Background
Berkeley Homeless Union and individual plaintiffs challenged the City of Berkeley’s abatement of a long-running homeless encampment near Eighth and Harrison Streets. The district court entered orders requiring the City to follow specified procedures under the Americans with Disabilities Act before abatement and granting limited relief on Fourth Amendment and state-created-danger claims. A later permanent injunction applied protections to BHU members throughout Berkeley.
After detecting leptospirosis at the Harrison encampment, the City sought an emergency stay pending appeal. Most abatement work occurred from September 15 through September 17, 2026, but some BHU members apparently remained. The City argued that the district court’s orders obstructed complete clearance, vehicle removal, and disease-control efforts and improperly constrained encampment enforcement citywide.
The Court’s Holding
In a per curiam order, the Ninth Circuit granted the stay in part, allowing Berkeley to clear the Harrison encampment and remove any remaining vehicles notwithstanding the district court’s orders. The panel found the leptospirosis risk sufficient to establish irreparable harm, treated BHU as having waived opposition to the City’s likelihood of success at this stage, and concluded that relocation options and the public interest favored clearance. The court denied the request for an administrative stay as moot.
The panel otherwise denied a stay without prejudice. It found no showing that compliance with the district court’s property-handling requirements would irreparably harm the City, and the record did not support the City’s assertion that the district court had sua sponte expanded the injunction citywide. Nor had the City shown that the required ADA interactive processes for relocating seven disabled BHU members caused irreparable injury. Judge Bumatay concurred in permitting clearance of the Harrison encampment but dissented from the partial denial, arguing that the entire injunction should have been stayed.
Key Takeaways
- The order provides interim relief pending appeal and does not finally decide the merits of BHU’s constitutional or ADA claims.
- Berkeley may clear the Harrison encampment and remove remaining vehicles because the panel found an urgent public-health risk from leptospirosis.
- The broader district-court protections remain in effect for now because the City did not establish irreparable harm on the record presented; the denial was without prejudice to a renewed request if circumstances change.
Why It Matters
The order permits Berkeley to complete an encampment clearance tied to a documented disease risk while leaving broader limits on the City’s treatment of disabled residents and their property intact during the appeal. It illustrates that emergency-stay relief turns not only on the asserted merits but also on a concrete showing of irreparable harm.
The panel also emphasized the importance of a complete appellate record. Its ruling leaves the underlying questions about associational standing, ADA accommodations, property seizures, state-created danger, and the permissible scope of citywide injunctive relief for later merits review.