ArticlePublic health2025
"Street sweeps": The municipal government-enforced confiscation of personal belongings among unstably housed people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada.
Article in Public health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Encampment sweeps and persistent homelessness among unhoused people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada: A prospective cohort study.PLoS medicine · 2026Article
- Understanding the role of overdose witnesses: responses and characteristics of people who inject drugs in Oakland and San Francisco.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- The power of people who use drugs as mass media influencers in changing public opinion during the global overdose epidemic.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesStreet sweeps, involving the state-enforced removal of makeshift residences and confiscation of personal belongings from people in public spaces, are a common tool employed by urban governments to address public health and safety concerns. Amidst the ongoing housing and toxic drug poisoning crises in Vancouver, Canada, we sought to characterize experiences of confiscation of personal belongings by city workers among unstably-housed people who use drugs people who use drugs. STUDY
designCohort study.
methodsWe used multivariable generalized estimating equations models to longitudinal data derived from unstably-housed people who use drugs (including those reporting homelessness and living in single room occupancy hotels) participating in three harmonized cohort studies of community-recruited people who use drugs in Vancouver in 2021-2023.
resultsIn total, 13.6 % of 691 eligible participants (and 23.6 % of 233 reporting homelessness) reported municipal government-enforced belonging confiscation in the past six months at least once. In multivariable analyses, violent victimization (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.14; 95 % confidence interval [CI]: 1.27, 3.60) and inability to access health/social services (AOR = 2.19, 95 % CI: 1.32, 3.65) were significantly and positively associated with belonging confiscation, and so was non-fatal overdose (AOR = 1.94, 95 % CI: 1.01, 3.74) among those reporting homelessness.
conclusionFindings underscore that confiscation of belongings was relatively widespread among our cohort of people who use drugs and concentrated among individuals who are structurally marginalized, emphasizing the need to end street sweeps and prioritize development of dignified housing and harm reduction policies involving affected communities in decision-making.
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