Cities crack down on homeless encampments. Advocates say that’s not the answer

A woman gathers possessions to take before a homeless encampment was cleaned up this summer in San Francisco. State and local laws criminalizing homelessness are on the rise, said Scout Katovich, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of sweeps and property seizures in a dozen cities, including Miami, Anchorage and Boulder, Colo. “These laws and these practices of enforcement do nothing to actually alleviate the crisis and instead they keep people in this vicious cycle of poverty,” she said. But cities can’t stand by and do nothing, said Sam Dodge, who oversees a San Francisco city department that coordinates multiple agencies to place people into housing so crews can clear tents. For example, a June New York City comptroller’s report said more than 2,300 people were forcibly removed from encampments from March to November 2022. At the same time, Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, launched a program last year aimed at finding short- and long-term housing for homeless people, including some living in encampments.