Who are unsheltered people voting for this month?

We surveyed 100 people to learn about how they view their role in this month’s election.

A version of this story also aired on KALW (91.7 FM). You can listen online here.

In the weeks leading up to the 2024 election, I surveyed 100 unhoused people about whether they plan to vote in the presidential race. According to national research, 60% of unhoused Americans are eligible to vote, but only 10% make it to the polls. But the fact that many unhoused people don’t vote does not mean they are not thinking about politics, or the election.

There are over half a million homeless people in America—that’s a significant potential block of voters. I did a similar survey in 2020, and 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 wanted to see what people were thinking about this now, four years later. I spoke to people living in encampments in Berkeley and Oakland: around Second and Page streets, on Grayson Street, outside the Old City Hall building, in Civic Center Park, in Mosswood Park, at Lake Merritt, in Snow Park, outside Oakland City Hall, around West Grand at MLK, at Eighth and Harrison streets, and at the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Grand Avenue in Oakland.

I conducted my survey in September and early October, in the middle of the heatwave. Many people were more focused on staying hydrated and surviving the heat than on their voting plans. One man I spoke to in Berkeley replied to my request for an interview by saying, “Oh, I ain’t in the place to answer questions right now. I’m in too much pain.”

But there were also lots of people who were excited to talk to me. And their responses were varied—as is the case for the country at large.

Ten people said they would vote for former president Donald Trump, 27 said they plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, and just about half of the people I talked to—49 in total—said they would not vote, despite being eligible. An additional seven said they were undecided, and four said they could not vote, due to their immigration status, or because they are on parole for the conviction of a felony. One was a Green Party voter, and two said they planned to write in candidates (Bozo the Clown and Mickey Mouse, respectively).

The Harris voters I talked to said they prefer her policy platforms, or that her campaign gives them hope.

“I like having rights as a woman to choose,” one Kamala voter in Berkeley named Misty told me.

Another Berkeley voter named Tiffany said she liked the idea of a woman as president. “I definitely love it. I love it so much that I’m gonna get other people to go vote for her, too.”

When I asked Tiffany why she liked the idea of a woman as president, she elaborated: “Because the men, I mean, no offense to the guys, but they don’t know what the fuck they be doin’.”

Dionne is a homeless voter in Oakland. He told me he feels it’s his responsibility to support a Black candidate from Oakland.

“Yes, I plan on voting, uh, casting my ballot. If you think about it, I’m an African American and we didn’t really have a choice as far as casting the ballot,” he said.

“Trump has money already. He has no reason to fight for us,” Billy Bob told me in Oakland. His friend, Denny, agrees. “Kamala’s from Oakland,” he said. “She’s our girl.”

Meanwhile, 10 people say they plan to vote for former president Donald Trump. These voters fall into a few categories. Some people say they like his untraditional campaign, like Jeremy in Berkeley.

“He’s got dirt on everybody…He wasn’t bred to be a president. He became one,” he said.

Some mentioned 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.

“He’s more down to earth than he’s just an all-around good guy. In my book. I don’t think that he lost the first election…I think there was some flim-flam going on,” he said. He sang a little song to close out his answer: “Trump, Trump, Trump! 20’4! Biden no mo’!”

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. “Misinformation is something that is not just in the unhoused community,” says Brigitte Nicoletti, an attorney at the East Bay Community Law Center who specifically works on homelessness. “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.”

Nicoletti 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. Thomas, in Berkeley, said this lines up with his personal experience.

“I don’t have a phone. And I don’t know how to use a computer…I don’t read very much, so when I get information, it usually has a little bit of attitude in there on how they feel about the candidate,” he said.

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.

“Even though 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?” Brigitte says. “Because people aren’t aware that it’s possible for them to go out and vote, so they just don’t do it.”

But more often, she says the problem for her clients is apathy about the election, which is rooted in the daily struggle to meet their most basic needs.

“Folks are in crisis. And so they’re not thinking about, you know, November. They’re thinking about today. And folks are being swept from one location to the next facing criminalization. I’ve seen them lose everything at these sweeps. So it makes sense to me that instead of, you know, planning ahead for that, they’re trying to figure out where they will be tomorrow,” Brigitte says.

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.

“You know, I mean, they made a government. Our governor made a law. Being homeless is illegal,” says Bobby in Berkeley. “And that’s wrong. How you gonna do that to people?”

Marcus, in Oakland, says the constant threat of being swept makes it impossible to think about the election.

“I know it’s important to vote,” he says, “but like, I can’t think about [that] when I’m thinking about where am I gonna move my stuff to, you know what I’m sayin’?”

A lot of people told me they won’t vote because they just don’t trust the political system. “I think it’s all rigged, you know, that kind of thing, you know? Yeah. I just figured it doesn’t even matter. They’re gonna put whoever they want in there,” says Jake, in Berkeley.

Many people told me this—that the system just exists to empower the powerful, and keep marginalized people at the margins. For the folks I talked to, this belief comes from feeling like their voices don’t matter.

“Either one, it’ll be the same way for us. For the homeless people,” said an unhoused voter named Jerry in Oakland. “It never changes.”

I heard this over and over: I know this system won’t help me. It has never helped me before. Why should I participate?