far. In his declaration to the court, Adrien wrote that being forced to move would jeopardize his survival.
ADRIEN: If we leave here, I wouldn't be around much longer at all. I know that much. There's no way. I couldn't keep moving and keep doing this, keep doing that. My body wouldn't take it.
REPORTER: The plaintiffs, including Adrien, claim they requested accommodations from the City under the Americans with Disabilities Act—or ADA—and were improperly denied.
What Adrien wants the most to stay put, because of the way his RV is customized to meet his needs.
ADRIEN: Without that, I couldn't get out of bed. I'd be stuck in bed for 10 years.
REPORTER: It’s not just the rope in the ceiling that Adrien relies on at this encampment. He looks to Pam to help him do everything he can’t do himself — which, he says, is a lot.
ADRIEN: I probably wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for Pam…
REPORTER: Why is that?
ADRIEN: Because she's done so much for me. It's not funny.
PAM: Grocery shopping, laundry house, clean.
ADRIEN: Yep. Just everything, you name it.
REPORTER: Pam takes care of Adrien. She’s the one who takes him to appointments, makes sure his motorhome is clean, and that he has food to eat.
The two have been friends for 30 years. They dated once, a lifetime ago. But now they’re just family. They spend a lot of time together, cooking, watching TV, or hanging out with Pam’s dog, Peanut, who Adrien says he couldn’t live without.
ADRIEN: He's a good boy. Yep…He's such a good boy. I love this boy more than anything in the whole world. Yeah.
REPORTER: This is the other support he is terrified of losing: His neighbors.
ADRIEN: Pam's out there sweeping this place every night…I mean, it's never filthy around. It's never dirty at all…it wasn't for her. Like I told you, she's the one that…
REPORTER: Adrien tears up, so Pam chimes in.
PAM: Basically it's very stressful not knowing when it's gonna happen or what's gonna happen, we don’t know where we’re going to go.
REPORTER: She’s talking about the encampment closure that was originally scheduled for earlier this year, in February. There’s another court hearing coming up, which could clear the way for the city to close the encampment at any moment.
ADRIEN: I know that we had to move from here to be, that'd be the end of my life, that's for sure. I know. I know it would. I wouldn't be able to, I'd have to move all the time, and I can't move all the time. I could hardly move. As it is right now.
REPORTER: The closure notice the group received back in January says that shelter in the city is limited. It encourages residents to talk to a member of Berkeley’s Homeless Response Team, or call 211—the hotline for information about shelter and services. It does not offer a room or a bed anywhere in particular.
The City of Berkeley declined to comment on what kinds of accommodations are available.
Adrien and Pam have been offered shelter by the City of Berkley in the past. But those programs don’t guarantee permanent housing.
BRIGITTE: Why would you give up your only shelter to go into something temporary? We wouldn’t choose to do that either.
REPORTER: Brigitte Nicoletti is a staff attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center — or EBCLC. She works in the homelessness practice, and she’s one of the lawyers representing Adrien.
BRIGITTE: If you accept a shelter offer, you are basically required to give up your RV because there's no legal place to park your vehicle in, and that is like your biggest property that you own, and also your shelter.
REPORTER: Unhoused people have often used the courts to fight encampment sweeps for reasons like this one. But lawsuits like the one Adrien is a part of are in danger of becoming less common, as resources for these kinds of cases grow more rare.
Earlier this year, EBCLC lost a critical source of funding. As a result, it had to shrink its homelessness practice. This change has taken place over the last two months, in the time since Adrien’s lawsuit was filed. Brigitte is still working on the case, but many other attorneys were laid off.
BRIGITTE: This will result in some of our services being sort of narrowed unfortunately.
REPORTER: The money the EBCLC lost did not come from the federal government. But — as the Trump Administration slashes funding, private donors are stretched thin and all kinds of grants are becoming more competitive. This is why the law center had to restructure its homelessness practice.
BRIGITTE: You know, the courts as a mechanism for immediate relief for folks may not be as accessible.
REPORTER: The center will continue supporting plaintiffs like Adrien in “impact litigation,” which seeks to change local policy. But other things will change.
For example, in the past, EBCLC has provided legal support during encampment sweeps, to make sure cities are following their own policies. They have also helped residents file property claims if their possessions are thrown away. Now, they won’t be able to do those things.
BRIGITTE: We have created templates and guides for folks to use to do that advocacy themselves.
REPORTER: Brigitte’s working hard to set her clients up for success. But she also worries about them.
BRIGITTE: I think there's benefits and drawbacks to that. I think, like, it is not good to have lawyers be the gatekeepers to those resources.
But I also do think that sometimes those systems are really challenging to navigate for people, especially folks who are unhoused, and who may not have access to phones, the internet.
REPORTER: She says these nation-wide cuts will likely make it harder for unhoused people to seek justice through the courts.
The next hearing in Adrien’s case is scheduled for the end of May. Until then, he plans to stay put, next to Pam and Peanut.
ADRIEN: That's all we have… I mean, it's, it's just, it. Somebody takes the stuff outta here that we don't have anything left. Yep.
REPORTER: They hope to stay put for as long as they can.
— — —
Adrian’s lawsuit is one of many that have been popping up in the news over the last year.
That’s because California cities have been cracking down on homeless encampments ever since last summer’s Supreme Court decision in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case.
Now, Governor Newsom is continuing to escalate the pressure. Last week, he issued a statement asking cities to ban encampments entirely.
Crosscurrent's host, Hana Baba, spoked with our reporter Alastair Boone for a roundup of these lawsuits — and, to talk about why it might get harder for unhoused people to bring cases like these ones, even as local laws continue to change.
