Homeless Encampments: What’s In a Word?

One of the most common kinds of articles showing up daily in the news is those discussing “encampments.”  The word encampment is used because it helps alert the reader that this is yet another report on homeless persons—living outdoors, not indoors, in some sort of structure(s) that are not traditional homes, apartments, or condominiums.  

The word “camp” is not used.  That means “a place usually away from urban areas where tents or simple buildings (such as cabins) are erected for shelter or for temporary residence (as for laborers, prisoners, or vacationers) …migrant labor camp” (Camp Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster).

The word “community” is not used.  That means “a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage…” (Community Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com).

The word “neighborhood” is not used.  That means “A neighborhood is an area where people live and interact with one another. Neighborhoods tend to have their own identity, or ‘feel’ based on the people who live there and the places nearby. Residents may have similar types of families, incomes, and education level…” (Neighborhood | National Geographic Society).   

All three of these words—camp, community, and neighborhood—including people who may have shared work, culture, governance, history, families, income, education, or leisure time interests.  In short, they refer to groups of persons, functioning, communicating, doing their thing and celebrating their particular identity and the “feel” of the scene.

However, an encampment is “a group of tents or other shelters in a particular place, especially when they are used by soldiers or refugees”  (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/encampment).  The homeless represent something like an army—not civilians—camped right within the walls of the city.  The homeless are refugees from a civilization that has discarded them, a civilization that they have fled.

The encampments are constructed and inhabited not by citizens but by invaders and refugees.  The tents are like big red flags flapping furiously and ferociously right down the street from Ward and June and Wally and the rest of the taxpayers in town. 

The tents are temporary and it can be hoped the need for them is temporary too.

The tents are also symbolic:  “The tents are a strong symbol of American failure—failure for some people to make enough money to afford a rent or mortgage, failure to hold a job, failure to escape poverty, failure to flee from alcohol, failure to make good decisions, and failure of communities to be able to find persons an apartment, room, or house…” (Encampment and Encroachment: Homeless Tents Threaten Americans, by Thomas Hansen, February 12, 2022, StreetSense).

The tents are growing.  There are more encampments and more homeless persons in this country.  A quick search of homeless numbers in the last few years shows more families, more single adults, and more children are homeless than in previous years.  Interventions are working in some cases, but slowly.  In Illinois, in the last few years, the number of homeless children has gone from over 52,000 to over 54,000!

All over the country, there are reports of homeless encampments encroaching on the areas and lives of the rich indoor types.  In some cases there are drug sales reported to be happening in the encampments—something dangerous for areas near schools with young children.  In other cases, the presence of a large number of unhoused persons has supposedly led directly to a marked increase in shoplifting and other lawlessness.

It is often simply the presence of old furniture and what appears to be junk to people from outside the encampment that is frustrating—or enraging sometimes.  Getting rid of the encampment becomes much more important than getting rid of the homelessness—meaning the tents and belongings disappear but the unhoused still have no place to live, to sleep, to cook, to hide, to dwell, to relax, to convalesce, or to escape the rain.

Last September in Chicago, a huge “sweep” of homeless persons’ personal belongings—not located within a tent—were simply gathered up and destroyed.  The sweep occurred in an encampment in Humboldt Park where about 30 unhoused persons were located.  The crews threw out furniture, clothing, and all manner of personal items if they were not located outside a tent.  One man, who said he was sleeping when the city workers arrived, and “who has lived in the encampment for about a month and a half, lost new clothing, a grill and food, including boxes of cereal and noodles” (https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/09/24/residents-of-west-humboldt-park-encampment-lose-their-belongings-in-dehumanizing-city-sweep/).           

Seattle has dealt with its encampments recently by tearing them down and explaining that those dwelling in those places would be moved into housing by the city.  This seems like it would be a good topic to investigate, because some outdoor-dwellers have been saying they were not offered lodging in a hotel or apartment… this even though the city was giving out that message (https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/homeless-camps-crime-hot-spots-getting-cleared-out-seattle/BUBL3CK44RFMDJRMDJEMWPUCHE/).      

“A group of Phoenix residents are suing the city over a homeless encampment west of downtown saying it has caused them irreparable harm and that the city needs to fix it” (https://www.yahoo.com/news/phoenix-residents-sue-city-over-193640652.html).  Fifteen residents who are home owners and business owners say, “The encampment has subjected them to violence and damaged property and has littered their area with trash and human waste.”  They allege the area around the encampment is now besieged by the presence of more violence, garbage, filth, and danger in the area.  They also speak of the humanitarian crisis they claim the encampment of the unhoused represents—including the presence of dead bodies.  This is recent as August of 2022.

As recent as September of 2022, San Francisco faces difficulties because of more than one encampment and has been facing blocks in the process of removing tents and personal belongings—there are 300 residents of the encampment (https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/Tension-rises-at-Bay-Area-s-largest-homeless-17427979.php).  Residents maintain there is nowhere for them to go, and some of them threaten to simply return once the encampment is dismantled.

“In New York City this year, across six weeks, city officials cleared 733 homeless encampments.  In May, at least 20 encampments were swept in a matter of days” (https://prismreports.org/2022/08/26/advocates-say-encampment-sweeps-are-not-a-solution-to-houselessness/).  As of the end of August, many other cities were planning to conduct sweeps to get rid of encampments. 

Sacramento has been threatening to conduct sweeps that will impact thousands of unhoused residents.  That will be another story to investigate and report on.

The Los Angeles City Council has just voted to ban homeless encampments with 500 feet of a school or daycare center.  “The new restrictions, approved on an 11-3 vote, dramatically expand the number of locations where sleeping and camping are off-limits. And they come amid a furious debate over how the city should respond to encampments that have taken hold in many parts of the city” (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-02/l-a-cracks-down-on-homeless-encampments-outside-public-schools-daycare-centers).  At play in the current moves against encampments is a large problem with drugs being sold—and the city council does not want this to go on near the over 700 schools and over 1,000 daycare centers in the city. 

During that recent meeting in August where this discussion came to a head there was a large contingency of the homeless who feel they are being railroaded out of the areas near schools by a few criminals who are giving the homeless—and their digs—a bad name.   

Problems arise when encampments are cleared but there is little or no counseling or follow-up for the unhoused who are being moved out—and some cases not being moved into an apartment or hotel.  “Advocates say sweeping and policing houseless communities is dehumanizing, and that the real solution begins with a community-wide and humane approach.”  Advocates insist the process of moving indoors has several pieces, and it is not just a case of throwing out tents and personal items.  They also insist, “…the solution to houselessness must be multifaceted: permanent supportive housing, access to resources like counseling, a stoppage on sweeps and criminalization, and ultimately, a willingness to address racial and economic inequity as root causes of the problem (https://prismreports.org/2022/08/26/advocates-say-encampment-sweeps-are-not-a-solution-to-houselessness/).

Clearing the encampments without providing wraparound services to the homeless is not only inhumane, it is short-sighted.  The homeless are out there in those locations, trying to live outdoors the best they can in often terribly inhospitable cities and even worse weather conditions.  Often the homeless persons wind up returning to the area where the encampment was located. Simply throwing out people’s clothes, possessions, and paperwork is not the answer.  Making the evidence disappear does not make the homeless residents disappear.    

The National League of Cities agrees with this assessment, stating, “By recognizing the damage done by clearing encampments without providing comprehensive support, city leaders can pivot to directing resources toward assisting people with moving out of encampments and into safe, quality and affordable housing to end unsheltered homelessness, prevent recurring homelessness and ending homelessness altogether” (https://www.nlc.org/resource/an-overview-of-homeless-encampments/).

Let us hope city leaders can have the wisdom to create and operationalize longer-term solutions to homelessness that work.  Information—and strong leadership skills—can go a long way in helping to solve homeless crises in our cities. 

The people living in those tests came from someplace—from within the city itself usually.  “Understanding both the reasons why individuals experiencing homelessness live in encampments and how servicing encampments can advance a city’s homelessness response is central to developing a more compassionate and effective local government approach to encampments” (https://www.nlc.org/resource/an-overview-of-homeless-encampments/).

Chicago has just recently been working on locating housing for residents of encampments.  This is a major accomplishment and is a good sign for the needs of homeless residents in other areas of the city. 

One such “relocation” involved the residents of an encampment in Fireman’s Park who went to live in nearby Logan Square and other locations.  Half a dozen unhoused got into apartments through collaboration among several persons and offices… after years of the city trying to get rid of the encampment, it has been able to do so by finding persons a place to live (https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/07/27/residents-of-avondale-homeless-encampment-matched-with-housing-god-blessed-me-with-people-to-make-this-happen-for-me/).    

Chicago keeps trying—when it comes to doing something about the unhoused and getting them a way to “get housed.” 

However, there are some interesting bumps in the road.  A certain lack of respect appeared in a letter-to-the-editor section of the News Star Newspaper (serving the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago) in which a resident complained about the dead-grass marks in Touhy Park.  They represented the removal of tents when unhoused persons were moved out of the park. 

The dead grass spots should be celebrated as a sign of success in helping the unhoused in their journey into a dwelling.  The dead grass spots mean that not only is the tent gone—but it can be hoped that the unhoused person is now out of the park and into a warm bed, behind a locked door, where it is safe and warm and clean and secure.   

Respect for the unhoused residents—and a detailed plan—can go a long way in assisting our outdoor brothers and sisters.  The huge majority of the unhoused wish to be indoors—with just a few exceptions being caused by personal issues needing to be addressed professionally.  Even among most homeless communities (interviews and conversations have revealed) most outdoor people do not understand why some people do not desire an indoor dwelling.  Thinking unhoused persons are complacent or just not interested in getting a place to live with a roof, a door, and a lock, is foolish.

The homeless community living in the camp neighborhood they have built out of the desert is real and obvious and concrete.  Let us hope the homeless can arise like a phoenix out of that camp and soar once again among the indoor-dwellers found in those stories of success.