BERKELEY — Despite receiving 72-hour eviction notices, some residents of an encampment on BART property along Adeline Street were upbeat Wednesday after a judge ordered the city to submit a practical plan for sheltering its homeless population during the coming winter.

“Do not simply recite the programs the City purports to offer, for they are admittedly insufficient,” a notice by U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, issued Wednesday, reads in part. “Submit a plan that will shelter substantially all of Berkeley’s homeless.”

Trespass notices giving occupants 72 hours to move themselves and their belongings out were posted at the HERE/THERE homeless camp along Adeline Street in Berkeley on Nov. 1, 2017. (Tom Lochner)

Trespass notices giving occupants 72 hours to move themselves and their belongings out were posted at the HERE/THERE homeless camp along Adeline Street in Berkeley on Nov. 1, 2017. (Tom Lochner)

The city is supposed to submit the plan by noon Nov. 28.

The city is reviewing all of its options, city spokesman Matthai Chakko said in an email Wednesday.

“We devote significant resources to help address, on a local level, what is a regional, statewide and national issue. In 2016, we established The Hub, a coordinated way to help get people into housing that not only follows best practices and federal requirements, but also has become a model for the region,” Chakko said. “In the past year, we have also established a homeless outreach team. Last winter, we activated our Emergency Operations Center to more than double our shelter capacity. This is in addition to the several million dollars we provide to community agencies to deliver services to the homeless. It’s also in addition to the services provided by City staff, such as the more than 30 mental health clinicians who serve those homeless as part of their work.”

Earlier on Wednesday, BART posted trespass notices, giving occupants 72 hours to take their belongings and move out of the First They Came for the Homeless Camp, also known as HERE/THERE, along Adeline Street on the west side of the BART tracks about a half-mile south of the Ashby station.

A day earlier, Alsup denied a request by attorneys representing several of the camp residents for a preliminary injunction that would bar the city and BART from evicting them.

“While we were disappointed to see the judge’s order, because it means that this stable encampment that is well cared for by the surrounding south Berkeley community will be moved, we remain hopeful that this case, which continues despite the judge’s denial of our motion for a preliminary injunction, will help the city’s unsheltered homeless find respite,” Attorney EmilyRose Johns of Siegel, Yee & Brunner of Oakland said in an email Wednesday.

“Nothing makes me more hopeful of that than the judge’s order today that says that the City must come up with a plan to shelter its unsheltered homeless residents through the winter and present him with that plan by November 28. It is a monumental decision, and we are eager to begin the work on our side to make this a viable plan.”

In his Nov. 1 notice, Alsup also ordered Attorney Dan Siegel, of the same firm as Johns, to submit his shelter plan by Nov. 28.

“Be specific,” Alsup wrote. “Name soccer fields and open spaces (Siegel) would convert to tent cities.”

“Failure to be specific may be a sign that there is no practical solution,” Alsup added.

The city’s central coordinated entry system for homeless services, dubbed “The Hub,” is run by the Berkeley Food and Housing Project under a city contract. Some residents of the HERE/THERE camp have described The Hub as ineffective, unfriendly and overly bureaucratic, but a top official of the organization has defended its performance as “heroic,” given the tough circumstances it works under.

On Wednesday, as BART maintenance workers finished posting the 72-hour notices, HERE/THERE camp resident Sam Clune, noting that the preliminary injunction had been denied just the day before, commented, “All of a sudden, government can work in a timely fashion,” contrasting it with the time it takes for disabled people to get help. Offering his take on the two recent actions by Alsup, Clune said: “The back story is: you can’t foist the responsibility for the homeless on BART. But the city is another story.”

Other residents braced themselves for what they saw as an inevitable forthcoming eviction that could come as soon as Saturday, although some expressed hope it could happen a little later.

Mayor Jesse Arreguin has tried to come to an agreement with BART to allow  the HERE/THERE camp to stay, but has not gotten a commitment, according to his director of communications and senior legislative aide, Karina Ioffee.

“Ultimately, Mayor Arreguin understands that the Bay Area is in an affordable housing crisis and that we cannot build enough shelter for all the people that are currently unhoused,” Ioffee said in an email Wednesday. “That’s why encampments that have rules and security such as the HERE/THERE and are a model encampment could be a viable alternative as we work to figure out more long term solutions.”

BART did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.