Outreach workers, service providers and residents told the Dayton City Council that abrupt clearings of homeless encampments are breaking connections between outreach teams and people experiencing homelessness, hindering access to treatment, medication and housing placements.

Speakers from Miami Valley Housing Opportunities, harm-reduction providers and neighborhood volunteers said encampment sweeps have caused people on housing wait lists or in treatment to disappear from outreach workers visibility, creating delays in placing clients and sometimes resulting in lost medications and identification.

Andy Altenberg, an outreach worker with Miami Valley Housing Opportunities, said outreach teams rely on advance notice to maintain contact and prevent clients from dropping off housing lists. "We go out to those folks and talk to them about, you know, just give them a warning that they're gonna have to move," Altenberg said, describing outreach coordination challenges after clearings.

Several other outreach workers echoed the operational impact: they must spend staff time locating displaced clients rather than advancing housing placements or medical appointments, they said. Program staff described instances where people displaced from encampments could not be found and, in one 2023 example cited by staff, some displaced people later entered an abandoned building that burned, causing fatalities.

Public commenters urged the commission to adopt best practices, including 30-day notices before encampment closures, coordinated on-site teams on closure days that include crisis responders and outreach staff, secure storage for belongings, and clearer notification to service providers. Resident speakers and advocates emphasized that many people in encampments have mental-health or medical conditions that make congregate shelter unsuitable.

City manager (transcript name Miss Dixteen) said the city has a multi-department homeless solutions plan and that outreach coordination is expected when an encampment is to be disturbed. She said the city will review a federal guidance document on encampment strategies provided by a speaker and will meet with service providers to identify further improvements. "When there is going to be a disruption to an encampment, there is supposed to be notification, notification, coordination with outreach workers so that we can continue," she said.

Commissioners thanked service providers for their work and asked staff to follow up with documentation about the city's process for encampment notifications and to consider additional best-practice steps, including longer notice and better property-handling practices.