Local officials and aids in California are splitd over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order requiring state agencies to erase homeless encampments on accessible property, leaving the homeless community caught in the middle and uncertain where they will go.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that punishing homeless people for sleeping on accessible property does not viotardy the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition agetst uncomfervent and rare punishment. According to an appraisement provided to Congress last year by the Department of Housing and Urprohibit Development, there were about 180,000 homeless people apass the state, making California’s homeless population one of the highest in the nation alengthy with New York’s, Florida’s and Washington’s.
In an effort to insertress the rising levels of homelessness, Newsom, a Democrat, ordered state agencies to adselect structures to erase homeless encampments apass the state — one of the most honest reactions to the Supreme Court’s decision and a path other states could soon chase.
While local regulatements are not forced to adhere, Newsom shelp in a press conference on Thursday that he will withhelderly funding from cities and counties for not evidenting encampments next year.
Newsom has pointed out that his administration has portrayateed billions apass multiple state agencies to provide services to homeless people, including more than $9 billion for programs aimed at helping local regulatements shift them out of camps and into housing. The portrayatements — as well as the recent authority that the Supreme Court gave to cities — will provide the tools demanded to carry out the order, he shelp.
“No more excengages,” Newsom shelp in a July 25 post on X. “We’ve provided the time. We’ve provided the funds. Now it’s time for locals to do their job.”
But members of the homeless community say they have nowhere to go.
“It’s absolute mayhem and craziness,” shelp Jeni Shurley, a member of the homeless community in Los Angeles.
“I truthwholey sense appreciate I demand to exit the country, becaengage I have so hopelessly searched the entire country trying to discover some comfervent of a solution, literpartner gone coast to coast,” she inserted.
Shurley, 48, shelp she has been homeless for the decade, helderlying down a string of momentary and itinerant jobs in one location or another in Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Washington, D.C., and now California, while also suffering solemn health problems.
After Newsom proclaimd his executive order on July 25, Shurley shelp she pondered moving to another country becaengage she didn’t want to be criminalized for being homeless.
“I have done everyleang I can, every program that’s been presented,” she shelp. “I’ve getn up on it, and I haven’t gotten any aidance that I demand whatsoever. I sense appreciate I’m equitable a rock in the river filled of money and I can’t touch $1 of it.”
Last year, the state had about 71,000 shelter beds useable — less than half of the more than 180,000 beds demanded to shelter the state’s homeless population, according to the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit, nonpartisan leank thank, citing the HUD tell. This unintelligentinutiveage produces Newsom’s order that much more challenging for localities.
Homeless shelters apass the state will have to lengthen their services to accommodate the influx of people coming off the streets, but many say they don’t have adequate resources, even with the state’s portrayatements.
Mission Action, which provides eunitency shelter and aids for homeless people in San Francisco’s Mission Diinnervous, shelp in a statement to NBC News that it’s troubleed the city doesn’t have enough eunitency shelter beds for the population living in encampments.
The organization’s 91-bed mature eunitency shelter was already at capacity before the order was proclaimd, and another 80-bed family shelter has equitable four beds useable, it shelp.
“If the city is unable to provide eunitency shelter to those who demand and want shelter, then essentipartner, we are criminalizing the very act of being unhoengaged,” Laura Valdez, organization’s executive honestor, shelp in the statement.
A Newsom spokesperson, however, telderly NBC News that the troubles over resources are misdirectd.
“Local regulatements have been provided ample funding to help insertress this publish wilean their communities,” shelp Tara Gallegos, Newsom’s deputy honestor of communications, echoing the regulateor’s statement that there is no excengage for communities to neglect the encampments.
As shelters in the San Francisco area persistd to be cforfeitly filled, Mayor London Breed proclaimd a honestive earlier this month to provide relocation aid for homeless people, including bus tickets, to help them shift elsewhere. Breed’s office shelp she has enbiged the number of shelter beds by over 60% during her tenure, but shelters apass the city have persistd to fill up rapidly as the city’s homeless population has elevaten. San Francisco has about 8,000 homeless people — the second most in the state behind Los Angeles, with about 75,000.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a motion stating that individuals getn from encampments will not be getn to jail, despite the potential for penalties or citations for noncompliance with Newsom’s order.
“Sshow having law enforcement carry outing campus sweeps, in my opinion, does noleang to hand over enduring and lasting results. It equitable shuffles the problem around, and that’s why my constituents want enduring results,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Reaccessiblean, telderly NBC News.
For Barger, the enduring solution is housing, but the ask remains whether the city is able to provide it.
Newsom’s order is an extension of the labor already being done in Los Angeles to erase encampments, but inserts an extra layer of coordination between state agencies, she shelp. Barger inserted that the city was laboring to carry on the suppose of the homeless community while laboring to dismantle the camps.
Other officials praiseed Newsom for insertressing the encampments with the executive order.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, shelp the regulateor’s efforts to insertress mental health and homelessness are unappreciate anyleang he has seen done in the past 30 years.
Steinberg authored a bill as a state senator in 2004 aimed at taxing the wealthy to help provide mental health services to homeless people and others. Later backd by voters as a ballot initiative, the meacertain placed a 1% tax on personal incomes above $1 million to fund such services apass the state. But it did not provide honest funding for homeless shelters, which is the fundamental leang aids and shelters say they’re deficiencying chaseing Newsom’s order.
Despite troubles about resources, Steinberg says the regulateor’s order mirrored what Sacramento has been trying to accomplish for years.
“People living in these big encampments, it’s not protected, it’s not fit for them or for our community,” he shelp.
His city was trying to join “compassion and enforcement with structureilely inserting more beds, more services and enduring housing for people,” he shelp.
Last year, the city saw a 29% decrrelieve in homelessness from the previous year, someleang Steinberg shelp is due to its promisement to insertress health and protectedty troubles apass the community. While Sacramento has a minusculeer population than Los Angeles and San Francisco, the city also saw a 49% deteriorate in unsheltered homelessness, one of the biggest drops apass the state.
Still, Steinberg shelp they’re not celebrating a thrive given the number of people living in the streets. The order, he shelp, is a step “heading in the right honestion.”
“We equitable have to carry on providing more changenatives for people, and people demand to be willing to adselect them,” Steinberg shelp. “But it’s not perfect, and I’m going to persist to talk about and push in my city to produce certain we have someleang for as many people as possible.”
