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Residents and supporters of the enormous Wood Street homeless encampment in Oakland listen to the ruling on eviction during a court hearing on Zoom.

Wood Street resident Theo Cedar Jones checks his phone ahead of a Zoom hearing to decide the future of the encampment in Oakland in July. A judge at that time issued a restraining order for a sweep of the camp until the city came up with plan to shelter residents.

A federal judge ruled Friday that Caltrans could move forward with sweeping 200 people from the sprawling Wood Street encampment in Oakland.

Judge William H. Orrick said he will lift the temporary restraining order — which halted the sweep — in an “orderly schedule” after the city submitted plans Thursday night that detail a phased approach to offering shelter to residents. Orrick said the city’s proposal “did what he asked.”

“It’s admittedly not a perfect proposal,” Orrick said. “It does its best to address the critical competing needs raised by this case.”

The hearing came after residents filed a lawsuit and asked Orrick to halt the sweep. In July, he issued a a temporary restraining order against Caltrans in the case, prohibiting the state agency from clearing the encampment without a plan to shelter or house residents. Orrick said in July that residents will be removed from Wood Street “sooner rather than later,” but that the removal required more notice and a housing and shelter plan.

An estimated 300 people live at the encampment, the largest in the Bay Area, which spans nearly 25 city blocks, and sprawls over land owned by the city, Caltrans, railroad companies and other agencies. Caltrans now has clearance to remove the estimated 200 who reside on its share of the property. People living on land owned by other entities wouldn’t be targeted in this sweep.

Orrick said Caltrans can post notices on Labor Day, which will give the city and county time to do a “surge” in outreach. Caltrans will then clear out the encampment in phases of about 50 people at a time every two weeks until its portion of the encampment is cleared.

Oakland said it had 40 shelter beds available in cabin communities, congregate shelters and other transitional housing programs. If a resident declines a shelter option, they will still be forced to leave the encampment, Orrick said.

In a joint statement released after the hearing, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Libby Schaaf said the judge’s decision will “hopefully” allow Caltrans to clean up “the most dangerous” part of Wood Street.

Caltrans has argued that the Wood Street encampment poses a major safety risk due to fires. The encampment has had nearly 60 fires this year and 115 fires last year. A fire in July, which brought highway traffic to a standstill, prompted Caltrans to issue notices to residents that the agency would shut down the encampment. In addition, Caltrans said that an Aug. 13 fire came within 330 feet — dangerously close — to two high purity oxygen plants that are used for EBMUD’s wastewater treatment process.

Since the restraining order was put in place, Caltrans said 12 fires have occurred.

In court filings, Stephen Silver, an attorney for the state and Caltrans, said Caltrans has “legitimate and compelling” reasons to remove the encampment.

Silver argued in the documents that Caltrans is not a homeless or social services organization and is “constitutionally and statutorily barred” from spending money on housing, and that the government doesn’t need to house the residents because no constitutional right to shelter exists.

On Friday, Orrick agreed there’s “no constitutional right to housing” and said because of that he doesn’t have the power to allow Wood Street residents to stay on the property if the owner doesn’t want them there.

He said what he’s tried to do is to give time for a relocation plan that is the “least harmful to the people who live on Wood Street.”

Part of Oakland’s proposed plan includes working with the county to connect residents with friends or family who might be able to offer them shelter. Buddy Rowell, a representative for Alameda County, said currently the county has about three people that go to the encampment twice a week and it doesn’t have the money or manpower to increase that.

Orrick lambasted the county’s response and said the situation requires everyone’s involvement — the city, the county and Caltrans — and that an agency can’t “wash your hands of the issue.”

The residents stated in a letter this week to Newsom and other officials that the $4.7 million that the state recently awarded Oakland to address the encampment at Wood Street could be used to house 120 people in shipping containers with electricity and running water. They also suggested setting aside part of the land for people who wish to remain in tents, RVs and other vehicles — and would set up a “centralized cooking model” that would cut down on the individual use of propane.

The city said Friday that the $4.7 million will be used to open a 50-bed community cabin site in October and that half the spots will be reserved for residents living on Caltrans land.

John Janosko, a resident of the encampment for the past seven years, said the city’s shelter options are inadequate.

“No one has come down here to work with us,” he said. “We put trust in the system to really help us and that system continually fails us.”

Some residents said they were concerned that their RVs or vehicles would be destroyed during the encampment clearing. The city said it lacks open spaces at any of its “safe” parking sites for people who live in their vehicles, including the one at Wood Street.

Orrick said he would make clear in his order that the city, county and Caltrans would have to come up with a plan for people’s belongings that would not result in their destruction.

Kelly Castillo, who lives in an RV, said the programs presented by the city haven’t worked well for her. She said she’s worried about what would happen to her RV when Caltrans begins the sweep and urged the city to “think outside the box.”

Sarah Ravani (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani

Sarah Ravani covers Oakland and the East Bay at The San Francisco Chronicle. She joined The Chronicle in 2016 after graduating from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Previously, she covered breaking news and crime for The Chronicle. She has provided coverage on wildfires, mass shootings, the fatal shooting of police officers and massive floods in the North Bay.