Encampment Sweeps Continue to Rise in CA
4/18/2025 | 1m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
San Diego encampment sweeps ramp up under new law, displacing more unhoused residents.
Encampment sweeps in San Diego have become more frequent and forceful since the city reduced its warning notice from 72 hours to 24. Though experts say sweeps don’t solve homelessness, cities persist. Displaced residents report losing critical items and lacking access to adequate shelter.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal
Encampment Sweeps Continue to Rise in CA
4/18/2025 | 1m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
Encampment sweeps in San Diego have become more frequent and forceful since the city reduced its warning notice from 72 hours to 24. Though experts say sweeps don’t solve homelessness, cities persist. Displaced residents report losing critical items and lacking access to adequate shelter.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship-In 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom ordered state agencies to clear homeless encampments from state property.
Experts agree that clearing or sweeping encampments alone can't end homelessness.
Cities are continuing with enforcement anyway.
Our public media partner, KPBS, did extensive reporting and visits to encampments in San Diego.
Here's what that looks like.
This is Aldea Secory, who has been affected by the sweeps.
-We were on the side of the freeway for like a month, or down by 17th Street, and that was okay, and then more people started to come, and then they came and evicted us.
-Since the city of San Diego passed an ordinance limiting encampments, people living on the street say sweeps have been more frequent and aggressive.
The ordinance outlined the process for clearing encampments reducing a previous 72-hour notice to just 24 hours.
A spokesperson for Caltrans District 11, which includes San Diego, wrote in an email that they prioritize removing encampments that present a "threat to infrastructure or people."
-Every other day, pretty much, they make us clean up and move.
They're not supposed to throw away anything of meaningful value or that's irreplaceable, and they don't care.
Like I said, it doesn't matter.
Birth certificates, medication.
Doesn't matter.
They just throw it away.
-Secory and her husband now live in a tent at one of two non-profit safe sleeping sites the city has created on vacant land.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria has asked the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to consider those sites as shelters Shelter is generally in short supply, and the types of programs available often don't work for everyone on the street.
-I don't know what to do.
I don't know where to go.
There's just not enough useful resources out there.
-For CalMatters, I'm Marisa Kendall.
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SoCal Matters is a local public television program presented by PBS SoCal