Homeless Citations Surge Nationwide as Housing Goals Fall Short

From Houston to Atlanta to Dallas, Cities Are Policing Homelessness Instead of Solving It

A growing number of cities across the country are issuing citations to people who are homeless as their goals for providing housing and shelter continue to fall short.

Over the last several years, many cities across the U.S. have established goals to increase the number of homeless people living in emergency shelters, temporary housing, and permanent supportive housing. These goals were mainly established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a surge in unsheltered homelessness because of the spike in demand for non-congregate shelter options.

The Supreme Court’s 2024 decision in Johnson v. Grants Pass only seemed to make matters worse, according to some advocates. The decision effectively allowed cities to impose punitive punishments, fines, and fees to address homelessness, something that was prohibited under the 2019 9th Circuit decision Martin v. Boise. In turn, more than 300 cities across the U.S. adopted new laws that give police officers more latitude to remove homeless people from public spaces, according to the National Homelessness Law Center.

Altogether, some cities have seemingly abandoned their goals of providing more housing opportunities for people who are homeless, a trend that only seems to be getting worse as cities nationwide welcome a surge of tourists for the World Cup.

World Cup Issues

One of those cities is Houston, Texas, which is hosting seven World Cup games. According to the city’s 2026 Annual Action Plan, Houston’s homelessness goals for the year include:

Placing roughly 180 people into rapid rehousing

Connecting approximately 1,000 people to emergency shelter

Enrolling 10,000 people into the Homeless Management Information System through Emergency Solutions Grant funding

Achieving those goals would require Houston to dramatically expand local housing programs like The Way Home, where the most recent snapshot count shows that more than 8,600 people are living. But that growth has been slow to materialize, even as unsheltered homelessness increased from 1,107 people living outside in 2024 to 1,282 people in 2025. Similarly, the number of people staying in emergency shelters decreased from 2,173 in 2024 to 2,043 in 2025, according to local data.

The number of citations Houston police officers are issuing to people who are homeless has also increased as rates of homelessness grow.

A report from Houston Public Media found that the Houston Police Department issued more than 2,000 citations for sidewalk obstruction-related offenses in the last half of 2025, which was about double what the department issued during the first half of the year. The number of citations increased after city leaders approved an expansion of Houston’s so-called civility ordinance, which is basically a public camping ban that is effective 24/7 in the city, according to the report.

“If I could talk to the mayor, which no one out here is really capable of talking to the man, I would try to get to an understanding about the sidewalk, because the sidewalk belongs to the city, the people. It doesn’t belong to him,” Trazawell Franklin, who was cited under Houston’s civility ordinance, told HPM. “Let’s get the resources up and mobile before you try to administer an ordinance or a law.”

The Olympics Playbook, Revisited

Another city where people who are homeless are receiving a growing number of citations for living outside is Atlanta, Georgia, which is hosting eight World Cup games this year. Those games are being hosted at a time when the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness grew to nearly 1,100 people between 2024 and 2025.

Atlanta is also in the midst of a $212 million initiative known as “Atlanta Rising,” which aims to reduce homelessness by expanding supportive housing and homeless services delivered through a Housing First model. The city claims the program helped rehouse more than 15,000 people during its first year, with 96% of people staying housed after they entered the program.

But some advocates worry that the people who were left behind are facing increased policing. More than 9,000 homeless people in Atlanta were arrested during the 1996 Olympics, and some advocates worry that a similar situation may be playing out during the World Cup.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has claimed that the city is not “rounding up” homeless people as it did during the Olympics, which has not soothed any of the concerns advocates share.

“The city has told us, ‘No one’s going to get arrested as a result of Downtown Rising,’” Michael Collins, the director of Play Fair ATL, a human rights coalition monitoring the World Cup, told Atlanta Magazine. “But they declined to put that in writing [in the FIFA-mandated Human Rights Action Plan].”

Bucking the Trend

Even though multiple cities are issuing more citations to people who are homeless, some have taken a decidedly different path.

Judges and officials in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have taken steps to prevent police officers from issuing citations to homeless folks as the number of homeless people in the city’s jail eclipsed 50%, ProPublica reported.

Starting in July, homeless people who have been issued citations will be asked to appear on Fridays, in hopes of reducing the number of people missing court dates. The public defender’s office is also working to ensure there are service providers available outside the courtroom to create a “one-stop shop” of solutions, Presiding Criminal Division Judge Michelle Castillo Dowler told the outlet.

The move came after ProPublica reported that citations for acts associated with homelessness had skyrocketed in Albuquerque. For instance, unlawful camping citations spiked from 113 to 704 over a one-year period. In 2025, more than 1,200 citations were issued for sidewalk obstructions as well.

“We can’t simply just cycle vulnerable individuals through jail and back out on the street,” Mayor Tim Keller said. “Both of those are not the right answer.”

Lawmakers in Washington have also introduced a bill that could significantly revamp how cities across the state address homelessness.

Known as the “Shelter Not Penalties Act,” the bill could take away the ability of police officers to issue citations for unlawful camping unless adequate shelter exists.

The bill was introduced at a time when 482 people had been issued citations for public camping in Spokane, Washington, in just three months under the city’s new camping ban, local news station KXLY.com reported.

“We don’t need citations to get people to services. We know when we get people to services, we have better outcomes, and we need to invest in housing,” Natasha Hill, a Democratic state representative, told the news station.

A Concerning Future

The number of cities choosing to remove people who are homeless from the public sphere through arrests or citations doesn’t seem likely to decrease soon.

A recent report from the Dallas Morning News found that the city had doubled the number of sleeping-in-public citations between 2024 and 2025 as the city prepared to host nine World Cup matches.

“It’s like they target us,” Zonia Draught, who has been homeless in Dallas for more than a decade, told the newspaper. “Like we’re inferior. Like we’re not a part of the rest of the city.”

Officials in Louisiana recently approved a bill that criminalizes public camping and creates a “homelessness court” to impose fines, fees, and possible forced labor on people who are homeless.

House Bill 211 makes it a crime to camp on public property, with fines of up to $500 and up to 6 months in jail. It also prohibits parishes and municipalities in the state from passing laws that allow for public camping, according to the bill’s text.

“Criminalizing our most vulnerable residents is not a strategy. It is an abdication of our responsibility to them and to the city we are building together. This approach centers on enforcement instead of long-term stability,” New Orleans City Councilmember Lesli Harris said in a statement. “By combining criminal penalties with conditional access to services, the bill risks creating a cycle of continued system involvement, individuals moving between citations, court supervision, and potential incarceration without achieving meaningful progress.”

How You Can Help

The pattern is clear: when cities choose citations over housing, homeless people bear the cost, and nothing gets solved. If you’re concerned about what you’re seeing in Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, and communities across the country, here’s how to make your voice heard:

Contact your elected officials and urge them to oppose criminalization measures that punish homeless people for lacking shelter

Support organizations on the ground that provide housing, legal defense, and outreach to people experiencing homelessness

Demand that your city publish and be held accountable to its housing goals, not just its enforcement numbers

Oppose legislation like Louisiana’s House Bill 211 that imposes fines, jail time, and forced labor on people without homes

Homelessness is not a crime. It is the result of policy failures, and it will only end through policy solutions. The cities bucking this trend are showing it’s possible. Hold your representatives to that standard.