City Officials Say Their Encampment Strategy Is Working Despite Displacing Hundreds and Helping Almost No One
The city of Virginia Beach has significantly ramped up its encampment-clearing efforts since the Grants Pass Decision was made. In the past year alone, 100 encampments have been cleared.
What do they have to show for all that sweeping? Apparently, “as many as 10” people have been housed.
Despite those dismal numbers, Ruth Hill, director of Virginia Beach Housing & Neighborhood Preservation, insists that “the encampment clearance strategy is working.”
Camping Ban is in Effect
After the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson made it legal for cities to enforce camping bans on homeless residents, regardless of whether or not there was anywhere else available for them to go, cities have wasted no time in enforcing bans that were already on the books or passing new ones…