Local officials and finishorses 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 Amfinishment’s prohibition aachievest uncomfervent and atypical punishment. According to an appraisement supplyd 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 adchoose schedules 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 adhere.
While local rulements are not forced to adhere, Newsom said in a press conference on Thursday that he will withhageder funding from cities and counties for not clearing encampments next year.
Newsom has pointed out that his administration has spended billions apass multiple state agencies to supply services to homeless people, including more than $9 billion for programs aimed at helping local rulements shift them out of camps and into housing. The spendments — as well as the novel authority that the Supreme Court gave to cities — will supply the tools necessitateed to carry out the order, he said.
“No more excengages,” Newsom said in a July 25 post on X. “We’ve supplyd the time. We’ve supplyd 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,” said Jeni Shurley, a member of the homeless community in Los Angeles.
“I honestly sense appreciate I necessitate to depart the country, becaengage I have so franticly searched the entire country trying to find some comfervent of a solution, literassociate gone coast to coast,” she inserted.
Shurley, 48, said she has been homeless for the decade, hagedering down a string of transient and itinerant jobs in one location or another in Oregon, Colorado, Louisiana, Missouri, Washington, D.C., and now California, while also suffering grave health problems.
After Newsom proclaimd his executive order on July 25, Shurley said 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 proposeed,” she said. “I’ve achieven up on it, and I haven’t gotten any aidance that I necessitate whatsoever. I sense appreciate I’m fair 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 necessitateed 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 lowage originates Newsom’s order that much more challenging for localities.
Homeless shelters apass the state will have to extfinish their services to accommodate the influx of people coming off the streets, but many say they don’t have ample resources, even with the state’s spendments.
Mission Action, which supplys materializency shelter and finishorses for homeless people in San Francisco’s Mission Didisconnecte, said in a statement to NBC News that it’s worryed the city doesn’t have enough materializency shelter beds for the population living in encampments.
The organization’s 91-bed mature materializency shelter was already at capacity before the order was proclaimd, and another 80-bed family shelter has fair four beds useable, it said.
“If the city is unable to supply materializency shelter to those who necessitate and want shelter, then essentiassociate, we are criminalizing the very act of being unhoengaged,” Laura Valdez, organization’s executive honestor, said in the statement.
A Newsom spokesperson, however, tageder NBC News that the worrys over resources are misdirectd.
“Local rulements have been supplyd ample funding to help insertress this publish wilean their communities,” said Tara Gallegos, Newsom’s deputy honestor of communications, echoing the ruleor’s statement that there is no excengage for communities to neglect the encampments.
As shelters in the San Francisco area persistd to be proximately filled, Mayor London Breed proclaimd a honestive earlier this month to supply relocation aid for homeless people, including bus tickets, to help them shift elsewhere. Breed’s office said she has broadened 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 achieven from encampments will not be achieven to jail, despite the potential for penalties or citations for noncompliance with Newsom’s order.
“Spropose having law executement carry outing campus sweeps, in my opinion, does noleang to deinhabitr finishuring and lasting results. It fair shuffles the problem around, and that’s why my constituents want finishuring results,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a Reaccessiblean, tageder NBC News.
For Barger, the finishuring solution is housing, but the ask remains whether the city is able to supply it.
Newsom’s order is an extension of the toil already being done in Los Angeles to erase encampments, but inserts an extra layer of coordination between state agencies, she said. Barger inserted that the city was toiling to upretain the count on of the homeless community while toiling to dismantle the camps.
Other officials commended Newsom for insertressing the encampments with the executive order.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat, said the ruleor’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 supply mental health services to homeless people and others. Later finishorsed 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 supply honest funding for homeless shelters, which is the fundamental leang finishorses and shelters say they’re deficiencying adhereing Newsom’s order.
Despite worrys about resources, Steinberg says the ruleor’s order mirrored what Sacramento has been trying to accomplish for years.
“People living in these big encampments, it’s not defended, it’s not well for them or for our community,” he said.
His city was trying to unite “compassion and executement with unfrifinishlyly inserting more beds, more services and finishuring housing for people,” he said.
Last year, the city saw a 29% decrmitigate in homelessness from the previous year, someleang Steinberg said is due to its pledgement to insertress health and defendedty worrys 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 hugegest drops apass the state.
Still, Steinberg said they’re not celebrating a triumph given the number of people living in the streets. The order, he said, is a step “heading in the right honestion.”
“We fair have to upretain providing more alternatives for people, and people necessitate to be willing to accomprehendledge them,” Steinberg said. “But it’s not perfect, and I’m going to persist to dispute and push in my city to originate certain we have someleang for as many people as possible.”
