Local governments should go ahead and clear homeless encampments across California, free from fear of lawsuits or legal injunctions, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Thursday.
“The state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets. There are simply no more excuses,” Newsom said in a news release issued by his office. “It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
In the executive order issued Thursday, July 25, state agencies are required to adopt policies similar to an existing California Department of Transportation policy for clearing encampments on state property. Local agencies are “encouraged” to do the same. The order notes the state has provided “historic investments and intervention programs” to address homelessness.
The order gives some guidance for what those policies should look like:
Unless there’s an “imminent threat to life, health, safety or infrastructure,” officials are directed to give those in encampments at least 48 hours warning before the area is cleared. Officials are also directed to contact homelessness outreach services providers and to collect, label and store personal items taken from the camps for at least 60 days, unless they’re found to be health or safety hazards.
The order notes that an estimated 180,000 Californians experience homelessness every night in California. That’s about 455 people per 100,000 California residents.
Newsom’s announcement follows a June 28 U.S. Supreme Court decision, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, which allows local governments to arrest people sleeping in public, even when there are no shelter spaces available for them to go to instead.
In Thursday’s executive order, Newsom noted that “state and local agencies taking proactive steps to remove encampments have been stymied in those efforts by lawsuits and injunctions, leaving officials without the tools or guidance necessary to address the crisis on their streets.”
But following the Grants Pass decision, “there is no longer any barrier to local governments utilizing the substantial resources provided by the state, in tandem with federal and local resources, to address encampments with both urgency and humanity, or excuse for not doing so,” Newsom writes in the order.
The news release issued by Newsom’s office notes the “unprecedented” amount of resources available to help local governments combat homelessness.
What this all means for efforts in Riverside and San Bernardino counties is unclear.
“The county will determine if the governor’s announcement suggests anything beyond what the county and its partners are already doing,” San Bernardino County spokesperson David Wert wrote in an email Thursday.
San Bernardino County’s current efforts already include using state, federal and local funding “to create housing and shelter opportunities; addressing the root causes of homelessness such as mental health and substance use disorder; reaching out directly to the unsheltered where they are living to deliver services; and clearing out encampments where they create a threat of wildfire,” he noted.
Just clearing encampments isn’t going to solve the state’s homelessness crisis, Riverside County Fifth District Supervisor Yxstian Gutierrez said Thursday
“Studies are out there that just cleaning out encampments doesn’t fix everything — you have to provide employment and housing, too,” Gutierrez said.
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The number of people living without permanent housing in the Inland Empire has dramatically risen over the last decade.
In Riverside County’s 2023 Point In Time Count of homeless residents, the last year the county conducted such a canvass, an estimated 3,725 county residents did not have a permanent place to live, up from 2,978 in 2013.
According to San Bernardino County’s 2024 Point In Time Count of homeless residents, an estimated 3,055 county residents were living without permanent shelter, up from 2,321 in 2013.
Using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau population estimates, that means about 149 out of every 100,000 Riverside County residents and about 139 of every 100,000 San Bernardino County residents do not have a consistent place to live.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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