About a month and a half ago, Mayor Eric Adams ordered “sweeps” of homeless people’s encampments in my city, New York. He claims, rightly, that sleeping on park benches or under overpasses is “no way to live.” His real motive, I think, is to appease moderate and conservative voters who believe that the city is descending into the “chaos” of the 1970s and 1980s.
He’s been telling homeless people that they should go to the shelters. So far, 39 people—roughly one per day since the program started—have heeded his call.
Frankly, I’m amazed that many have moved in. The shelters are seen as dangerous places because mentally ill and violent people are cheek-by-jowl with people whose luck simply ran out. Also, I can hardly imagine a better incubator for COVID or other transmissible diseases.
Probably the most wrongheaded part of the sweeps is the destruction of tents, partitions or whatever else people might be using to shield themselves—and whatever possessions they may have. Those possessions sometimes include bicycles.
Something similar is happening in San Diego. A video circulating on Twitter shows police officers confiscating and trashing bicycles owned by homeless residents near Petco Park.
I don’t know whether San Diego’s mayor is following Adams’ lead in trying to coax people into shelters. It might be more difficult in the self-proclaimed “America’s Finest City,” with its year-round mild climate. But, whatever the condition of its shelters, people won’t be enticed into them if the city takes and destroys their perfectly good bicycles.
The #OpeningDay Homeless Sweeps have begun again this morning. pic.twitter.com/78577GGgZu
— Michael McConnell (@HomelessnessSD) April 14, 2022