A man sits on a wooden chair with two wooden crates on either side of him beside a lake on which stands his makeshift wooden and plexiglass cabin.

‘Why would you all do this to me?’ asks man whose makeshift cabin was taken in Oakland sweep. ‘I literally needed somewhere to sleep.’

Oaklanders who frequent the waterfront paths along Lake Merritt are accustomed to seeing encampments and trash heaps. Last spring, though, they came upon a surprising sight. A small hand-built cabin suddenly appeared in a grassy clearing on the lake’s western shore, just a short walk from the swanky Lake Chalet restaurant. The structure looked as if it was made with permanence in mind. Sturdily built of measured wooden planks, with plexiglass windows and a corrugated steel roof, it was big…

By and on October 30, 2024