Michigan homeless camp crackdowns leave some ‘just trying to survive'

Associated Press

a day ago

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The radio is silent in Greg Pratt's van, but that doesn't mean it's quiet as dozens of styrofoam containers filled with food squeal loudly from the trunk with each bump and turn.
A former Marine, stay-at-home dad and Lansing resident, Pratt spends at least one night a week canvassing the city looking for homeless encampments to deliver meals to. How he delivers, and how often he goes out, is dictated by a mixture of available donations and the weather.
'Our biggest problem right now is, they're going so far back in the woods, that nobody goes back' to help, said Pratt, who's been doing outreach in the area for the last five years.
Lansing is among a growing number of local governments in Michigan and the country that are cracking down on homeless encampments, which Pratt contends has pushed some of the area's most needy further into the trees.
The city is suing two businesses for 'allowing' a homeless camp to expand on their property despite safety concerns, and it's ticketing people for sleeping in public parks, including a pregnant woman two weeks ago.
The US Supreme Court last year ruled that cities can issue citations to homeless people for 'public camping' even if there are no shelter beds available. Last month, President Donald Trump went further with an executive order calling for the forced institutionalization of homeless people deemed 'a risk to themselves or others.'
States that don't comply with the order could lose federal housing funds. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order is a way to remove ' vagrant criminals from our streets.'
Homeless advocates like Pratt say large-scale institutionalization is not feasible in a state like Michigan, which already has a psychiatric bed shortage. Ticketing people effectively for being homeless can add additional monetary and legal hurdles to obtaining housing, they say.
But cities attempting to keep order and serve constituents wary of visible homeless camps have been taking more aggressive steps.
Officials in Anchorage, Alaska, cleared two of the city's largest encampments this summer, dispersing an estimated 100 people. In Bend, Oregon, officials recently undertook what one area advocacy group called the ' largest eviction of a homeless camp in recent history.'
In Michigan, debate over homeless services and institutionalization has intensified in recent weeks after a homeless man stabbed 11 people at a Walmart in Traverse City. His brother says he suffered from mental illness but ' fell through the cracks ' for decades.
Traverse City had dispersed a large encampment, known as The Pines, in May. Reviews are mixed on whether it was the best approach. Even with the city expanding shelter availability, it has not kept everyone off the streets.
'The net positive or the net negative is something that we'll ultimately have to measure over years,' said Mitchell Treadwell, a Democrat and Traverse City City Commissioner.
While forced closure of The Pines was difficult to see on a personal level, Treadwell said, he hopes the commission's recent vote to fund a part-time shelter year-round will better serve the area's homeless population.
Creating encampments
Nick Cook, policy director for the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness, frequently accompanies Pratt on his rounds of encampments in Lansing.
Together, he and Pratt pair make up the community advocacy group Michigan Helping Others with Purpose and Empathy, or Michigan HOPE. Pratt serves as president.
There's no real way to know how many encampments exist in the city on any given night, Cook said, but there are a slew of reasons why a person may choose to camp rather than seek out a homeless shelter.
Want to sleep? Bed availability isn't guaranteed. Married but don't have kids? Can't stay at the same place. Struggling with addiction or poor mental health? You could get banned from local shelters, Cook said.
Homeless encampments have long existed but the COVID-19 pandemic strained alternative systems: Some shelters were forced to further limit bedspace or close altogether, according to a 2023 report from the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at one point urged states not to break up encampments during the pandemic unless shelter space was immediately available.
About 33,226 Michiganders experienced homelessness in 2023, the most recent year for which statewide data is available. That was an increase of about 2%, or 521 individuals, from 2022, and an even larger jump from 2020, when the state reported 30,746 people experiencing homelessness. A record high 653,105 people additionally experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2023 according to national data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness — a 12.1% increase from the year prior.
In Michigan, it's difficult to track down how many homeless individuals have received tickets or citations due, in part or full, to a lack of permanent housing.
An official with the Michigan State Court Administrative Office told Bridge Michigan earlier this week that citations given to homeless residents is not something the agency 'currently keeps track of' and wasn't certain whether it would be 'on the radar' in the near future.
While most cities do first warn homeless residents prior to ticketing, homeless response advocate Clint Brugger says some ordinances are written in a way that it effectively only applies to unhoused people.
Kalamazoo has a ban on sleeping or using bedding in public parks. Grand Rapids approved fines for panhandling near an ATM or for storing personal items on public property. Brugger's own Hillsdale even banned public camping in 2023 in an effort to address concerns about homelessness.
People don't think about the aftermath of ticketing, he said, because they want to believe it ultimately serves to get a homeless person off the streets.
'But if you give them a citation, that's just one more barrier that they have to pay for in the process of them trying to become housed,' said Brugger, director of Training and Outreach at Community Action Agency in Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties.
To think the state has the bed space to institutionalize people for being homeless, he added, is laughable.
'There's been no help'
While the state may not keep track of citations given specifically to homeless people, they are happening.
In Lansing, 41-year-old Crystal White was issued an $130 citation on July 31 for being in a closed park after 10 pm 'or posted time.' She's one of 26 people who've received such a citation since July 1, 2024, according to the Lansing Police Department.
White — who is homeless, six months pregnant and goes by the street name 'Pixie Dust' — told Bridge she lives near Lansing's Maguire Park with a handful of others she calls her family.
The way she tells it, White received a hotel voucher last month to get off the street for a few nights but ended her stay prematurely due to perceived mistreatment and guilt. She returned to Maguire Park where, around 3 am, a police officer woke her and told her she couldn't sleep under the pavilion.
From there, White said she had a choice: Either move her sleeping bag out of the park and onto the sidewalk, where it was raining, or remain where she was at and get a ticket. She chose the latter.
A spokesperson with the Lansing Police Department confirmed the interaction, telling Bridge in a statement that an officer had been out to Maguire Park before the 3 am ticketing to tell those at the pavilion they 'needed to pack up and leave, as the park was closing.'
'I can tell you that we don't take these matters lightly and we do provide significant resources and assistance before the written notice and a final order to leave and clean-up is enacted,' Scott Bean, communications director for the city of Lansing, said in a statement to Bridge late Wednesday.
'These make-shift sites do not offer safe or sanitary conditions as there are no toilets, running water, trash collection… thereby posing a public health risk in our parks.'
White said she doesn't know what to do next but doesn't plan to pay the ticket, noting that the city provides animal waste bags at dog parks but won't let homeless humans sleep nearby.
'I'm just out here trying to sleep and trying to find a place to go,' said White, who is due to deliver a baby girl this November. 'There's been no help, no matter how hard I try.'
A delicate balance
While 'everyone's well intended' in thinking of ways to keep people from living on the streets, Northwest Michigan Coalition to End Homelessness Director Ashley Halladay-Schmandt said a proven way already exists — housing first.
The approach is simple: Put a person into some level of permanent, supportive housing as they work to address any mental or behavioral health problems, rather than offer housing as a conditional reward in the process.
It's been a 'proven, effective way to address homelessness for a very long time,' said Halladay-Schmandt, noting it's overall cheaper for a community to house a person than incarcerate them. Which is why, she said, the president's order openly calling to end 'support for 'housing first' policies' concerns her.
'I'm just confused and baffled about what this means for us and the folks we serve,' said Halladay-Schmandt, whose organization works in five northern Michigan counties — including in Grand Traverse County, where The Pines encampment once stood.
Michigan is making stridestoward addressing a lack of affordable, permanent housing, but the effort is a marathon, not a sprint. Many planned developments are focused on addressing housing stock for mid- to low-income earners, but not necessarily very low income earners like homeless individuals.
As of May, the State Housing Development Authority estimated Michigan was short about 119,000 housing units. An official told Bridge the authority is awaiting further guidance from federal partners on 'how they plan to implement' Trump's July executive order for forced institutionalization of homeless individuals deemed 'a risk.'
Pratt, Michigan HOPE's president, said it scares him to think about what it could mean if the state turns away from housing first and toward incarceration or institutionalization — even if it seems like some cities are reluctant to do so.
In the meantime, he and Cook plan to keep delivering food to homeless people in Lansing.
'A lot of them are just trying to survive until the next day,' Cook said. 'Some of them know their demons and are trying to overcome them. … Any of us could be there someday.'
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This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.