Durham cleared an encampment at Fayetteville and Pilot streets near the American Tobacco Trail after a police operation on Tuesday that the Durham Police Department called "Operation Safe Passage"; by Wednesday morning all but one person had left. City Manager Bo Ferguson said there had been more than 700 calls for service at the location this year, including two homicides, and officers said they seized two handguns, more than 30 grams of crack cocaine and more than $9,000 in cash. The city said its outreach team had approached people at the site multiple times and that they declined services; advocates quoted by the paper said sweeps criminalize homelessness without addressing housing shortages.
Ferguson authorized clearance of the Oakwood Park encampment in April, and that park was closed and fenced off in July; city data cited by the paper put Durham's homeless population at more than 2,000 people.
Vancouver Homeless Assistance and Resource Team manager Jamie Spinelli, responding to the outlet's question of why the city does not ban camping citywide after adopting a 1,500-foot buffer around the 120-bed Bridge Shelter, said neither the city nor the county system has the enforcement, jail or shelter capacity to resolve unsheltered homelessness through enforcement. She cited a county report that the jail has had no available beds 88% of the time since January 2025 and asked where the 500+ people living outdoors would go. The outlet counted more than 100 tents and tarps within a few blocks of the Share House in downtown Vancouver on Thursday.
The city already bans camping within 1,000 feet of its four Safe Stay communities.
Portland police said two Central Precinct Neighborhood Response Team officers were assaulted Thursday morning by a man whose camp was being cleared at NW Flanders Street and NW 5th Avenue, where officers were supporting a Portland Solutions camp removal that began at 10 a.m. Both officers were treated at a hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and the man was arrested and then hospitalized for evaluation after injuring himself. The Police Bureau's Major Crimes Unit is investigating as case No. 26-279416.
Portland Solutions is the city office that conducts camp removals under Portland's camping policy.
Worcester city councilors on Tuesday rejected City Manager Eric Batista's proposed encampment ordinance, which would have fined homeless people $25 per infraction for camping in tents, sleeping on streets or sidewalks, or living in vehicles parked 24 consecutive hours in public lots. Councilor Gary Rosen filed a motion, supported by most councilors, sending the broader homelessness strategy back to Batista with instructions to remove the ordinance. Councilor Khrystian King called the measure a "homeless incarceration act" and said the city failed to consult social service experts.
This year's point-in-time count identified 1,187 unhoused people in Worcester County, down from 2,862 last year, against a supply of 197 permanent shelter beds across four shelters.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League released a 30-second television ad Friday criticizing Councilwoman Nithya Raman's opposition to Municipal Code 41.18, the city's anti-camping law, ahead of the November 3 mayoral election between Raman and Mayor Karen Bass. The union provided $620,000 for the campaign and the Los Angeles Professional Manager's Association contributed another $100,000, for a total of $720,000.
LAPPL president Ricky Mendoza said in the ad campaign that Raman voted more than 75 times against banning encampments near schools, parks and daycares; the runoff is November 3.
The Chicago Park District hired Dannette Salaam for a newly created homeless support specialist position; officials said she has met with more than 60 residents at park encampments and participated in 13 cleanups. The district owns two mobile surveillance units costing nearly $76,000 each plus a $282 monthly service fee, stationed at Ronan Park and Washington Park, and said it is acquiring two more it hopes to have online by the end of the year. Superintendent Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has said there are some 60 homeless encampments in the city, mostly in parks.
The district installed the mobile surveillance cameras at Ronan Park in August after a summer of fires and drug arrests at that encampment.
Portland police arrested two people after a year-long East Precinct Neighborhood Response Team investigation, begun in September 2025, into drug dealing out of the Safe Rest Village on North Portland Road. Keith Kelly, 36, was charged with cocaine possession and distribution, including distribution within 1,000 feet of a school, and Angela Burns, 65, was charged with cocaine possession and distribution offenses. Urban Alchemy, which operates the site, said no staff members were arrested or charged.
Searches under Multnomah County warrants covered the village and a home in the 400 block of Northeast 16th Avenue, where police said they found meth and suspected drug ledgers.
The Renton City Council voted Monday night to send a proposed camping ordinance back to its Committee of the Whole after roughly two hours of public testimony. The ordinance as written would prohibit camping, storing personal items and keeping shopping carts on city property, with violations of trespass orders punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Councilmember James Alberson proposed amending the language so people are "encouraged to accept a referral" rather than required to accept services; the city attorney said the ordinance is unenforceable as written unless the council determines consequences for people who decline services.
Neighboring Tukwila's camping ban took effect July 28, and its police chief said no arrests or citations have been issued under it.
Street Sense published emails obtained by public-records request showing a White House "Homelessness Working Group" — including the National Security Council, HUD, HHS, the National Park Service, and D.C. agencies — formed in May 2025 under the Safe and Beautiful Task Force executive order, and that police officers under federal control compiled a 25-site encampment list near the White House on August 14, 2025, at least 14 of which were cleared the next day. The National Park Service said August 28 that it has cleared 169 encampments on federal land since the task force was announced, and D.C.'s monthly clearing average has risen to about 17 this year from eight to nine in 2024–2025.
The White House said on August 19, 2025 that 48 encampments had been cleared during the takeover, a figure the article says Street Sense has not been able to independently confirm.
The Standard reported that at least 28 housed owners of large vehicles have told the city they were ticketed, towed, or feared enforcement under San Francisco's two-hour parking limit for vehicles over 7 feet tall or 22 feet long, in effect since November 2025. As of early September the city had towed more than 360 vehicles, issued nearly 1,100 citations, bought back 154 large vehicles, and transitioned 221 vehicle-dwelling households into housing or shelter. A Lurie spokesperson called the policy "incredibly successful in reducing the number of people living in large vehicles on our streets."
Violations carry a $108 fine; the ordinance exempts holders of "refuge permits" issued to people living in vehicles before June 2025 but draws no distinction between personal-use and housing vehicles.
A special prosecutor said former LAPD officer Clifford Proctor was indicted on one count of second-degree murder for shooting Brendon Glenn, an unarmed homeless man, in the back outside a Venice bar in May 2015. Proctor was arraigned Monday and pleaded not guilty. A prior indictment returned in 2024 was dismissed in June by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge who said Proctor had a reasonable belief Glenn was a threat.
Judge Ronald S. Coen dismissed the previous murder indictment on June 5, 2026, and prosecutors appealed that ruling.
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins charged Bayshore Navigation Center employees Oliver Barcenas, 36, and Erika Porter, 45, with accessory after the fact and obstructing and delaying a police officer, days after their arrest for allegedly aiding Norris Reed III, the suspected shooter of SFPD officer Brittney Taylor on May 31. Porter, who faces two additional misdemeanor counts for allegedly lying to an officer, pleaded not guilty Monday. Five Keys CEO Steve Good said staff told him they placated the armed intruder and evacuated nearly 200 staff and clients from the shelter.
Barcenas was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday, August 26; police said a shelter employee alerted them at about 12:17 a.m., over an hour after Reed fled officers.
Police records provided to Alpha News showed 212 police entries between June 1 and August 21 at addresses around Randolph Avenue and Shepard Road, near the encampment that grew after St. Paul closed the Pig's Eye Park camp on August 5 — 139 of them in the 17 days after the closure, against 73 in the more than two months before it. The outlet reported the records include both calls for service and police-initiated activity, and that much of the increase reflects a heightened police presence, including 50 proactive visits since August 5.
WCCO reported more than 140 people needed new places to live when Pig's Eye Park closed August 5; Ramsey County granted $969,500 to the downtown Catholic Charities shelter for 49 new beds over the next year.
San Francisco police chief Derrick Lew announced Friday that two employees of the Bayshore Navigation Center, run by Five Keys, were arrested Thursday evening for allegedly helping Norris Reed III hide from police after he shot and wounded an officer on May 31. Police said one employee gave Reed clothing to conceal his identity and the other gave false statements to officers; Five Keys CEO Steve Good gave a differing account, saying staff stopped Reed at the door, began evacuating the facility — which held more than 200 people — and alerted police, leading to Reed's arrest.
Reed allegedly shot Officer Brittney Taylor around 10:45 p.m. on May 31 after fleeing a robbery; a shelter employee alerted police at about 12:17 a.m. and he was arrested.
The New Times followed a man through arraignment at Phoenix Municipal Court on a class 1 misdemeanor charge of obstructing a public thoroughfare, cited during a July 30 police sweep near 11th Avenue and Jackson Street in the former "Zone" encampment area — his second citation in under a month. The paper reported there are about 900 shelter beds in the neighborhood, leaving a couple hundred people on the street when they fill each night; the man declined a plea deal, was appointed a public defender, and has a follow-up hearing in early September.
A Maricopa County judge declared the downtown Phoenix "Zone" encampment an illegal public nuisance in 2023 and ordered the city to clear it.
A trash pile at a homeless encampment near Peachtree Creek under the Buford Highway Connector caught fire August 10, and Lindridge-Martin Manor residents demanded action from city and state leaders, with one resident counting three bridge fires along Cheshire Bridge Road in seven years. State Rep. Stacey Evans said jurisdiction over the site is shared between the city and state, and said the real long-term solution is addressing homelessness and affordable housing.
GDOT says it relies on Atlanta police to enforce Georgia's anti-camping law on state rights-of-way under a July 2022 memorandum of agreement with the city.
Washington Policy Center researcher Eric Zimmerman said the widely cited statistic that Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program produced a 58% reduction in arrests misstates the original University of Washington evaluation, and called for an audit. LEAD founder Lisa Daugaard said the finding of "58% reduced odds of arrest compared to a robust control group" reflects a meaningful reduction in recidivism, and the University of Washington said it had used "likelihood" in place of "odds," said those instances have been corrected where found, and said it advised the LEAD team to correct its reporting.
LEAD launched in Seattle in 2011 and has been replicated in jurisdictions across the country.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers cleared a state-owned lot in Norman on Friday under Gov. Kevin Stitt's Operation SAFE, giving residents 20 minutes to gather belongings before bulldozers removed tents; volunteers estimated 40 to 60 people were displaced. It was the second Operation SAFE sweep of the same site, which people had returned to after a May clearance. Letters from state COO David Ostrowe put state spending on clearing encampments from state property at $375,701 in Oklahoma City and $523,873 in Tulsa; Norman's clearing cost was not included.
Norman voters approved an $8 million shelter bond in April; construction is on hold while the Oklahoma Supreme Court considers an appeal challenging the bond's approval.
LAist · on the removal of 41.18 anti-camping zones in LA's Council District 13
The Los Angeles City Council voted 10-3 Tuesday to erase some Municipal Code 41.18 zones — areas where unhoused people cannot sit, lie, sleep, or keep belongings — in Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez's district, covering underpasses in Silver Lake and Echo Park and 101 Freeway overpasses in Hollywood. Soto-Martinez, who introduced the motion to remove zones established by his predecessor Mitch O'Farrell, said he believed it was the first effort to have 41.18 zones removed rather than put in place. Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, voting no, said the law "was never intended to be the solution to our homeless problem" but is "about protecting public spaces."
A 2023 report from the city's lead homelessness agency concluded the 41.18 policy had not kept most areas clear of encampments and was "generally ineffective" at connecting people to housing.
Utah state, Salt Lake City, and Salt Lake County leaders launched three days of workgroup meetings Tuesday to implement the Leifman Group's 25 recommendations for diverting people with mental illness and substance use disorders away from jails and homelessness. County Mayor Jenny Wilson said some recommendations could take up to 10 years while others could be adopted in months, with funding or legislative proposals expected for the session starting in January. Officials cited work already underway, including mental health group homes expected to eventually total 90 beds and an expansion of Salt Lake City's Project CONNECT, which targets the city's 50 most-arrested people.
State leaders' earlier plan for a 1,300-bed homeless campus in northwest Salt Lake City received no legislative funding this year.
Austin's No Wrong Door initiative assigns four Austin police officers — each carrying a caseload of about 25 people since early March — to coordinate treatment, housing, and services for people drawn from roughly 950 residents officials identify as the county's highest "utilizers," whose repeated arrests, ER visits, and psychiatric crises cost an estimated $137 million in public resources annually. All 17 partner organizations signed agreements to share resources and case information. Mayor Kirk Watson said "we're getting some wins, but we're going to need money," and the city plans to ask the Legislature to fund a new mental health crisis care center; the advocacy group VOCAL-TX questioned whether police should be the primary point of contact.
Austin's 2025 point-in-time count found more than 3,200 people living outside or in shelters, up about 50% from roughly 2,150 in 2018.
Councilmember Dan Strauss's six-bill RV package was submitted to the City Council's Public Safety Committee this week, including a measure that would ban RVs more than 6 feet 8 inches wide from residential streets starting in July 2027, restricting them to permitted overnight parking in industrial zones. Strauss said unpermitted RV residents would get three warnings before towing. Critics including We Heart Seattle and the Seattle King County Coalition on Homelessness questioned the balance between the punitive and support elements of the package.
The package as announced August 7 included $5 million to move people out of vehicle homelessness, and a companion bill would cap RV residency permits near 500 people.
The Tennessean reported that Tennessee's felony anti-camping law is drawing renewed scrutiny after Metro Nashville Police charged an unhoused man and woman with felonies for camping in an East Nashville park in June — the department's first charges under the statute — and the cases were dismissed days later.
Tennessee's 2022 law made camping on local public property a felony, the only state law of its kind in the country.