 This small field of grass across the street from UC Berkeley is People's Park. This site holds significance for a lot of the homeless population, but it won't be a park for much longer. After decades of failed attempts, UC Berkeley has finally laid out plans to build supportive and student housing here. The park's story begins in the 1960s during the Free Speech Movement. Student protesters clashed with police over a variety of issues. Former Governor Ronald Reagan sent in the National Guard to squash protests. All of it began the first time some of you who know better and are old enough to know better let young people think that they had the right to choose the laws they would obey as long as they were doing it in the name of social protest. People's Park was born from this conflict. The area used to be a parking lot owned by the university, but students occupied the land and transformed it into a park. Property is not a thing to keep men apart and at war, but rather a medium by which men can come together to play a People's Park. Students and activists saw People's Park as a step forward for a counter-culture revolution and a society by the people for the people. Since then, protesters have shut down any attempt by the university to build there. The park has also become a popular spot for the homeless, but that could soon change. The decision to build on People's Park was part of a larger decision-making process and it really starts with the chancellor's commitment to address the student housing crisis. The campus needs to build on every available piece of university-owned land that's in close proximity to the campus. The university says it will start building on People's Park in two years. One part of the land will be for student housing. The other part will be leased to a non-profit developer called Resources for Community Development. It will be in charge of building permanent supportive housing for the homeless. The units come with supportive services, social services, which basically support the resident in maintaining the unit. We'll have a nice community room with a kitchen so that there can be adult education and community-building activities. RCD says it will also support the homeless in their transition to housing. This includes providing furniture, bedding and food. So we're not just kind of creating, you know, kind of a place for people to crash at night because they're homeless, we're creating a home for them. Things have changed in the last 50 years. The park has continued to degrade its conditions. The incidence of crime has continued to go up. It's used by members abroad, broadly speaking, by members of the community has continued to go down. The university's housing needs for students has shot up. I've been coming to People's Park at least two years now. I'm currently homeless and it's just, it's my heart. You know, it's one of the only places on this planet I consider homeless. It's this park that has a lot of healthy memories for me. A lot of happy memories. And without it, I'll be lost. So to me, it's hypocrisy. This institution that claims green standards, but at the same time, like they don't protect this green space so much to the point where these trees right here, we used to have so many trees, over 100 trees. They're all carbon buffers for us. And then once they uprooted 40 of them, like, we started noticing the land was a little bit groggyer. The People's Park committee is just one out of many groups. That's trying to bring us together and have some way forward. Because all of us, I think, believe that, like, this is, like, the last green space that we have in this community. We came together and we've devised different ways to, like, save the park. And we've really been promoting any activity that comes through here. I've been here in and out for five years. Yeah, we had a little problems in and out. Hey, what's up? We are trying to save people's park. Please stop them tearing down a park. Because if they tear down a park, they're taking away Berkeley. The homeless population in the park now might not get access to the supportive housing. That's because whoever funds the housing will determine who lives there. RCD says it's still looking for contributors. You know, I think one has to applaud that this is being done. I mean, it shows a sense of wanting to give back to the community. What does people's park mean to you? I mean, I think people's park is an important part of that. I live here in the city of Berkeley. I work on the Berkeley campus. It's an important part of our shared history. It represents an important moment in the university's history and the anti-war movement and free speech movement. We are going to take extraordinary care in terms of making sure that what does arise is not only there to provide services and shelter to students and to a certain portion of our homeless community, but also to really memorialize the park's past and the park's importance. None of that is there right now. It's going to displace so many people. And there needs to be a better solution to this problem. There needs to be housing for the students, but there needs to be this park for the people.