Los Angeles systematically criminalizes unhoused people through arrests and citations for violations arising out of their unhoused status and by destroying their property through sanitation sweeps. Criminalization drives unhoused people out of public spaces but does nothing to solve their lack of housing. City government should stop its practice of criminalization and destructive sanitation sweeps and instead devote resources to preserving and providing affordable housing for all and services to those in need.
(Los Angeles, August 14, 2024) – 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. California Governor Gavin Newsom has since urged local jurisdictions to destroy unhoused encampments, risking increased use of these tactics in Los Angeles and across the state and country.
The 337-page 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 and in vehicles, temporary shelters, and parks in Los Angeles, 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 punishments 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.
“Just because the Supreme Court allows a vicious and counterproductive strategy, doesn’t mean Los Angeles has to use it,” said John Raphling, associate US program director at Human Rights Watch. “The proven way to end houselessness is not by arresting people and throwing away their belongings, but by keeping people in their homes and developing and preserving more permanent, affordable housing.”
From August 2021 through May 2024, Human Rights Watch researched houselessness in Los Angeles, including the history of housing policy and practices, interviewing about 150 experts—over 100 of whom have personal experience of houselessness—and analyzing data from the Los Angeles Police Department, Sanitation Department, and other relevant government agencies.
Unhoused residents gave accounts of being ticketed and arrested for crimes arising from their poverty, including violations of Los Angeles Municipal Code section 41.18, which forbids sitting or lying down in designated public places, and section 56.11, which forbids keeping personal property in public places. People described being taken to jail and receiving fines amounting to more than their monthly income.
LAPD data revealed that nearly all enforcement of low-level infraction offenses, like drinking in public, littering, and jaywalking, targets unhoused people. From 2016 through 2022, nearly 40 percent of all arrests and citations in the city, including for felony, misdemeanor, and infraction offenses, were of unhoused people, who make up less than 1 percent of the city’s population.
Nearly every unhoused person interviewed described Sanitation Department sweeps in which their possessions were removed and destroyed, almost always with police threatening to arrest anyone who objected. Those possessions include items that provide comfort and protection from the elements, like tents, chairs, bedding, and clothing; identification, medications, court papers, cash, and other survival essentials; and family photos, letters, heirlooms, and even the remains of loved ones. Human Rights Watch witnessed the brutality of the sweeps and described their impact.
Although shelters and interim housing, including temporary stays in hotel rooms, can provide welcome relief from the discomfort of the streets, they have not provided a reliable pathway to permanent housing, Human Rights Watch found. Conditions in shelters range from marginally comfortable to unlivable. Shelters limit independence and often impose degrading rules, including curfews, searches, and prohibitions on guests, which many compare to being in jail. A large percentage of people leave interim housing out of frustration or when their limited stay ends, after which they return to the streets.
City policymakers have used the existence of scarce interim housing as a justification for criminalization and sweeps, deflecting charges of cruelty through claims that they are placing people into “housing.” Sweeps have moved people from high-profile encampments into hotels and shelters, while forcing those in less visible locations to simply move to new spots on the streets. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s participation in the sweeps contradicts their stated values and best practices, damaging their ability to build the trust needed to help people, Human Rights Watch said.
Mayor Karen Bass has emphasized addressing houselessness and has worked to bring more resources to the challenge. However, her signature program, Inside Safe, which sweeps encampments and moves their residents to hotel rooms, is unsustainably expensive, plagued by inconsistent and inadequate support services, and stymied by the lack of permanent housing for people to move on to. Further, with only 1,500 rooms at its peak, Inside Safe lacks capacity to serve, even temporarily, the over 35,000 people living without shelter on the streets of Los Angeles.
Human Rights Watch found that historic and present-day racially discriminatory policies and practices, including restrictive covenants, redlining, single-family zoning, policing, and defunding of schools and health care, have converged to make houselessness dramatically worse among Black people in Los Angeles. Black people are under 8 percent of the city’s population, but over one-third of all of those who lack housing.
Houselessness is part of a systemic housing crisis, Human Rights Watch said. Los Angeles leads the United States in people paying too much of their income for housing, as well as in overcrowding. Studies show a shortage of 500,000 units of affordable housing in the city. These conditions mean a large percentage of the city’s population is at imminent risk of losing their homes and facing criminalization on the streets.
While each individual has their own circumstances that led them to live on the streets, it is the overall shortage of affordable housing, in the context of a market economy geared toward the development of expensive homes and government failure to ensure access to permanent housing for all, that causes mass houselessness.
International human rights law upholds a right to housing for everyone, including homes that are habitable, have security of tenure, and are accessible, among other qualities that differentiate them from shelter. Human Rights Watch found that US governments at all levels have failed to devote adequate resources to attaining this right. Interviewed experts almost invariably agree that building, maintaining, and keeping people in permanent housing is the solution. Human Rights Watch described successful housing programs in the report and the positive experiences of individuals who have obtained housing after having lived on the streets.
“Criminalization may drive unhoused people into the shadows and out of sight, but it only makes the situation worse,” Raphling said. “We know getting people into housing or keeping them in their housing is the only way to end houselessness. We need to stop hurting people and focus on housing them.”
