Ban Winter and Severe Weather Sweeps

We’re calling on the city to ban sweeps in the winter months and during extreme weather events in Seattle. This would build on our city's existing winter eviction ban by extending protections against displacement to the most vulnerable members of our community who are already trying to navigate homelessness in the winter. 

Like the existing winter eviction ban, this would prevent sweeps from December 1st until March 1st, the time of year when survival is the most challenging for folks living outside. It would also recognize the need to prioritize people-centered responses to our ever changing climate by prohibiting labor-intensive and cruel displacement during heat waves, smoke and cold snaps.

Additionally, this ban would pressure the city to invest resources into services that are shown to truly help unhoused people, such as:

• Providing heat and smoke shelters to protect people during extreme summer weather, and standing up a robust, consistent cold weather shelter system to get people inside on the coldest nights

• Identifying unused plots of land as ‘No Sweep Zones’ where folks can shelter in place in their own tents and structures to work towards more long term stability

• Increasing harm reduction efforts, including Narcan and needle/pipe distribution, as well as open safe-use sites with clean supply so that folks who use drugs can do so in safety through the winter, when they are at increased risk of overdose and death

• Open up more non-congregate shelter and housing options to get people inside permanently, and ensuring that these options are safe, accessible, and affordable for the people who need them