Homeless people’s belongings are rarely stored after encampment sweeps, records show

San Diego cleaning crews clear thousands of homeless encampments each year, and the city has a process for storing and returning certain valuable belongings seized during those sweeps.

Records show, however, that crew members are rarely flagging items for storage.

There were just 36 instances of personal effects being preserved and catalogued last year, according to city statistics. During the same period, crews cleared more than 6,400 encampments.

“It’s rough,” said Ignacio Sanchez, a 29-year-old living next to a highway who said his homeless mother’s kidney medication was once thrown out during a sweep. His complaint has long been echoed by other individuals sleeping outside, who say crews have taken everything from clothing to sleeping bags, at a time when there are nowhere near enough shelter beds for everybody who is asking.

San Diego officials responded that the paper warnings distributed in encampments ahead of a cleanup — usually at least 24 hours in advance — allow people to pack up before trash trucks arrive. What remains is mainly unwanted debris, they maintain.

“Code Compliance Officers will often impound items out of an abundance of caution in case they were inadvertently left behind,” city spokesperson Matt Hoffman wrote in an email. “In practice, we find that the vast majority of individuals collect their personal belongings.”

The work is not cheap. In the two years since San Diego passed a camping ban, in summer 2023, the city spent more than $13.5 million clearing tent camps.

The paper notices warning of upcoming cleanups have a phone number for people to call when belongings are taken, and the city is supposed to hold onto that property for at least 90 days before it is thrown away.

The system works for some. Richard Clason, a 40-year-old in an encampment by Interstate 5, recently said he was once able to retrieve a tent filled with clothes.

Yet in only four cases last year did people recover belongings, records show. It was not clear if there were instances when people tried and failed to locate their property.

One argument for clearing encampments is that they can pose risks for both people sleeping outside and those in nearby homes. Some sites include piles of needles and other hazardous material. Debris pollutes waterways, cooking fires may spread, and the District Attorney’s Office has repeatedly documented how homeless residents are more likely to be victims of crime.

There are also voluntary storage options available. After the city was sued back in 2009 over how it conducted encampment sweeps, officials created storage facilities in and near downtown San Diego where people could keep belongings in bins. The local nonprofit Think Dignity additionally has filing cabinets in Kearny Mesa for storing sensitive documents.

But those places aren’t allowed to hold medication, and some individuals don’t want to lose sight of their most treasured possessions, such as urns with the ashes of dead loved ones.

City policy says an item should be stored if has “apparent utility” and can be “safely retrieved from the site,” among other criteria. For example, a “cordless drill in working condition” is to be saved. A “wet yearbook that can’t be properly dried out” may be tossed.

All “storage apparatuses (such as containers, backpacks, and purses) that are safe to inspect are checked for personal items,” added Hoffman, the spokesperson. “Any belongings found that meet” San Diego’s “storage requirements are impounded and stored.”

City records note that the items preserved last year included three wallets, five surfboards, “legal documents,” a social security card, a triathlon medal, a PlayStation, seven sets of medication, a “weathered” paycheck and at least seven bicycles.

Cristina Jaimez, the 60-year-old who lost her kidney medication, said that in the days after the sweep her body swelled and she had been wracked with pain. (Jaimez spoke in Spanish while her son translated.) A doctor was eventually able to write another prescription, and from her tent she showed off a stack of cardboard sheets that held the new pills.