Where Have the Homeless People Gone? The Reality Behind the Disappearance

Umma Radio
Aug 9
2 min read

1. Criminalizing Homelessness Isn’t a Solution

In Grants Pass v. Johnson (2024), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities may fine or arrest people for sleeping in public—even without available shelter beds. In effect, surviving on the street could now be classified as a crime.CalMatters California Health Care Foundation

Experts warn this “greenlights” punitive measures rather than humane responses. As one Berkeley Law professor put it: it’s a Rorschach test for officials—will they double down on punishment or invest in real housing solutions?Berkeley NewsAdvocacy groups note that such criminalization has no evidence of reducing homelessness, often deepens the crisis, disrupts community, and even worsens public health outcomes.National Alliance to End Homelessness National Homelessness Law Center

2. Welcome to the State-Sanctioned Sweep—But It’s Not a Fix

Cities across the U.S. have ramped up aggressive sweeps of homeless encampments:

San Francisco: Rapid sweeps with little to no warning; belongings confiscated; bus tickets offered instead of services; displaced residents left scrambling.Wikipedia
Boston’s “Operation Clean Sweep” (Mass. & Cass): Police bulldozed encampments and belongings. What happened next? More overdose deaths, broken trust, and encampments returning.Wikipedia
Lansing, Michigan: Crackdowns are pushing people deeper into woods where help can’t reach them.AP News
Oakland: Officials push to remove RV encampments for safety, but with little regard for where people go next.San Francisco Chronicle
Homelessness sweeps in many American cities: A National Homelessness Law Center report shows at least 163 cities have passed camping restrictions in recent years.The Economist

These actions haven’t ended homelessness—they’ve just made it disappear from plain view.

3. The Shift to Institutions—What Organizations Worry About

Recently, an executive order from President Trump (July 2025) pushed local governments to remove unhoused individuals from public spaces and place them in long-term institutional settings, including forced mental health treatments or shelters. Critics call this a return to institutionalization rather than a path to healing or housing.The Guardian+1States like Connecticut maintain they will continue with Housing First models rather than follow this punitive path.CT Insider

So Where Did the Homeless Go—And Why You Can’t See Them?

Strategy Outcome/Impact Criminalization of survival People fined, jailed, displaced, with no solutions Encampment sweeps Swept from public view → hidden in unsafe, unreachable spaces Forced institutionalization Hidden in, or moved to, facilities under government control Public invisibility The issue becomes out-of-sight, out-of-mind—but still exists

Bottom Line: The homeless haven't vanished—they’ve been criminalized, cleared out, and in many cases, involuntarily institutionalized or forced into unsafe hiding spaces. This “disappearance” is a policy choice—not a solution.

Real change means seeing homelessness not as a nuisance to sweep but a crisis demanding shelter-first policies, affordable housing, and supportive services.