Yesterday, homeless deterrents were put down on the corner of Grand Ave and Tupac Shakur Way. As seen, these deterrents are brand new and look to have been placed by Oakland City.

These measures have previously been sighted across San Francisco and are designed to stop rough sleepers from gathering in certain areas. As is often the case with the homeless issue, this may move on groups but whether it actually helps stop the problem remains to be seen.

As seen above, the deterrents have already been placed close to possible encampment sites. News of the deterrents was first shared on Reddit by a user who happened to photograph the large boxes while walking through Oakland.

Here, one user gave a rather damning verdict on this part of the city and claimed: “It’s really heartbreaking to think about how lovely and scenic the Grand/Lakeshore neighborhood would be if the freeway wasn’t there. It really chokes out so much of the neighborhood’s potential with the endless exhaust smell, car noise, and insane speeding drivers. The block between the Grand Lake Theater and the Lake itself could be postcard-worthy beautiful, but instead, that block is a grimy little slice of tire-dust-coated drag strip meets Skid Row. And if you have to cross the street, good luck dodging the bipper cars peeling out to their 580 escape route!”

While these may be somewhat effective, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding these measures, as they’re seen as discriminatory and dehumanizing.