The City of Seattle is kicking homeless people out of their unauthorized campsites twice as fast this month as they were at the beginning of this year, according to analysis conducted by Erica C. Barnett and published on her blog today.

The city removed an average of almost six encampments a week this month, up from fewer than three a week in January, according to Barnett's analysis, which she said was based on weekly reports from the city's navigation team.

Is this just a natural increase in the amount of homeless people on the streets during the warmer summer months? Barnett didn't include any discussion of the seasonality of sweeps, but she said her analysis showed a reinvigorated approach to sweeping homeless people from their temporary homes.

This represents more than just an overall increase since 2017; the city is doing more sweeps, and it is increasing the number of sweeps faster than it did last year, when the pace of encampment removals grew both minimally and slowly. Between August and December of last year, for example, the average number of weekly encampment removals increased from about 2.5 to a little less than 3, using a rolling monthly average.

Read her full post here, which includes a lengthy discussion of the city's changing approach to sweeping the homeless and has a link to the data she used in her reporting.