Gov. Newsom, post-Grant's Pass, signs order directing cities to get "urgent" with homelessness encampments
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While some CA cities have dawdled since the Grant's Pass decision to change their flawed strategies toward addressing inhumane homeless encampments, Newsom appears ready to pressure those cities into greater action. NYT reports.
Gov. Gavin Newsom will order California state officials on Thursday to begin dismantling thousands of homeless encampments, according to members of his administration, calling on government leaders to act on a recent Supreme Court decision “with urgency and dignity.” The executive order, which is expected to affect tens of thousands of people, represents the nation’s most sweeping response to a June ruling that gave governments greater authority to remove homeless people from their streets.
Governor Newsom will advise California cities and counties on how best to ramp up enforcement on a signature issue of his administration, but he cannot force them to take action. He also will mandate that state agencies not simply move campers along, but also work with local governments to house people and provide services into which the state has pumped billions of dollars.
The governor’s directive this week follows a Supreme Court decision on June 28 that upheld an Oregon city’s ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors.
Administration officials, who spoke on background because the executive order had not yet been issued, said it had been drawn up as a regulatory template for government entities that still must deal with encampments, which continue to sprawl across sidewalks, peek from rural wild lands and crop up nightly along beaches and waterways. So many people have sought shelter near freeways, for example, that the California Department of Transportation has developed its own protocol and dedicated employees for clearing encampments. From one-person pup tents pitched near offramps to large encampments sheltering dozens of people beneath overpasses,
The state cannot legally force cities to adopt the Caltrans system. But Mr. Newsom and state lawmakers can pressure local leaders because they control billions of dollars of funding intended to address homelessness.
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