WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

Sweeps Gallery Videos

Houseless people often live in communities or “encampments” for their safety and well being. Belongings and community are necessary for survival, but private and public agencies have deemed both these things illegal and are aggressively and violently policing, sweeping, harassing and attacking our houseless neighbors. They are evicted from their encampments and their life preserving belongings are repeatedly stolen.

These cruel and unnecessary acts are an extraordinary waste of resources and cause serious harm. Clearly our governments are not choosing the real solutions to homelessness– human rights, livable incomes, healthcare, jobs, or a reinstatement of federal affordable housing funding.  

Christin Evans caught a Sweep taking place… “Today I was driving under the 101 overpass where many of our homeless neighbors put up there tents. I saw two officers in their vehicle stopped by the center median where a tent was erected. I circled back around because I was concerned they were going to take the tent.By the time I safely circled around, the DPW truck had already arrived and the tent removed into the back of the city truck. I started recording video. You’ll see the worker putting cardboard in but he’d already grabbed the tent, a nicely bundled bedroll and belongings.I parked safely and approach the police car & motioned to the police officers to come out of their vehicle to speak with me. The first officer let me take a picture of his jacket but had no interest in speaking with me and got back in the police vehicle.I approached the DPW worker and asked to film him and he declined. But he said he was just doing what he was told to do. And I took a picture of his truck and the belongings he’d put in the back.Then the second police officer came out of the vehicle and said he’d speak with me on camera (legally I have the right to do this anyway but I still asked permission/gave notice I’d be doing it)The video of our interaction cut off before I finished speaking with him but here is the start of our conversation…Here is a recording of my partial conversation with a police officer who called in DPW to take a tent, bedroll and belongings of a homeless person todaySo our conversation continued after this where I explained to him what our county health officer has said… that homeless people need to seek shelter, do their best to stay healthy and clean. He insisted that the property was abandoned…Matt Haney & Dean Preston – I know you are trying to talk sense to our mayor, Jeff Kositsky and HSH/DPW/SFPD but sweeps HAVE to stop now!!! There needs to be sanctioned places where people can leave their tent and belongings to use the bathroom and get food, etc.”

Posted by Coalition on Homelessness on Tuesday, March 24, 2020
SFPD and DPW stealing peoples homes

"This is fucked. SF Police and DPW just stole my unhoused neighbors goods and took off with them without tagging their goods. They went to bathroom and returned to find almost all their things stolen."STOP THE SWEEPS! #SolutionsnotSweeps

Posted by Coalition on Homelessness on Wednesday, October 23, 2019
LA CAN Responds to LA Times & KDL wild claims.

General Dogon and Pete White (LA CAN) respond to the recent LA TIMES article about Kevin De Leon's claim "activists" of sabotaging housing efforts and paying houseless people $20 to remain houseless. Sounds incredible, right?! Tap in and lets talk about it.

Posted by LA CAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network) on Wednesday, January 19, 2022

General Dogon speaking to a LAHSA worker last week. Folks on the street are promised housing if they clear the streets and go to a Project Roomkey Site. Outreach workers offer promises of resources, case worker support, and housing to the unhoused if they just leave behind their current place of residence, and come stay at a PRK site. Yet we continue to hear from folks at the PRK sites that they are being discharged unjustly, case workers have an extremely high turn-over rate (so much so that many do not even know the name of their case worker, let alone have the ability to contact them), and that none of the promises the city have made are being fulfilled. Stop the false promises. Stop using PRK as a front of false promises and expectations in order to clear people from the streets. This just destroys trust and the community bonds of mutual aid built by our houseless neighbors in the absence of resources. Give people housing now!

Posted by LA CAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network) on Thursday, October 21, 2021