This story aired in the November 5th, 2024 episode of Crosscurrents.
Unhoused Californians have the right to vote, but many do not make it to the polls. Reporter Alastair Boone went to homeless encampments in the East Bay to talk to people about what prevents them from casting their ballots.
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REPORTER: Hey. How [are] you doing?
REPORTER: It’s just a few weeks before election day, in the middle of a heat wave, and I’m on foot looking for people to talk to. I come to these encampments a lot, but today, I’m here to conduct a survey. My goal is to talk to 100 people about whether they plan to vote for president this year — and if so, for who.
I meet lots of fierce guard dogs…
BELLA: [Barking]
REPORTER: "Who’s this?"
ELF: This is Bella.
REPORTER: Hi, Bella.
ELF: I guess you never got to meet Bella.
REPORTER: No. Hi. Bella. It's okay. Bella…
REPORTER: And I’m invited into all kinds of dwellings to talk to people.
REPORTER: Do you mind if I step on some stuff? Okay. Okay, hi. Hi…That's like a mountain of suitcases.
REPORTER: Many people are more focused on staying hydrated and surviving the heat wave than their voting plans.
ANONYMOUS: Oh, I ain't in the place to answer questions right now. I'm in too much pain.
REPORTER: But there are also lots of people who are excited to talk to me. And I get all kinds of responses.
MISTY: I like having rights as a woman to, uh, choose.
RAY: Trump, Trump, Trump, 20’4, Biden no mo'!
MARCUS: I know it’s important to vote, but like I can’t think about when I’m thinking about where am I gonna move my stuff to, you know what I’m sayin?
REPORTER: I did a similar survey in 2020. Back then, more people said they’d be voting for Biden than Trump, but more than half said they wouldn’t be voting at all, or weren’t eligible to vote. I want to see what people are thinking about this now, four years later.
REPORTER: This year, 27 people tell me they plan to cast a vote for Vice President Kamala Harris because they prefer her policy positions, or because her campaign gives them hope.
REPORTER: You like the idea of a woman as president?
TIFFANY: Yes. I definitely love it. I love it so much that I'm gonna get other people to go vote for her too.
REPORTER: Really?
TIFFANY: Hell yeah.
REPORTER: This is Tiffany, in Berkeley. We’re only using first names to protect people living in precarious situations.
Dionne is also voting for Harris. He feels it’s his responsibility to support a Black candidate from Oakland.
DIONNE: Uh, yes, I plan on voting, uh, casting my ballot. Um, If you think about it, uh, I'm an African American and we didn't really have a choice as far as casting the ballot.
REPORTER: Meanwhile, 10 people say they plan to vote for former president Donald Trump.
REPORTER: And what about you? Are you planning on voting?
JEREMY: Uh, yes ma'am.
REPORTER: Who are you going to vote for?
JEREMY: Trump.
REPORTER: These voters fall into a few categories. Some people say they like his untraditional campaign, like Jeremy in Berkeley.
JEREMY: He wasn't bred to be a president. He became one.
REPORTER: Some mention that no other president has ever sent them a stimulus check, like Trump did at the beginning of the pandemic. Others say they feel like they can trust him because of how blunt he is. That’s how Ray, in Berkeley, feels.
RAY: He's more down to earth than, uh, he's just an all around good guy. In my book. I don't think that, uh, He lost the first election. With Biden, I don't think that he lost that. I think there was some flim flam going on.
REPORTER: When it comes to misinformation like this — that Trump didn’t actually lose the 2020 election — the unhoused voters I talked to mentioned some of the same ideas that millions of Americans believe.
NICOLETTI: Misinformation is, is something that is not just in the unhoused community. I think the majority of folks in America have experience with this. I think we, many of us have relatives who we wish would be listening to different news sources than they are.
REPORTER: This is Brigitte Nicoletti. She’s an attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center, who specifically works on homelessness. Brigitte says many of her clients have a hard time finding reliable information about the election because they don’t have a phone, or regular internet access.
But Brigitte also says it’s not just about misinformation. People also don’t necessarily know they can vote.
Homeless Californians gained the right to vote in 1985. If you don’t have a fixed address, you can list a place like a public park, an intersection, or a shelter address on your registration form. And you don’t need a state issued ID to register, or to vote. If you don’t have one, you can go to the polls with any ID that has a photo of you on it, even an EBT card.
But many unhoused people aren’t aware of this.
NICOLETTI: Even though, as I just said, it's much easier to vote in California than many people think, it's the, ‘than many people think’ part that's the problem, right? Because people aren't aware that it's possible for them to go out and vote, um, and so they just don't do it.
REPORTER: But more often, she says for her clients, a lot of apathy about the election is rooted in the daily struggle to meet their most basic needs.
NICOLETTI: Folks are in crisis. Um, and so they're not thinking about, you know, November. Um, they're thinking about today. Um, and folks are being swept from one location to the next facing criminalization. I've seen them lose everything, you know, at these sweeps.
REPORTER: Lots of unhoused people are being displaced during encampment sweeps right now. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that cities can in fact shut down encampments even when there is no alternative shelter for their residents. Then in July, California Governor Gavin Newsom instructed cities to begin clearing out encampments, or risk losing state funding.
A lot of people at the encampments brought this up. Here’s Bobby, in Berkeley.
BOBBY: You know, I mean, they made a government. Our governor made a law. Being homeless is [illegal].
REPORTER: That's illegal or illegal?
BOBBY: Illegal. And that's wrong. How you gonna do that to people?
REPORTER: Of the hundred people I talk to, 49 say they won’t vote, despite being eligible.
This mirrors the national research. According to the very limited available data on this subject, 60% of Americans experiencing homelessness are eligible to vote, but only 10% make it to the polls.
A lot of people tell me this is because they just don’t trust the political system. Here’s Jake, in Berkeley.
JAKE: I think it's all rigged, you know, that kind of thing, you know? Yeah. It's so, so, I, I just figured it doesn't even matter. They're gonna put whoever they want in there.
REPORTER: Many people say this — that the system just exists to empower the powerful, and keep marginalized people at the margins. For the folks I talk to in the East Bay, this belief comes from feeling like their voices don’t matter. Here’s Jerry, in Oakland.
JERRY: “Either one, it'll be the same way for us. [For who?] For the homeless people. [And why is it going to be the same either way?] It never changes.”
REPORTER: I hear this over and over: I know this system won’t help me. It has never helped me before. Why should I participate?
