An escalation in encampment clearings may be increasingly leaving unhoused San Franciscans without vital documents, making them less able to access services and, this month, vote, service providers and homeless advocates say.
The clearings, which the government calls resolutions and are commonly called sweeps, have also caused the loss of medications and other property critical for survival, and made it more difficult for nonprofit workers to maintain contact with clients and deliver important information. The staffers have spent copious time working with unhoused people to replace identification that was lost, or that city employees confiscated or destroyed. In light of these worsening problems, the city’s Homelessness Oversight Commission has urged local government agencies to prevent the loss of essential items.
In its Oct. 10 resolution, the commission called on the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to work with police, the Department of Public Works and other departments to ensure essential items would not be “lost, impounded, or discarded.”
Vice Chair Christin Evans and Commissioner Sharky Laguana drafted the resolution, which lacks the power to compel policy changes, following accounts from people experiencing homelessness and at least one nonprofit service provider, among other groups.
“I was extremely concerned by the reports that we were getting from people at the Homeless Youth Alliance and even city workers about the negative consequences that the more aggressive sweeps were having on people,” Evans said. “The fact that we took [the issue] up at all was because it was getting worse after August.”
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In response to reports that encampment clearings have exacerbated these problems, a representative of the mayor’s office wrote in an email that “San Francisco makes it easy for residents to register to vote and access voting locations, including for individuals experiencing homelessness.” They did not comment about the effect on social service access.
The representative noted that city workers, before taking encampment dwellers’ property for storage or disposal during clearings, must advise people to retrieve medications, medical devices, personal identification and other legal documents, and give them about 30 minutes to gather belongings.
In addition to losing their possessions during clearings, unhoused people “scatter in fear and desperation, lose contact with their safety networks,” said Marnie Regen, co-chair of the Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association, a coalition of service and advocacy organizations fighting homelessness, at a Sept. 5 commission meeting. The sweeps cause people to accumulate “citations that they can’t pay and face jail time simply for being without a home,” Regan said.
But the mayor’s office said that clearings were necessary because “Encampments and RVs parked on streets can present public safety and public health hazards.”
“We will always lead with compassion; offer shelter, services, and other ways for unhoused people to connect with their support networks. But we cannot, and will not, just let people remain in tents, encampments, or vehicles if they refuse our offers,” the mayor’s representative said.
Loss of IDs slows service delivery
Erick Arguello, advocacy manager at GLIDE’s Center for Social Justice, confirmed that increased encampment clearings created obstacles to participating in the election.
“It’s making it more difficult for them to even retain personal items such as ID, social security cards, things that they need to register” to vote, Arguello said during an interview conducted in the lead-up to Election Day.
Others said the more common impact was on access to services.
“Voting is very important, but it can come up maybe once or twice a year,” said Eleana Binder, policy manager at the Center for Social Justice. “Obviously people are trying to get access to resources and housing year-round.”
Not possessing identification “is arguably one of the biggest barriers” to using most city programs, said Kelsey Pimentel, associate director of youth leadership at Larkin Street Youth Services. It can also prevent participation in federal and state programs like CalFresh, formerly called food stamps, and Medi-Cal insurance.
That makes replacing identification a crucial, resource-intensive service. Sometimes people need that help multiple times.
“Replacement IDs cost money, they take time, they slow everything down,” said Joe Wilson, executive director of nonprofit Hospitality House.
His organization, alongside others like GLIDE and Larkin Street Youth Services, participates in a program in high demand that waives and reduces fees for ID applications at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Among GLIDE’s offerings, the waiver is the most popular after blankets and hygiene kits, and a survey of 173 clients of the organization’s Walk-In Center found that half requested one.
Hospitality House generally gets regular requests for help with identification, and they have become more frequent in recent months, Wilson said. Increased sweeps are at least partly to blame for that uptick, he said, and for the larger client volume at the organization’s two drop-in centers — “a sign that people are getting pushed around and there aren’t too many available places for them to go.”
When asked whether increased sweeps are affecting the process of getting people into housing, Chris Callandrillo, chief program officer at Episcopal Community Services, said, “we expect that it does and that it will, but we haven’t quantified that yet.”
Even before encampment clearings ramped up, resolving identification and paperwork problems to get people into housing was an arduous, sometimes months-long process, Callandrillo said. In response to increasing demand over the years, his organization has grown their staff of housing navigators, who primarily help people gather necessary paperwork and communicate with property management. There is “a lot of manpower and womanpower out on the street doing this work,” he said.
Not all government or nonprofit programs for people experiencing homelessness require identification. For example, people can receive free meals from groups like St. Anthony Foundation or stay in some shelters.
Obstacles to voting
Unregistered voters, including unhoused people, who do not provide identification can cast ballots, but they must clear hurdles afterward in order for their votes to count. For those who do not know the last four digits of their Social Security number, or their full driver’s license or identification number, that can entail providing alternative proof of identity.
Identification is also required to pick up mail-in ballots from general delivery, a U.S. Postal Service program that allows people without permanent addresses to receive mail at designated facilities.
These requirements can be onerous for people experiencing homelessness, who are more concerned with securing necessities like food or shelter or may not be able to easily contact the department without a phone or internet access, service providers and advocates said.
It is unclear how many homeless voters live in San Francisco. There are 1,245 voters registered without a valid residential address, according to Matthew Selby, campaign services manager and custodian of records at the Department of Elections. This number does not capture unhoused people who list homeless shelters as their residential address. It may also include people who are not homeless but who did not provide their full residential address, even though it is legally required. The most recent point-in-time count, in January, found that there were 8,323 unhoused people in the city.
Sweeps a problem in SF and beyond
Encampments have generally been places where people shared information and nonprofit workers sought out clients and others who might need help. Escalating encampment clearings disrupted those connections.
Sweeps force people to hide in remote places, making it “harder for providers to find people” and render needed treatment or medication, Binder of GLIDE said.
Monthly encampment clearings in San Francisco rose from 2023 to 2024. They peaked this year in April, at 77 — the most since November 2020 — and have remained elevated since then. The city has also imposed harsher penalties on unhoused people in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that allowed governments to fine, cite and arrest people sleeping in public, regardless of whether shelter was available or offered.
Loss of important documentation during sweeps is not a new issue, nor is it unique to this city. The Coalition on Homelessness, American Civil Liberties Union and unhoused people sued San Francisco in 2022, alleging that it was illegally seizing and destroying peoples’ belongings and not following its own policies on cleaning encampments. The case is set for trial in May 2025.
Reporting from ProPublica recently found that cities across the nation throw away people’s belongings during sweeps, and that the practice creates cycles of hardship that make it more difficult for homeless people to get off the streets.
This November, voters elected Daniel Lurie as their next mayor. On his campaign website, he said he aimed to create 1,500 shelter beds during his first 6 months in office and 2,500 interim units like tiny homes in his first two years. The new housing would “ensure that no one needs to resort to, nor will they be allowed to, sleep on our streets,” he said, implying that his administration would clear all encampments citywide.
In the meantime, providers continue to criticize encampment clearings.
“Our city is failing these folks and, frankly, all residents by diverting critical housing and shelter funds into short-term, dead-end DPW sweeps that do not solve homelessness,” said Regen of the Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association, referring to the Department of Public Works.
Editor’s note (11-21-2024): This article has been updated with Chris Callandrillo’s correct title, and to more accurately represent Hospitality House’s work helping people obtain replacement identification.
