Lasting Effects of 8th and Navajo Sweep – Terrorizing our Community
On April 16th 2024 the City swept the encampment of 150 people staying at 8th and Navajo area (and surrounding many blocks) to scatter them around the city with nowhere to go.
This sweep to nowhere was in direct contraction from Mayor Johnston’s promises to sweep camps to hotel/micro units – not scatter them with nowhere to go. In correction to much media coverage of this sweep, it is important to note that while this is the first posted large-scale sweep to be swept without offering hotel/micro units in a few months, the City is regularly sweeping small houseless camps and scattering them using camping ban enforcement and other “extra-legal” justifications with no offer of a place to go.
Mayor Johnson stated that there were 90 vacancies available, but they were not offering anyone at the camp a space due to it being over 150 people. Instead of prioritizing particularly vulnerable people at this sweep to get units, he swept the whole camp and scattered them.
Mayor Johnston tried to justify this sweep citing “health and safety concerns” while simultaneously not bringing porta-potties, real trash service, or any necessary resources to address these needs. Bathrooms were only brought after an advocate spoke up at the District 3 meeting, and Council member Torres asked for them to be placed for the final 7 days. This is after he has promised to bring these resources to encampments before sweeping them.
Of note, the Mayor held a community meeting in the neighborhood about this camp days before it was swept, but never informed or invited the very camp residents who are directly affected. Their lives and voices were completely disregarded.
During the sweep on April 16th all 150 people were scattered – just told to move out of sight.
An older woman, Tina, was in the middle of moving her personal items out from the sweep zone when EHS went trigger-happy and decided to destroy her sound, 4-walled structure made of wooden panels. Despite multiple advocates asking them to verify the whereabouts of the owner first, and letting them know that an older woman lived there and they were destroying her things – they proceeded to trash her home and property. That then forced her to have to search through the rubble for her belongings. In the process, she lost many valuable survival and personal items that had already been fed to the trash truck. She is already severely traumatized from childhood and living on the streets and has several health conditions that were exacerbated by the process, including severe chest pain from pulled muscles and a severe stroke she is still recovering from. She was left crying for hours, in pain and stunned by what she called the “brutality” of the City and the blatant disrespect towards herself and her belongings. We in HAND ended up putting her up in a hotel for three days, but this is not enough for her stability and healing…
- Please consider donating to HAND with the message “for Tina” so we can get these funds to her and potentially offer more respite for longer. https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=HHEMK4XX5UAM2 She is also currently in need of a case manager.
(Tina’s property being trashed https://www.instagram.com/p/C51ECbRrMje/ Tina forced to sort through trash for property https://www.instagram.com/p/C51HeiuL41J/ – Interview with Tina https://www.instagram.com/p/C59FDTmP2a1/)
In another incident of taking property, one person had already dragged her belongings outside the fence to move, and when she walked away from her belongings for a second to go across the street to grab something to drink, lead DOTI staff, Ralph, tried to drag her belongings behind the fence to throw them in the trash.
We know of at least two people living at this camp who were not present during the sweep, one of which was at work, and came back to find all their belongings trashed and gone – left with nothing and nowhere to go. (Interview with Tony https://www.instagram.com/p/C54JRNwvFu0/ )
Throughout the sweep housed neighbors were seen meandering through the camp, harassing camp residents, taking photos and videos of people as they attempted to pack up, invading their privacy and subjecting them to further, senseless scrutiny.
There was also no traffic control such that numerous camp residents were almost hit while exiting the sweep zone, as police were too busy standing around the sweep area harassing camp residents to control traffic.
The horrific effects of this sweep did not stop with the sweep itself. Most residents of the camp scattered throughout the City – countless residents came back to the sweep zone as it was still going to ask for help after trying to set up at a new spot and being immediately run off by police.
Many people moved together out of the sweep zone and onto public property, hoping for the City to comply with Lyall settlement legal requirements and have to post another 7-day notice. Instead, officer O’Neil followed an advocate who was helping these residents move to the site to find where they moved and hassass them immediately. Cops showed up early in the morning to harass and intimidate individuals, do warrant checks, arrest people, and even physically assault some!!! They arrested 11 people on old warrants – most petty warrants including for old camping ban tickets. Police threatened the camp residents saying they will be back tomorrow to arrest people for the camping ban.
(Interviews here https://www.instagram.com/p/C53_faRvG_B/ and here https://www.instagram.com/p/C54BS6bPMGA/ )
The City conducted the sweep knowing they had nowhere to offer folks to go and that the result would be scattering individuals onto other streets throughout the City. This excessive show of force and abuse of power is beyond cruel.
The next day, April 18th, after coming through to arrest and intimidate the camp residents, the City decided to post the camp for 7 days and offer hotel/micro units to residents of this camp. All the police threats of camping ban arrest were only to try and scare people off. With all the attention gathered to the Cities fuckery in terrorizing this camp after sweeping them with nowhere to go, the City had to stand down from escalation of camping ban arrests, which would make them look horrible, and post the camp for 7 days and offer a place to go. They used this raid of arrests to decrease the size of the camp and get the “criminals” (as the City calls them) out of the camp before offering any hotel/micro units.
The City, however, only counted people on one day at one time, leaving anyone who moved to this camp but happened to be gone at that time (such as a man who was at work and a man who was at court) off the list to get in. Furthermore, anyone who didn’t happen to go to this new camp location but was at the old location swept at 8th and Navajo, is completely out of luck.
The City’s strategy here treats houseless people like pawns in a chess game – increasing camping ban and all enforcement across the city to concentrate people one location, than scattering them throughout the city and harassing individuals wherever they sit up, allowing one larger – but not too large – new camp to form, threatening and arresting this camp to a smaller size, and then picking them as the next site to clear and move to units once the size and “criminal makeup” of the camp works for the City’s plans.
This inhumanity and cruelty needs to stop!! End the sweeps. Stop targeting houseless people by using the camping ban to justify warrant checks and arrests. Stop treating people like pawns!!
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