Sweeps do more harm than good

This summer, the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass rul­ing made it much easier for lo­cal governments to criminalize homelessness. Since then, cities and states across the country have stepped up their harass­ment of people for the “crime” of not having a place to live.

Penalizing homelessness has increasingly taken the form of crackdowns on encampments — also known as “sweeps,” which have received biparti­san support. California Gov­ernor Gavin Newsom has or­dered state agencies to ramp up encampment sweeps, while President-elect Donald Trump has also pledged to ban encamp­ments and move people to “tent cities” far from public view.

Evidence shows that these sweeps are harmful and unpro­ductive — and not to mention dehumanizing.

Housing justice advo­cates caution that sweeps dis­rupt peoples’ lives by severing their ties to case workers, medi­cal care, and other vital servic­es. Many unhoused people also have their personal documents and other critical belongings seized or tossed, which makes it even harder to find housing and work.

According to a ProPublica in­vestigation, authorities in mul­tiple cities have confiscated basic survival items like tents and blankets, as well as medical supplies like CPAP machines and insulin. Other people lost items like phones and tools that impacted their ability to work.

Teresa Stratton from Port­land told ProPublica that her husband’s ashes were even tak­en in a sweep. “I wonder where he is,” she said. “I hope he’s not in the dump.”

Over the summer, the city of Sacramento, California forceful­ly evicted 48 residents — mostly women over 55 with disabilities — from a self-governed encamp­ment known as Camp Resolu­tion. The camp was located at a vacant lot and had been au­thorized by the city, which also owned the trailers where resi­dents lived.

One of the residents who’d been at the hospital during the sweep was assured that her belongings would be kept safe. However, she told me she lost everything she’d worked so hard to acquire, including her car.

The loss of her home and community of two years, along with her possessions, was al­ready traumatizing. But now, like most of the camp residents, she was forced back onto the streets — even though the city had promised not to sweep the lot until every resident had been placed in permanent housing.

Aside from being inhumane, the seizure of personal belong­ings raises serious constitution­al questions — especially since sweeps often take place with little to no warning and author­ities often fail to properly store belongings. Six unhoused New Yorkers recently sued the city on Fourth Amendment grounds, citing these practices.

Sweeps, like punitive fines and arrests, don’t address the root of the problem — they just trap people in cycles of poverty and homelessness. Encamp­ments can pose challenges to local communities, but their prevalence stems from our na­tion’s failure to ensure the fun­damental human right to hous­ing.

People experiencing home­lessness are often derided as an “eyesore” and blamed for their plight. However, government policies have allowed housing, a basic necessity for survival, to become commodified and con­trolled by corporations and bil­lionaire investors for profit.

Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage has remained stagnant at $7.25 since 2009 and rent is now unaf­fordable for half of all tenants. Alongside eroding social safety nets, these policies have result­ed in a housing affordability cri­sis that’s left at least 653,000 people without housing nation­wide.

While shelters can help some people move indoors temporar­ily, they aren’t a real housing solution, either.

Human rights groups re­port that shelters often don’t meet adequate standards of housing or accommodate people with disabilities. Many treat people like they’re incarcerated by imposing curfews and other restrictions, such as not allow­ing pets. Safety and privacy at shelters are also growing con­cerns.

Officials justify sweeps for safety and sanitation reasons, but in the end they harm and displace people who have no­where else to go. Instead, gov­ernments should prioritize safe, affordable, dignified, and per­manent housing for all, coupled with supportive services.

Anything else is sweeping the problem under the rug.