Making Homelessness Illegal Pushes People to Other Areas

Steve lost his job in 2018. After being evicted, Steve tried to live in his car but ended up living in a tent homeless in Los Angeles’s Koreatown. I first met Steve about a week ago when there was a large homeless sweep. He had moved all of his belongings to another street while police and sanitation cleaned the area. NIMBYs (not in my backyard) came out of a nearby apartment yelling at the homeless people trying to set up their tents, but they did not have anyplace else to go. Cities all over the country are making homelessness illegal yet not providing support for homeless people to get out of homelessness. For example, Los Angeles is now pushing massive criminalization laws banning homeless people in areas throughout the city. Steve says making homelessness illegal will just move homeless people to other parts of the city, doing nothing to end homelessness, and he’s right. Homeless people have told me they welcome the cleaning. Still, homeless sweeps are poorly planned and displace