Survivors of Sweeps and Homelessness create their own *WeSearch Findings on the impact of targeted sweeps
“Sweeps Survivors” is a Collaborative *WeSearch Project of POOR Magazine and Aetna Street Solidarity. These WeSearch findings were offered and gathered on Tovaangar/Tatavian Lands aka Los Angeles/San Fernando Valley in September/October 2026.
So many deaths
From the perp called swept
Swept and swept and swept to death
From East LA to West
til we have nothing left
No belongings, no homes,
no tents, no cars, no phones
They even swept our hope…
excerpt from Swept to Death by tiny aka povertyskola
WeSearch Questions 1) What is your homeless origin HISstory/HERstory? 2) What is your experience with sweeps?
Joseph Everett
I first became homeless when my mom was alive and my house got raised because of my stepdad at the time. We weren’t allowed to go back and we didn’t have much family. My tia let me and my mom stay for a bit until I guess she had enough. She then kicked us out in the middle of the night when we had nowhere to go. For a while we were okay until I started doing drugs. My brother let my mother stay with him but not me. Just recently my mother passed away so my brother started being silent.
I stayed in a wash with good friends- they took everything and just cuz I stepped out I wasn’t allowed to go back in my spot to grab my personal items.
Gera
Got evicted for being 2 months late on rent that was constantly being raised.
The type of sweep I faced was when my mom’s trailer home got towed during the pandemic. I was staying with her in Modesto at the time and we lost all our belongings.
PQ
My mom passed away & so I had nowhere to go, also I had problems with my girl. I was using drugs so I hit the streets I moved into the compound (Oxnard St by the 405 freeway). I was there for over a year then on July the police & the mayor came & put all of us on buses & put us in hotels they scattered and some were sent to Canoga, Sun Valley, North Hills & so we been housed at the Budget Inn hotel for a lil over a year waiting to be housed but now they aren’t housing us with just GR now we have to have a job to get housed that’s the new thing.
I lost all of the personal stuff, clothes, personal items. They only let us carry 1 bag which was barely a couple items so we had to start all over. This also happened on Bessemer Street last month only this time they followed us to take everything.
Hazel
My mother, brother and I had to migrate from El Salvador where we had a house that was paid off. Came to LA and lived in a room or various living rooms. I don’t know if this is being houseless but to me it was scary as a child to not have stable housing.
I didn’t personally but have helped my neighbors. It is heartbreaking.
Wilbur “Gio” Valencia
I had a job…I had car…I had a family…but covid pandemic hit us, at that time I had a relapse. I had 7 years clean…I relapsed and my job, my car, my family was gone. It’s been 4 years since I was forced out of my apartment.
On one of the sweeps where we were on Haskell and the rail tracks they did a sweep, I lost clothes, personal items even my tent because they told us take only what you can carry. And I feel we were targeted because of Budweiser complaining of us the homeless.
Angel Monteon
I first became homeless when I had decided to move out here to LA from my old town. I came in hopes of a better opportunity.
Yes I’ve dealt with a sweep and they took everything that I had even my clothes they even tried to take my backpack I even had on.
Muteando Silencio
The first time I became homeless is when my family was forced to leave our homeland Michocan, Mexico due to domestic violence. I came from a big family of 12 siblings, my parents are from Guerreo, Mexico, my father struggled with alcohol addiction, he was really violent when he was intoxicated he would beat up my mom in front of us, I was 6 years old, I remember running out the front door to seek for help to our neighbor Doña Goya. I remember feel broken the day we left Michocan.
Paisley
In 2020, I lived in an apartment off of student loan money and I didn’t lose my job managing facilities at a company working in advertising (unclogging toilets and getting yelled at by middle-aged British men for not getting them their lunch on time). But the office closed for COVID so I had time to think and realize how many more and more would not be able to afford rent. So, I stopped paying mine. I went on rent strike. By 2021, as the world forcibly “reopened,” I recognized I could not return to paying rent and was able to get a loan to get my RV home.
I have dealt with countless sweeps. In those I have lost home. I have lost my favourite trench coat–that could keep you warm on the coldest night. I have lost friends and their memorials. I have lost stability in the aftermath of sweeps’ violence because the trauma doesn’t disappear when cops and sanitation do, it moves through us into each other: RV break-ins and breakdowns, fights breaking out around me. Also, my car got towed.
Tiny
“You have 5 minutes to leave… BEEEP BEEEEP”
Not sure if I ever actually slept but they were here. Again. A strange collection of armed robots. Their weapons; shovels, trash cans, rakes, and guns. The cops didn't used to accompany this army but now they did. Ready with zip ties and shackles to arrest us. For sleeping.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEP
The incessant and non-stop beeping was like a nail being slowly pounded into the side of my head. We couldn't figure out what to leave or bring. Mama had already lost her insulin and her walker yesterday in another sweep and I’m not sure what hoops we would have to go through to get those replaced. I lost my Aunti’s urn with her ashes and the only picture I had left of my brother , not to mention my school ID, and my last dry blanket. I’m numb from the loss. I guess that's their point, to destroy our spirits.
I had one warm jacket and some underwear and my lotion. I could barely feel my hands in this cold anyway. I think I have one more plastic bag somewhere….Mama aint moving at all now.
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Why can’t I open this fuckin hefty bag? OMIGOD They can’t see me struggling, my broken fingertips can’t separate the opening - - the shiny black/brown plastic shimmers in the moonlit sky and slides through my moist fingers -what is it 4am? I need both hands for this but I can’t put down my other bag cause they will take it. It's got all the rest of mama’s medicine.
*WeSearch is a concept created by @povertyskola at POOR Magazine to describe poor people-led research created in, from and by houseless and poor ComeUnities across occupied Turtle Island
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