How Authorities in Los Angeles use Sanitation Sweeps to Criminalize Unhoused People

The Los Angeles city government has pursued a cruel, expensive, and ineffective policy of criminalizing people’s unhoused status, through arrests, tickets and property destruction, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. On June 28, 2024, the US Supreme Court ruled that enforcing laws criminalizing unhoused people, even in the absence of available shelter was constitutional, risking increased use of the tactic in Los Angeles and across the country.

The report, “’You have to move!’ The cruel and ineffective criminalization of unhoused people in Los Angeles,” documents the experiences of people living on the streets of Los Angeles, in vehicles, in temporary shelters, and in parks, as they struggle to survive, while facing criminalization and governmental failures to prioritize eviction prevention or access to permanent housing. Law enforcement and sanitation “sweeps” force unhoused people out of public view, often wasting resources on temporary shelter and punishment that do not address the underlying needs. Tens of thousands of people are living in the streets of Los Angeles; death rates among the unhoused have skyrocketed.