In California, local officials and advocates are divided Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest executive order by requiring government agencies to remove homeless encampments on public property, leaving the homeless community stranded and unsure of where to go.
in June, The Supreme Court has decided punishing homeless people for sleeping on public property does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. According to an assessment the Department of Housing and Urban Development presented to Congress last yearthere were about 180,000 homeless people in the state, making California’s homeless population one of the highest in the nation along with New York, Florida and Washington.
diligently for to address rising levels of homelessnessNewsom, Democrat, instructed the state authorities adopting plans to remove homeless encampments across the state—one of the most direct responses to the Supreme Court ruling and a path other states may soon follow.
While local governments are not required to comply, Newsom said at a press conference Thursday that he will take funding from cities and counties for failing to clean up the encampments next year.
Newsom noted that his administration has invested billions in many government agencies to serve the homeless, including more than $9 billion in programs to help local governments move them out of encampments and into housing. He said the investment — as well as the new power the Supreme Court gave cities — will provide the tools needed to comply with the order.
“No More Excuses” Newsom said in a July 25 post About X. “We gave time. We have secured the funds. Now it’s time for the locals to do their own thing.”
But members of the homeless community say they have nowhere to go.
“It’s total chaos and madness,” said Jeni Shurley, a member of the homeless community in Los Angeles.
“Honestly, I feel like I have to leave the country because I’ve literally searched the entire country coast to coast trying to find some kind of solution,” he said.
Shurley, 48, said he has been homeless for a decade, holding down temporary and traveling jobs at one point or another in Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Washington, California and now California, while also suffering from serious health problems. .
After Newsom announced his order on July 25, Shurley said he was considering moving to another country because he didn’t want to face criminal charges for being homeless.
“I tried my best, I did every program that was offered,” he said. “I’ve been dealing with it and I haven’t gotten any of the help I need. “I feel like a stone full of money in a river and I can’t touch $1 of it.”
Last year, the state had about 71,000 shelter beds — less than half of the 180,000 beds needed to shelter the state’s homeless population. California Public Policy InstituteThank you for your reference to a non-profit, non-partisan HUD report. This shortcoming makes Newsom’s order even more difficult for locals.
Homeless shelters across the state will have to expand their services to accommodate the influx of people coming off the streets, but many say they don’t have enough resources, even with the state’s investment.
Mission Action, which provides emergency shelter and advocates for homeless people in San Francisco’s Mission District, told NBC News that the city is concerned that there are not enough emergency shelter beds for the encamped population.
The organization’s 91-bed adult emergency shelter was already full before the order was announced, and another 80-bed family shelter has just four beds.
“If the city can’t provide emergency shelter to those who need and want shelter, then we criminalize the act of homelessness,” said Laura Valdez, the organization’s executive director.
Newsom’s spokeswoman told NBC News that concerns about resources are misplaced.
Tara Gallegos, Newsom’s deputy director of communications, said, echoing the governor’s statement that there is no excuse for communities to ignore encampments, saying, “There is enough funding to help local governments address this problem within their own communities.”
As San Francisco-area shelters continue to be nearly full, Mayor London Breed announced a directive earlier this month to provide relocation support, including bus tickets, to help homeless people relocate. Breed’s office said it increased the number of shelter beds by more than 60% during his tenure, but shelters across the city continued to fill up quickly as the city’s homeless population grew. San Francisco There are about 8,000 homeless people — the second most in the state behind Los Angeles, about 75,000.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution saying people taken from the camps would not be taken to jail, despite the potential for punishment or citations for not complying with Newsom’s order.
“Just having law enforcement do campus sweeps, in my opinion, does nothing to produce permanent and lasting results. It just confuses the issue, and that’s why my constituents want permanent results,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Republican, told NBC News.
For Barger, the permanent solution is housing, but whether the city can provide it remains a question.
Newsom’s order is a continuation of what was done to remove encampments in Los Angeles, but adds an extra layer of coordination between state agencies, he said. Barger added that the city is trying to maintain the trust of the homeless community as it works to dismantle the encampments.
Other officials applauded Newsom for addressing the camps with an executive order.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, said the governor’s efforts to address mental health and homelessness are unlike anything he’s seen in 30 years.
As a state senator in 2004, Steinberg authored a bill that would have taxed the wealthy to help provide mental health services to the homeless and others. The measure, later approved by voters as a ballot initiative, imposed a 1% tax on personal income above $1 million to fund such services in the state. But it didn’t provide direct funding for homeless shelters, which is the main thing advocates and shelters say Newsom’s order failed to do.
Despite concerns about resources, Steinberg says the governor’s order reflects what Sacramento has been trying to do for years.
“It’s not safe for the people living in these large camps, it’s not healthy for them or for our community,” he said.
His city was “aggressively trying to combine compassion and enforcement by adding more beds, more services and permanent housing for people,” he said.
last year, the number of homeless in the city decreased by 29% from the previous year, one thing Steinberg said is his commitment to addressing health and safety issues in the community. Although Sacramento has a smaller population than Los Angeles and San Francisco, the city also saw a 49% drop in unsheltered homelessness, one of the largest declines in the state.
Still, Steinberg said they weren’t celebrating the victory given the number of people living on the streets. The order, he said, is a step “in the right direction.”
“We have to continue to provide more alternatives for people, and people have to be willing to accept them,” Steinberg said. “But it’s not perfect and I’m going to keep arguing and pushing in my city to make sure we have something for as many people as possible.”