Nicole Santa Cruz

2 months ago | gijn.org | Asia Fields |with Maya Miller |Nicole Santa Cruz |Ruth Talbot

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published by ProPublica. It is reprinted here with permission and thanks to Creative Commons license. You can read the original reporting series this story is based on here. It’s not hard to find people who want to talk about cities dismantling homeless encampments and throwing away their belongings. In our reporting over the past year, we found that almost everyone we talked to who lived outside had been through a sweep.

Feb 4, 2025 | propublica.org | Asia Fields |Maya Miller |Nicole Santa Cruz |Ruth Talbot

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for Dispatches, a newsletter that spotlights wrongdoing around the country, to receive our stories in your inbox every week. It’s not hard to find people who want to talk about cities dismantling homeless encampments and throwing away their belongings. In our reporting over the past year, we found that almost everyone we talked to who lived outside had been through a sweep.

Dec 27, 2024 | projects.propublica.org | Asia Fields |Nicole Santa Cruz |Ruth Talbot |Maya Miller

A record number of Americans are living outside. Cities have responded by removing encampments from public spaces, a practice commonly referred to as “sweeps.” In the process, workers often take people’s belongings — including important documents, survival gear and irreplaceable mementos. Over and over, people across the country told ProPublica they were devastated by such losses. We gave them notecards so they could explain in their own words how the sweeps have affected them.

Dec 26, 2024 | propublica.org | Nicole Santa Cruz |Joshua Kaplan |Daniel Rothberg |Doug Bock Clark

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. On a May afternoon, Teresa Stratton sat on her walker near a freeway in Portland, Oregon, talking about how much she wanted to live inside. She missed sleeping uninterrupted in a bed and having running water. When you live outside, “the dirt embeds in your skin,” the 61-year-old said.

Nov 30, 2024 | truthout.org | Nicole Santa Cruz |Asia Fields |Ruth Talbot

This article was originally published at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. When Stephenie came upon workers in Portland, Oregon, who had bagged up all of her belongings in a homeless encampment sweep, she desperately pleaded to get one item back: her purse. It contained her cash and food stamp card — what she needed to survive. The crew refused to look for it, she said.