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Deadra Walicki has lived in the same spot for more than a decade: a cracked patch of asphalt in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, squeezed between a boarded-up grocery store and Amtrak tracks so close that passing trains shake the ground beneath her tent.<\/p>\n
The air carries the scent of diesel fumes from busy Van Nuys Boulevard below and rotten food from the dozens of garbage bags piled up near her mattress, baking in the summer sun.<\/p>\n
She stays put so that friends, family members and case workers can always locate her. But that consistency has also made Walicki, 51, a target for the police officers who patrol the area.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Police Department cited Walicki for violating the city\u2019s camping ordinance at least 34 times between August 2023 and December 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey drove through today and I waved at them,\u201d said Walicki, her smile revealing cracked porcelain veneers. \u201cThe cops come here Monday through Friday and give tickets for being in the zone of the shelter. It’s whatever they want to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Deadra Walicki near the tent encampment where she lives in San Fernando Valley on June 21, 2025. <\/p>\n
(<\/p>\n
Aaron Schrank<\/p>\n
\/<\/p>\n
LAist\/CalMatters<\/p>\n
)<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 12 months since a groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court decision rewrote the playbook on homelessness, allowing cities in California and beyond to make homeless encampments illegal, even when no shelter is available.<\/p>\n
Before the justices ruled in Grants Pass v. Johnson<\/a>, Los Angeles and other cities generally had to offer someone a shelter bed before punishing them for sleeping on the street. But that went out the window when the justices upheld an ordinance by the Oregon city of Grants Pass that banned camping on all public property.<\/p>\n Since the ruling, camping-related citations and arrests have soared in cities throughout California \u2014 everywhere from Sacramento to Los Angeles to San Diego and beyond.<\/p>\n In each of those three cities, police are citing many of the same people again and again. And while some have managed to move indoors, many others are still camping in the same places, racking up citations that ultimately make it more difficult to find housing.<\/p>\n We tracked down a few of those people. Here are their stories:<\/p>\n Los Angeles: 10 citations in six months<\/p>\n Walicki motions across the train tracks to what looks like a giant rubber bubble. It\u2019s a transitional homeless shelter that opened in 2020.<\/p>\n While L.A. does not have a blanket ban on public camping, the city\u2019s main anti-camping law allows enforcement in select sensitive locations chosen by council members, including near schools, parks and homeless shelters.<\/p>\n L.A. Municipal Code 41.18 says people camping within 1,000 feet of a shelter can be cited. That\u2019s what the majority of Walicki\u2019s citations are for, but she claims the shelter is about 2,000 feet away, as the crow flies.<\/p>\n Hope the Mission, which operates the shelter, did not dispute her distance assessment when contacted for comment, but the citations keep coming.<\/p>\n City-led cleaning and enforcement at homeless encampments makes outreach work harder, according to the nonprofit. Outreach teams build rapport with participants only to lose track of them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they do this cleanup, we go back the next day, that same day,\u201d said Hope the Mission outreach worker Armando Covarrubias. \u201cWhere can we find ’em? We can’t contact them because they have no phones.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, L.A. city leaders have used the ordinance to designate more and more areas for anti-camping enforcement, creating a patchwork of hard-to-follow rules for unsheltered Angelenos like Walicki.<\/p>\n Last March, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Agency released a report<\/a> showing L.A.\u2019s anti-camping law has not been effective at getting people into housing or keeping encampments away: It found 94% of people targeted for removal under the ordinance wanted shelter, but only 17% were able to get it.<\/p>\n Los Angeles hasn\u2019t changed its enforcement as a result of Grants Pass, according to the City Attorney\u2019s Office. But LAPD data show the department made 68% more camping and homelessness-related arrests in the second half of 2024 than the first. Those include non-custodial arrests, where the violator is released at the scene.<\/p>\n Walicki received 10 camping citations in the latter half of 2024, according to LAPD records obtained by CalMatters. She was even cited for camping two mornings in a row that October, at the same intersection.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aPeople are being targeted every day in the city through enforcement, through resolutions to get them to move,\u201d said Shayla Myers, senior attorney with Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a nonprofit providing free legal services for poor Angelenos. \u201cThat\u2019s the very definition of criminalization.\u201d<\/p>\n When patrol cars arrive \u2014 usually in the morning, Walicki says \u2014 officers give people about 10 minutes to pack up. Anything left behind disappears into the back of sanitation trucks. Over the months, she’s lost bags of recycling she’d collected for cash, sleeping bags, clothes, even dental tools for her veneers.<\/p>\n Walicki lives in the encampment with her partner Steve Maroulis, a 57-year-old man with mental disabilities. The two of them want to go at the same time into two separate gender-segregated shelters, but haven’t had any luck.<\/p>\n “It would just be nice, for safety reasons,” she said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want either of us to be alone out here.\u201d<\/p>\n Deadra Walicki near the tent encampment where she lives in San Fernando Valley on June 21, 2025. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Aaron Schrank<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n LAist\/CalMatters<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Police records capture the chaos of tracking someone arrested so frequently. Her name appears as Deadra, Dedra, and Debra. Her last name is spelled five different ways across case files.<\/p>\n Each citation adds to a growing pile of legal paperwork she largely ignores. She hasn’t paid any fines because she doesn’t have the money, she said. Court dates blur together. Walicki said she’s tried to show up to court for some of her infractions, but she’s never gone on the right day.<\/p>\n Others have dealt with more serious consequences for camping. David Cerritos, 46, has lived in Skid Row for five years, his tattered tent on a sidewalk flanked by wholesale smoke shops in the shadow of downtown L.A.\u2019s skyline.<\/p>\n Cerritos was cited at least 12 times last year, including six times after the Supreme Court decision.<\/p>\n Unlike Walicki, with her repeated citations, Cerritos has been handcuffed and temporarily detained for violating the ordinance several times, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don’t comply, you’ll just be arrested,” he said. \u201cAnd then even if you get cited out, hours later or whatever, by the time you get back, you’ve lost everything.\u201d<\/p>\n If someone resists, refuses to comply with or obstructs camping ban enforcement, LAPD can submit the case to be charged as a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Otherwise, LAPD will designate it an infraction punishable by a $250 fine, according to the department\u2019s guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several of Cerritos\u2019 arrest records include mention of disorderly conduct. For him, these arrests usually mean spending 6 to 12 hours in jail while everything he owns disappears. Cerritos said he\u2019s lost barbering clippers, tattoo equipment, bicycles, tools, laptops and more.<\/p>\n LAPD submits misdemeanor cases to the L.A. City Attorney\u2019s office for prosecution consideration, and that office ultimately decides whether to file misdemeanor charges or knock them down to infractions.<\/p>\n The office said it filed charges in 87 camping violation cases in 2024 \u2014 8% of the 1,034 enforcement actions LAPD made under the ordinance last year.<\/p>\n For Cerritos and Walicki, the citations and fines don\u2019t mean all that much. For them, any interaction with police or city workers feels like enforcement, whether a charge is issued or not.<\/p>\n Cerritos feels like he\u2019s getting harassed more than usual recently, but he\u2019s not interested in moving. Like Walicki, he has a case manager but no phone.<\/p>\n \u200a\u201dNow if they were forcing me to move away from here, and I went even just a block over, you might never find me,\u201d Cerritos said.<\/p>\n After years of frequent arrests and citations for camping, neither Cerritos nor Walicki are any closer to leaving their spots, for permanent housing or anywhere else.<\/p>\n Sacramento: Go to jail, or go to a tiny home<\/p>\n Over the past three years, Jerry Carter could often be seen biking around Sacramento\u2019s Midtown neighborhood, his brindle bull terrier, Zaddy, riding in style behind him on a homemade trailer he built special for the beloved pup.<\/p>\n Music followed him as he zipped past trendy bars and restaurants, playing R&B, jazz or reggae (never rap) from a small speaker. Sometimes he played his all-time favorite: Prince, who he saw perform at Arco Arena in 1997.<\/p>\n Local businesses and other homeless people who slept nearby knew him by sight, if not by name.<\/p>\n The police knew Carter, too.<\/p>\n Over the past year, they gave him at least seven citations for camping, storing his belongings on public property and blocking the sidewalk.<\/p>\n Jerry Carter at the Safe Stay tiny home community in Sacramento on June 13, 2025. Carter has been cited multiple times by law enforcement in Sacramento for street camping. <\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Miguel Gutierrez Jr.<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n CalMatters<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Jerry Carter at the Safe Stay tiny home community in Sacramento on June 13, 2025. Carter has been cited multiple times by law enforcement in Sacramento for street camping. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Each encounter with police followed a similar playbook, Carter said. Officers showed up and told him he had 10 minutes to pack up all his belongings. Anything he couldn\u2019t pack in time, he had to abandon.<\/p>\n Carter said he lost a lot of possessions that way: bicycles, clothes, tents and more. Losing bikes stung the most: Getting hit by a car a few years ago left Carter in constant pain, making it hard to walk. But biking is easier.<\/p>\n Sacramento bans camping or \u201cusing camping paraphernalia\u201d on public property. Police can cite or arrest someone if they are using a sleeping bag, or even a piece of cardboard as a mattress and a tarp as a blanket \u2014 but not if they are sleeping on a bench with no camping materials, according to a police training bulletin.<\/p>\n Enforcement of that ban, as well as related ordinances, spiked after the Grants Pass decision. The number of arrests made and citations issued nearly tripled, from 96 in the first half of last year, to 283 in the second half. From January through May of this year, that number jumped to 844.<\/p>\n In most of those cases, the person was cited and released, not taken to jail. Violations led to an arrest 199 times in 2025.<\/p>\n Despite the frequent tickets and attempts to push him out of the bustling shopping and dining district, Carter never moved far from his preferred spot, around 21st and K streets. All of his citations over the past year were issued within about a two-and-a-half-block radius. He felt he had to stay central if he wanted to eat: That\u2019s where his friends were, and where passersby would stop and give him money or food.<\/p>\n \u201cI could survive there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Carter became homeless about three years ago, after he says a property manager stole cash from his apartment while he was in the hospital. Carter moved out to avoid a physical confrontation. After that, Carter admits he \u201cgave up a little bit.\u201d He didn\u2019t have the money to get a new apartment, and, focused every day on survival, he didn\u2019t have the energy to start the process of getting back on his feet.<\/p>\n Initially, when the cops showed up wherever Carter was sleeping, an outreach worker would come too and put Carter on a waitlist for shelter. But nothing ever came of that, Carter said.<\/p>\n Then, at the very end of December, Sacramento County opened a new tiny home community<\/a> for homeless residents. The Stockton Boulevard site, which was part of Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s 2023 promise to build tiny homes throughout California<\/a>, has 155 small cabins with room for a bed (or two beds if it\u2019s for a couple) and a few belongings. Residents share communal bathrooms with plumbing and showers. Case managers meet regularly with residents to try and help them find permanent housing.<\/p>\n As the tiny homes gradually filled, one police officer started urging Carter to move in. Carter said no multiple times. He\u2019d spent a few days in a different tiny home site last year. He hated it, he said.<\/p>\n Finally, the officer gave Carter an ultimatum: Go to jail, or go to a tiny home. Carter knew getting locked up meant he might lose his dog. And he\u2019d heard the new tiny homes were actually kind of nice. So he said OK.<\/p>\n \u201cI guess he was actually a caring officer,\u201d Carter said. \u201cIt didn’t seem like he was a caring officer, because he kept on writing tickets and everything. But he kept on just pushing me.\u201d<\/p>\n Carter moved into his tiny home about two months ago, where, when he finally got to shower for the first time, it felt like he stood under the hot water for hours. He no longer has to worry about police waking him up at 6:30 a.m. and demanding that he move, sometimes only minutes after he\u2019d finally managed to fall asleep amidst the noise and chaos of the street.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s wonderful,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI can actually sleep in. I can take naps.\u201d<\/p>\n But the police actions that got him there also took a toll. Each time officers wrote Carter up, they gave him a piece of paper that said when he had to appear in court. But Carter invariably lost the papers. It would rain and they\u2019d get wet and ruined. Or they\u2019d get mixed in with the items the police tossed out the next time they told him to move.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t think it was a big deal. After all, camping is a misdemeanor. There\u2019s no way the court would issue a warrant for such a small offense, Carter thought.<\/p>\n He was wrong. Now, at 53 years old, he has warrants out for his arrest for failing to appear at multiple court dates. It makes him worried that he could be biking down the street one day, minding his own business, and get arrested and taken to jail.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just too old to have any type of trouble like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Jerry Carter at the Safe Stay tiny home community in Sacramento on June 13, 2025. Carter has been cited multiple times by law enforcement in Sacramento for street camping.<\/p>\n (<\/p>\n Miguel Gutierrez Jr.<\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n CalMatters<\/p>\n )<\/p>\n Jerry Carter at the Safe Stay tiny home community in Sacramento on June 13, 2025. Carter has been cited multiple times by law enforcement in Sacramento for street camping. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters Carter\u2019s hardly the only one in that position, said Terra Hennefer, the case manager supervisor for the tiny home site where Carter lives.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see a lot of people that end up with the tickets,\u201d she said. \u201cThen it makes more work for us trying to clear their warrants and stuff before we get them into housing.\u201d<\/p>\n Landlords often conduct background checks and won\u2019t take someone with a warrant, Hennefer said. The county also runs background checks on people applying for subsidized housing vouchers.<\/p>\n Hennefer\u2019s team works with the probation office to help residents resolve outstanding warrants. The first step is to set a new court date, and make sure the resident doesn\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n Then a judge will decide on a penalty, which could be a fine. Her organization, a shelter and interim housing provider named First Step Communities, can help cover the cost. But it\u2019s frustrating, she said, as that money could instead go toward helping more people get off the street. And it adds yet another hurdle to what for many is a seemingly endless list of tasks on the way to housing.<\/p>\n Carter has just started that process. His case manager, Matthew Burbridge, is working on getting his Social Security benefits restarted and finding him permanent housing through CalAIM, the state\u2019s expanded Medi-Cal program<\/a>.<\/p>\n The problem is, neither Burbridge, nor anyone else, knows how long that may take.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re working on it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt might be quick, it might be long. We don\u2019t know. But we\u2019ll be ready when the time comes.\u201d<\/p>\n San Diego: Moving into a swamp<\/p>\n Micah Huff for a time lost touch with a San Diego case manager who was trying to help him move to a city-backed homeless campsite as he sought to avoid police and encampment clean-ups.<\/p>\n Huff, 45, moved to a boggy area near Ocean Beach bordered by brush, mud and city streets because it\u2019s harder for the authorities to find him there. He had to hike in and out and said he\u2019s already moved his belongings across the wetland once. Earlier this month, he said he expected to move again soon, as he\u2019s done every couple weeks since the city stepped up enforcement.<\/p>\n Since May 2024, records show police cited Huff seven times for offenses tied to his unsheltered status and arrested him twice.<\/p>\n Police data obtained by Voice of San Diego shows arrests and citations for violations tied to homelessness more than doubled in the six months after the Grants Pass ruling. Rather than the ruling, police attribute the increase to the new police chief assigning more officers to engage with community members and enforce crimes tied to homelessness.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/scpr.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/9c9377d\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/1392x1036+0+0\/resize\/792x589!\/quality\/90\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscpr-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Ff3%2Fa4%2F3e04527c4fdca9b8f5f12adbe428%2Fimage-6-27-25-at-9-41-am.jpeg\")
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