02/10/2026
From Stephanie Lynntalya Forrester
They call them sweeps.
As if people are dust.
As if lives can be brushed aside and the problem disappears.
But when you sweep an encampment, you do not erase homelessness.
You erase connection.
You erase safety.
You erase the thin thread of trust that outreach workers spend months, sometimes years, building.
You scatter people into colder streets, darker corners, deeper isolation.
You take their tents, their medications, their IDs, their Narcan, their only sense of community.
You sever them from the workers who know their names, their stories, their triggers, their needs.
And people die.
They die from exposure after their shelter is taken.
They die from overdose when harm reduction is disrupted.
They die quietly, alone, disconnected from services that were finally starting to reach them.
Outreach workers are not the problem.
We are running toward people while the system pushes them away.
We are trying to stitch together care while policy keeps tearing it apart.
This is not a lack of data.
We know what works.
Housing First works.
Overdose prevention centers save lives.
Low-barrier shelters keep people alive long enough to heal.
Grassroots organizations build trust where institutions have failed.
What does not work is displacement disguised as public safety.
What does not work is punishment masquerading as policy.
What does not work is repeating the same harmful actions and calling it progress.
If nothing changes, this is what will happen:
More people will die.
More outreach will be undone.
More public dollars will be spent chasing crises instead of preventing them.
More families will grieve neighbors who were failed by a system that knew better and chose not to act.
We are at a crossroads.
One path is control, cleanup optics, and continued loss of life.
The other is evidence, compassion, and courage.
We are asking our leaders to choose life.
To stop sweeping people away.
To fund what works.
To listen to those closest to the harm.
To build a system rooted in dignity, not displacement.
Our neighbors are not disposable.
Their lives are not collateral damage.
And history will remember whether we chose comfort or humanity.
Change the way you do things.
Because the cost of staying the same is written in names we should not have lost.
The Rochester City Council president calls for a city-county emergency declaration on homelessness, among other recommendations.
