Why Calling the Police About Homeless People Isn’t Working

Donald Trump announced he’d take radical federal action on homelessness in California this month, vowing to clear San Francisco’s “filthy” streets, and potentially rehouse Los Angeles’ Skid Row residents in a government-run detention center. It seems he's taking steps to follow through: CityLab reported that the federal government has discussed leasing a building just outside Los Angeles to use as a homeless facility, and Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson toured a San Francisco housing project last week.

Trump’s attention brings with it the specter of federal law enforcement, and his remarks have received the condemnation of liberal city leaders. But as the visible signs of homelessness have multiplied in cities like San Francisco, the unhoused population has not gone unnoticed—or unpunished—by locals, either. San Francisco, which has the most anti-homeless laws of any California city, has also developed an increasingly active approach of what University of California, Berkeley doctoral candidate in sociology Chris Herring calls “complaint-oriented” policing.