A woman lost a homeless sweeps lawsuit against Sacramento. Here’s what to know
Elizabeth Williams has been homeless since 2014, and after two encampment sweeps last year in which the city threw out almost all of her belongings, she sued in small claims court for $12,000 in lost property and emotional damages. Last month, a judge ruled against her.
The Sacramento Bee attended both evidentiary hearings in the case; read through all court filings by Williams, the city and the judge; and reviewed hours of police bodycam footage of the sweeps that Sacramento submitted as evidence in the case.
The documents and evidence from Williams’ case provided insight into a kind of contradiction: Officers are tasked with policing the trappings of homelessness even though being homeless is technically not a crime. Individuals face criminal citations and prosecutions over living outside, and personal property that’s stored in public is frequently destroyed.
Here’s what the case revealed:
The city has adopted a much stricter approach to encampment “abatements,” commonly referred to as homeless sweeps. The move followed a Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson in June 2024. That decision allows municipalities to legally punish people for living outside even when they have nowhere else to go. In bodycam footage, a Sacramento police officer directly cites Grants Pass as a reason that the city has stepped up enforcement of anti-camping ordinances. He also references Gov. Gavin Newsom, who urged cities to force homeless people to move camps more frequently in 2025. A sergeant in the footage confirms that the police have taken a more stringent position regarding sweeps in 2025. Then-Mayor Darrell Steinberg initially claimed that the Grants Pass ruling would have no effect on city policy.
The Sacramento Police Department has a written guidelines document outlining how to enforce anti-camping ordinances. The document explains that a homeless person who is sleeping outdoors with any “camping paraphernalia” is in violation of Sacramento’s ordinance. “Camping paraphernalia” includes gear such as tents, pillows and blankets. A person who is sleeping on a bench wearing only their clothes — without a pillow or any covering that can serve as a tent or blanket — is not violating the ordinance.
The Police Department’s sweeps document explains what property officers are required to store in the event that a homeless person is taken into custody: life essentials and objectively valuable items. The document also specifies that if the quantity of those items does not fit into one 55-gallon plastic bag, a sergeant must weigh in on the next steps.The city of Sacramento argued in court that, because it provided advance notice of the two encampment sweeps in question, Williams had an opportunity to move her things and the city was not obliged to store all of her property. The judge, Stephen Lau, agreed with this argument.
The judge wrote that Williams did not take advantage of opportunities to point out to officers which items were most important to her, although, in the bodycam footage, police appeared to set aside for safekeeping the few items she did specify as valuable, including a laptop in the June 2025 sweep. The bodycam footage also shows a sergeant assuring her in the February 2025 sweep, “Nope, we’re not gonna throw your stuff away” and “I promise you, I’m gonna help you with all this stuff.” According to the guidelines, officers are supposed to ask homeless arrestees which items should be stored, and they did speak with Williams about what to store at each sweep.
Recent data show that one-third of people being booked into the Sacramento County jail system are homeless. Williams, who was arrested and jailed in connection with each of these encampment sweeps, became part of this huge minority in local jails.
