California wrestles with approach to homeless encampments

UPI

16-05-2025

1 of 2 | A homeless man stays warm next to a fire during a rain break in the Skid Row section of Los Angeles on Feb. 25, 2023. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
May 16 (UPI) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled his model ordinance to address homeless encampments with dignity this week but advocates say the approach ignores real solutions.
Newsom's ordinance "Addressing Encampments with Urgency and Dignity" calls on local jurisdictions to immediately begin removing homeless encampments, giving 48 hours notice when possible.
Jay Wierenga, deputy secretary of communications for the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, told UPI the issue of addressing encampments is ultimately a local issue.
"The governor's model ordinance is a template for them to address encampments with care, humanity and urgency," Wierenga said. "They can, and should, begin this work immediately. The governor's actions are reversing a crisis that is decades old, as the numbers show."
Newsom and the state government have blunted the growth of the population of unhoused people who are completely without shelter, according to Jennifer Hanson, assistant deputy director of external affairs for Housing and Community Development. Unsheltered homelessness grew by 7% in the United States but only 0.45% in California.
In the five years prior to Newsom being elected governor, unsheltered homelessness grew twice as fast, on average, than it has during Newsom's term, Hanson added.
"This administration is the first to have made addressing homelessness a top priority and has provided local governments with unprecedented assistance to address it," Hanson told UPI in an email. "California is now reversing decades of inaction."
The ordinance is backed, in part, by $3.3 billion in voter-approved Prop 1 funds. In the fall, the governor's office said the state invested $40 billion to create more housing and $27 billion to "help prevent and end homelessness."
The California State Association of Counties pushed back on the claim that $27 billion has gone to address homelessness, Jeff Griffiths, president and Inyo County supervisor, told UPI.
"Nearly half of that is for housing," Griffiths said. "It hasn't actually translated into units built on the ground that are sufficient enough to meet the scale of the problem."
Griffiths agrees that county leaders would like to see encampments cleared but Newsom's ordinance lacks any assurance that there will be shelter or transitional or permanent housing for people.
"The problem is clearing an encampment doesn't do anything if there's no place for those people to go," he said. "What we need are clearly delineated responsibilities of which level of government is responsible for which part of solving the homeless issue and then we need sustained funding."
California currently allocates $1 billion annually toward counties to address homelessness. This sum is spread across the 58 counties in the state.
Griffiths noted that this amount of funding is inadequate, and the short-term nature of providing funding annually makes it difficult for county governments to plan long-term solutions.
CSAS has designed its own framework for addressing homelessness in California, the At Home plan. It calls for a clearer breakdown of the roles of different levels of government in addressing the issue, increasing and maintaining affordable housing units to meet a variety of needs and increased outreach programs and workforce to support those programs.
The plan also calls for more social safety nets to prevent people from becoming homeless and the creation of programs and employment opportunities for people who are unhoused.
"We will continue to work in good faith on all of the initiatives for having a comprehensive solution to homelessness," Griffiths said. "We believe the framework is there to make a significant impact on this problem. We just need to get buy-in and support from the state."
Newsom's announcement of a model ordinance credits the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the case Grants Pass, Ore., vs. Johnson for clarifying state and local governments' rights when addressing homeless encampments. Since that decision, more than 150 jurisdictions across more than 30 states have passed ordinances allowing them to punish people for camping on public property.
Jesse Rabinowitz, communications and campaign director for the National Homelessness Law Center, told UPI the broad attempt to criminalize homelessness is backed by the Cicero Institute.
The Cicero Institute is a conservative think tank that advocates for a complete ban on street camping. It also proposes that people not be allowed to sleep, camp or take long-term shelter on federal lands such as national parks.
In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to remove all homeless encampments located in national parks in the District of Columbia.
"California certainly has put money toward solutions to solve homelessness, like housing and support. It's not enough," Rabinowitz said. "This criminalization approach is going to dampen the effects of all the good work that service providers and activists on the ground have done in California."
"If we want to solve homelessness in California, we need to focus exclusively on what works, which is housing services, and not waste resources and time by punishing people, by displacing people and by arresting people for sleeping outside when they have nowhere to go," he added.