California’s governor issued an executive order Thursday to lift homeless encampments across the state. Gavin Newsom’s decision comes nearly a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a ruling to punish people who sleep in public places. Newsom’s decree pressures cities and local governments to remove “dangerous” encampments and connect those living there to public services. “The excuses are over, it’s time for everyone to do their part,” the governor said in a video posted this morning.
The executive order directs state agencies to adopt “humane and dignified policies.” Homeless people must be notified before their tents are removed from public streets. The order cannot force cities and counties to take action, but it does allow them to pause multimillion-dollar funding transfers as a pressure measure.
California has the largest homeless population in the United States. It is estimated that three out of ten homeless people live in this state. According to a study by the University of California San Francisco, there are about 181,000 people in this situation. The number varies greatly depending on the characteristics of this group. At the beginning of 2023, there were 650,000 homeless people in the United States, according to official figures.
The Newsom administration is on a crusade against one of the state’s main problems. Since 2021, administration officials have removed 11,000 camps and collected dozens of tons of trash on state roads. The executive order prioritizes the dismantling of camps that “pose a risk to the life, health and safety” of communities. By law, authorities will hold the collected property and objects for 60 days to see if anyone claims them.
The Democratic administration has spent more than $24 billion to address the problem. This includes $3.5 billion to convert abandoned motels into affordable housing. In fiscal year 2022-2023, this budget helped more than 165,000 people get off the streets. But just as many people agree to make a transition to shelters, many others are left homeless by high housing prices. A recent survey of this population showed that their average income was around $960 per month when they lost their home. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $2,600 in the state, according to the real estate service Zillow.
Experts say one of the most effective responses to this problem is to build affordable housing. Voters narrowly approved Proposition 1 in March, which requires counties to invest in housing and treatment for the homeless population. The initiative authorizes the state to borrow $6.38 billion to build 4,350 housing units, primarily for war veterans. California will also use the money to add 6,800 beds to its inventory to care for patients in mental health institutions.
In late June, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that cities can fine or arrest people who camp in public. The case began in Grant Pass, Oregon, a small city that passed local laws to prevent the growth of the homeless community. This decision was stopped by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that people could sleep in public “if there were no other places or space in shelters.” The ruling by the constitutional judges was highly anticipated in the Western United States, which has a high presence of homeless people.
Experts hailed the court’s conservative majority decision as the most important legal opinion on the issue in 40 years. Housing rights activists, however, condemned it as violating the Eighth Amendment and subjecting people to “cruel and unusual punishment” that fails to take into account that they sleep out in the open because they have no other options.
Following the Court’s ruling, Newsom said it closed the loopholes that “tied the hands of local authorities for years and limited the possibilities of passing common-sense measures.” Now, in the middle of an election year, the governor is once again calling for action to correct one of California’s greatest ills.
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