Policing Homelessness: Enforcing Neighborhood Change

Abstract

US cities have long embraced spatial removal to manage the visibility of homelessness, yet the determinants of these tactics remain understudied. Extant literature often excludes vehicle residents, focuses on formal legal sanctions, and fails to account for the prevalence of homelessness. Addressing such gaps, this study leverages administrative and street outreach data to interrogate the relationship between contemporary removal practices and urban change in Seattle, WA. Spatiotemporal models suggest that increases in neighborhood property value predict more encampment sweeps and vehicle impoundments. Both interventions positively correlate with homelessness-related complaints and crime, while vehicle removals seem further associated with higher concentrations of Black residents and lower population densities. These findings extend prior theories on neoliberal urbanism and social control, suggesting that order maintenance policing may disproportionately target neighborhoods experiencing economic expansion.