A fashionable Bay Area locale has been taken over by massive homeless encampments which a liberal judge has ordered can stay.

The encampments have cropped across Berkeley and were recently spotlighted by San Francisco reporter Lyanne Melendez, who shared concerning footage showing the sprawling tents behind her son’s new college dorm.

Melendez’s clip, which had more than 3.5 million views as of Friday, showed groups of tents and heaps of trash popping onto the road in an area near Harrison Street and Eighth Street in West Berkeley.

Emily Winston, the founder of Berkeley chain Boichik Bagels, has a store just minutes away from the site. 

‘My staff had to beg someone to get out of our dumpster,’ Winston told Fox News Digital. ‘They had actually gone in our dumpster and closed the lid on top of them.’ 

She compared the conditions to a ‘slum out of a third world country’ with scattered feces and tents taking up the ‘entirety of the sidewalk.’

The city of Berkeley tried to clear out the encampments last year, but the effort was stifled by the Berkeley Homeless Union, a group that sues on behalf of homeless residents.

They argued that a city notice to vacate the site failed to accommodate those with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which Obama-appointed federal Judge Edward Chen sided with.

The Bay Area enclave of Berkeley is  being swarmed with homeless encampments such as this one captured by San Francisco reporter Lyanne Melendez near her son’s university housing

Attempts to clear out the encampments have failed, namely because of legal pushback from the Berkeley Homeless Union 

US District Judge Edward Chen sided with the union after it argued that an eviction notice failed to accommodate those with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act

Winston said that businesses in the area had encountered ‘used needles’ and ‘very scary threats.’

She believed sales at her business’ location on Sixth Street had dropped ‘because it’s pretty scary’ for families with children.

Winston insisted that the ‘dystopian scene’ had gone on for ‘way too long.’

‘We’re all paying rent,’ she told the outlet. ‘We’re paying very significant fees and trying hard to make successful, thriving businesses here, and this is just rough, and it’s really exhausting.’

Berkeley City Manager Paul Buddenhagen said local government was ‘working really hard to solve’ the situation with the encampments, which are not on UC Berkeley property.

‘It’s been incredibly litigious,’ Buddenhagen told ABC7 Bay Area. ‘We are still in an active litigation.’

The legal fight can be traced to last February, when the Berkeley Homeless Union sued to prohibit Berkeley from sweeping the encampment area, according to KALW.

A report from the city manager’s office previously claimed that the encampments featured ‘discarded hypodermic needles, dead animals, spoiled food, human feces [and] bottles of urine,’ KQED reported.

The Berkeley Homeless Union previously claimed that 31 of the 47 people in the encampment area had disabilities

Local business owner Emily Winston says the encampments are losing her customers

In the lawsuit, the union claimed that 31 of the 47 people in the encampment area had disabilities and should be allowed to stay by the city as a ‘reasonable accommodation,’ per the outlet.

The union claimed that the city needed to identify locations where the disabled encampment members could legally camp.

However, the city has contended that it offered replacement tents to everyone in the encampments.

‘Initially, people in the encampment were offered housing and declined,’ Buddenhagen, the city manager, said.

Berkeley attempted to clear out the massive encampment again in July, telling residents to move out by August 3, according to the Berkeley Scanner.

In its closure notice, the city said there was leptospirosis in the neighborhood and deemed the encampment area a ‘fire hazard and public nuisance.’

The Berkeley Homeless Union immediately moved to block the sweep through a temporary restraining order, which was granted by US District Judge Edward Chen.

The city once again ordered the encampment site’s removal on Tuesday, which the Berkeley Homeless Union said it would fight back against once again

The union argued that, as a result, the city should allow those individuals to stay by as a ‘reasonable accommodation’

Chen said he wanted to know whether the city had done enough to help the campers before forcing them out of the site, according to the outlet.

He also ordered the city to spend some ‘in person’ time with a union representative to point out about 25 sites that would be appropriate for its members.

‘I don’t understand the problem,’ Chen said, per the outlet. ‘It seems like that’s a small investment.’

The city put up notices warning about the encampments’ removal again on Tuesday.

However, the Berkeley Homeless Union has said it will go to court again if the city presses ahead, maintaining that it is illegal.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the city of Berkeley, the Berkeley Homeless Union and its legal counsel, Anthony Prince, and Judge Chen for comment.