Homeless individuals have no clue where they will end up as a result of the mandate, and local officials and activists are at odds over how to react to it.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order for state agencies to remove homeless encampments on public property has split local politicians and activists in California, leaving the homeless community stuck in the middle and unsure of their future.
In June, the Supreme Court decided that the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment did not apply to penalizing homeless individuals for camping on public grounds. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that there were around 180,000 homeless persons in the state last year, which put California’s homeless population among the highest in the country, along with that of New York, Florida, and Washington. This evaluation was sent to Congress.
One of the most immediate responses to the Supreme Court’s ruling, and a course that other states may soon take, was Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s order to state agencies to draft plans to dismantle homeless encampments around the state in an attempt to handle the swelling numbers of homeless people.
Although local governments are not required to comply, Newsom threatened to withdraw funds from counties and towns if they failed to remove encampments by the end of the year in a press conference on Thursday.
According to Newsom, his administration has spent billions on assistance for the homeless via a number of state agencies, including almost $9 billion on initiatives to assist local governments in relocating homeless individuals from camps into homes. According to him, the investments and the additional power that cities received from the Supreme Court would provide them the means to implement the directive.
In a post on X on July 25, Newsom said, “No more excuses.” “The time has been given by us. We have given the money. It’s time for residents to get back to work.
However, some who are homeless claim they have nowhere else to go.
Los Angeles homeless person Jeni Shurley described the situation as “complete mayhem and craziness.”
“I have really felt that I should be leaving the country, as I have looked everywhere for a solution, literally from coast to coast,” the woman continued.
Shurley, 48, said that she has been without a house for ten years. She has worked a number of temporary and traveling jobs in Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Washington, D.C., and now California. She has also been dealing with severe health issues.
Shurley stated that she thought about relocating abroad after Newsom released his executive order on July 25 because she didn’t want to be criminalized for being homeless.
“I’ve taken advantage of every program available, I’ve done everything I can,” she declared. “I took it up, but I haven’t received any help at all that I need. I feel like I’m a rock in a river of money, and not a single one of it is mine to touch.
Less than half of the more than 180,000 beds required to house the state’s homeless population were available in the state last year, with around 71,000 beds available, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that cited the HUD data. For communities, this shortfall makes Newsom’s directive even more difficult.
Despite the state’s efforts, several homeless shelters in the state claim they lack sufficient resources, forcing them to expand their services in order to handle the surge of individuals leaving the streets.
In a statement to NBC News, Mission Action, an organization that supports and offers emergency shelter to homeless individuals in San Francisco’s Mission District, expressed worry that the city may not have enough emergency shelter beds to accommodate everyone living in encampments.
Prior to the order being made public, the organization’s 91-bed adult emergency shelter was already full, and there are just four places left in its 80-bed family shelter.
The executive director of the group, Laura Valdez, stated in the statement that “if the city is unable to provide emergency shelter to those who need and want shelter, then essentially we are criminalizing the very act of being unhoused.”
NBC News was informed by a Newsom representative, however, that the worries about resources are unfounded.
Echoing the governor’s assertion that there is no justification for cities to ignore the encampments, Tara Gallegos, deputy director of communications for Newsom, stated, “Local governments have been provided ample funding to help address this issue within their communities.”
Earlier this month, Mayor London Breed released a mandate to give relocation support for homeless individuals, including bus tickets to help them go elsewhere, while shelters in the San Francisco region remained almost full. According to Breed’s office, she has increased the number of shelter beds by more than 60% while in office, but as the number of homeless people in the city has increased, shelters all throughout the city have been quickly filling up.
About 8,300 persons are homeless in San Francisco, the fourth-largest city in the state, which shares the same population and geographic area with county and municipal administrations.
As of its most recent count in 2023, Santa Clara County—home of Silicon Valley’s affluence and San Jose, the third-largest city in the state—had close to 10,000 homeless persons. There are around 10,600 homeless persons in San Diego County, which is home to the second-largest city in the state. And around 75,300 live in Los Angeles County, which is home to the second-largest metropolis in the country.
The city of San Diego this year outlawed sidewalk camping and initiated Newsom-style clean-ups that, according to officials and organizers in other municipalities, pushed homeless people their way. Mayor Todd Gloria spearheaded this initiative.
The motion was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and states that even if there might be fines or citations for disobeying Newsom’s order, anyone removed from encampments would not be placed in jail.
“I don’t think that just having law enforcement conduct searches around campuses would produce long-term, meaningful changes. Republican supervisor for Los Angeles County Kathryn Barger said NBC News, “My constituents want permanent results; it just shuffles the problem around.”
Barger believes that housing is the long-term answer, but it’s still unclear if the city can supply it.
Although it adds another level of cooperation between state agencies, Newsom’s order is an extension of the encampment removal efforts already underway in Los Angeles, according to her. Barger continued, saying that although the city worked to break up the camps, it also tried to keep the faith of the homeless people.
Other authorities praised Newsom for using the executive order to handle the encampments.
Democratic mayor of Sacramento, Darrell Steinberg, claimed that the governor’s initiatives to combat homelessness and mental illness are unprecedented in the thirty years that he has observed.
As a state senator, Steinberg wrote a measure in 2004 that sought to tax the rich in order to fund mental health treatments for the homeless and other individuals. Subsequently, the initiative was supported by voters on the ballot, and a 1% tax on personal incomes over $1 million was imposed to finance these programs throughout the state. However, it did not directly support homeless shelters, which is the essential item that advocates and shelters claim is missing as a result of Newsom’s order.
Steinberg claims that the governor’s directive reflected the goals Sacramento has been attempting to achieve for years, despite resource limitations.
He said, “It’s not safe and healthy for the people living in these big encampments, nor is it healthy for our community.”
“Compassion and enforcement with aggressively adding more beds, more services and permanent housing for people” was the goal his city was attempting to achieve, he added.
According to Steinberg, the city’s resolve to addressing health and safety issues throughout the community is the reason for the 29% drop in homelessness that was witnessed last year compared to the year before. Sacramento witnessed a 49% decrease in unsheltered homelessness, one of the largest declines in the state, while having a smaller population than Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Nevertheless, Steinberg stated that considering the quantity of people living on the streets, they are not celebrating a win. He described the order as a move that is “heading in the right direction.”
Steinberg stated, “We just need to keep giving people more options, and people need to be willing to accept them.” “But it’s not ideal, so I’m going to keep pushing and arguing in my city to make sure there’s something for everyone.”
