List of homeless encampment sweeps in the United States
In response to the impact of homelessness in their communities, municipal governments in the United States regularly conduct sweeps of tent encampments, forcibly dispersing people from public or private land where they are camping without authorization.
City officials attempted to avoid a "heavy handed" approach initially by recruiting volunteers to clean the encampment, but it remained inhabited.
[1] In September, the city sent an outreach team to clear the encampment of its inhabitants and Lowe's hired a crew to remove people's belongings as well as the trees on the property that made it a desirable place to camp.
[7] In December 2024, Birmingham public works employees cleared a longstanding encampment covering much of the exterior of a warehouse building near Railroad Park.
[23] In May 2024, Tucson began clearing encampments in the 100 Acre Wood, beginning with a spot selected by Davis-Monthan Air Force Base for PFAS testing.
[38] In March 2021, a homeless woman was killed when a man deliberately rammed his car into a small encampment on Roberts Avenue in south-central Santa Rosa.
They ordered a small encampment in the bushes of the Santa Rosa Creek to disperse, after having displaced those same campers from an area near the railroad tracks days earlier.
[44] Following the housing losses of the Tubbs Fire, the Joe Rodota Trail became the site of a major homeless encampment located nearby Stony Point Road, which was the largest in Sonoma County history.
Incidents such as fires and arson took place in the encampment three times in a span of two months from November 2019 to January 2020, including a tank explosion on New Year's Eve 2019.
[55] A larger encampment on the trail between Dutton and Roseland avenues and another near South Wright Road was faced with sweeps in July 2022,[56] but a judge granted a temporary injunction on enforcement actions due to a lack of available beds in the county.
[66] In the early morning hours on 4 January 2024, at least 100 police officers supervised the construction of a wall around the perimeter of the square made of double-stacked shipping crates.
[83] In 2020 the city of Denver cleared an encampment of about 300 people on a vacant lot of land next to the Cross Roads Shelter in the River North Arts District.
[95] In December 2024, Pensacola cleared an encampment of 150-200 people on Beggs Lane that had been established there for several years, enforcing its new law prohibiting sleeping or camping on public property.
[99] In November 2022, Atlanta police and the Georgia Department of Transportation began clearing a site with heavy machinery near I-85 and Cheshire Bridge off Bufford Highway where around 100 people had camped.
[106] In 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson approved $814,000 in emergency funding to clear and fence off an encampment on the green belt off of the Dan Ryan Expressway, in preparation for the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
[113] In October 2024, Governor Jeff Landry ordered Louisiana State Police to sweep of an encampment of about 75 people beneath an underpass in downtown New Orleans ahead of three sold out Taylor Swift concerts.
[123] In January 2024 Worcester police arrested three people for refusing to disperse from an encampment erected in the parking lot of the town's temporary emergency shelter.
[144] Albuquerque has been criticized for its practice of routinely destroying encamped people's belongings during sweeps, which advocates say has prolonged their homelessness by disconnecting them from public records and services.
Campers agreed to take down their tents after one night and returned to the West Kensington lot, but moved into the abandoned Church of Saint Edward the Confessor on 17 September.
The city was able to negotiate an agreement with residents to disband the camps in exchange for the placement of 50 vacant homes in a community land trust, but it later went back on this promise.
[173] On 8 May, Mayor Cherelle Parker ordered police and municipal workers to clear a large encampment between McPherson Square and Allegheny Ave in Kensington.
[191] In August 2023, Centralia cleared an encampment at Blakeside railroad junction after the property was sold to Rainer Rail by the Washington State Department of Transportation.
[194][195] A tent encampment adjacent to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone which had resisted several attempted sweeps since the CHAZ's disbandment was raided by Seattle police on 18 December 2020.
[197] Officially known as the East Duwamish Greenbelt, The Jungle is an encampment located on a 150 acre tract of land surrounding an elevated portion of Interstate 5 on the Western slope of Beacon Hill.
Other deaths included people struck by vehicles while attempting to cross the nearby freeways, and a homeless man sleeping in a blackberry thicket as it was mowed by workers.
[211] In April 2015, police arrested 20 suspects during a series of raids, including Son Van Tran, who Federal prosecutors described as a "boss" in the local drug market.
[217] On May 17, 2016, the city of Seattle and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced plans to permanently clear out The Jungle, with the estimated 300 remaining people living there to be resettled by the Union Gospel Mission.
[220] In Spokane, a formerly homeless local activist, Alfredo LLamedo, began a hunger strike in protest of the city's controversial sit-lie ordinance in November 2018.
[222] The encampment, named "Camp Hope" by protestors, remained in front of City Hall until 9 December, when it was cleared by police and Llamedo and another local activist were arrested while helping others move their belongings.
In September, the city opened the Trent Shelter and began escalating its law enforcement response to homelessness downtown while threatening to clear Camp Hope by October.
