By Lynn La
(CALMATTERS) – Gov. Gavin Newsom is pressing for direct action, nearly a month after the U.S. Supreme Court gave cities the green light to clear homeless encampments and arrest or fine unhoused people for sleeping in public spaces.
As CalMatters homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall explains, the governor on Thursday issued an executive order directing state agencies to adopt policies to sweep encampments on state property, and urged local governments to do the same.
- Newsom, in a video statement: “We have now no excuse with the Supreme Court decision. This executive order is about pushing that paradigm further and getting the sense of urgency that’s required of local government to do their job.”
Per Newsom’s order, state agencies should give residents at least 48-hour notice before clearing a camp, and provide storage for their belongings for at least 60 days. Agencies also should request services from local organizations for displaced residents. But encampments that pose an “imminent threat” to life, health, safety or infrastructure can be removed immediately.
Business groups and some big-city mayors welcomed the move. In a statement, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said local officials, state leaders and community members “must be united in acting,” while San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city “is already doing what the Governor is calling for.”
But not all praised Newsom’s directive. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who publicly condemned the high court’s June ruling, said in a statement that without providing housing, “strategies that just move people along from one neighborhood to the next or give citations … do not work.”
Some advocacy groups also criticized the governor: “It begs the question of where people will go,” said the director of the University of Southern California’s Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Equity Research.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans blasted Newsom for taking too long to address the issue, and pushed for follow through.
- Senate GOP leader Brian Jones of San Diego: “It’s about damn time! … While I am cautiously optimistic that the governor has finally taken note of the urgency of this problem, albeit many years later than needed, Californians deserve government for the people, not the PR hits.”