SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that a recent Supreme Court ruling on homelessness has given him the authority to move forward with a comprehensive crackdown on homeless encampments across the state.
The announcement from July 25 explains Executive Order N-1-24, which is Newsom’s response to the June 28 Supreme Court decision in Grants Pass v Johnson. In that ruling, the Court overturned the Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that a city could not arrest or otherwise remove someone who was sleeping in public when no other housing alternative was available.
As Newsom said in an announcement accompanying the publication of the order, “There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
LOCAL REACTION
Newsom’s order applies to state agencies. As written in the order, “Local governments are encouraged to adopt policies consistent with this Order.” And while the governor cannot force local governments to comply, he does have the power to withhold state funding for programs, services, etc. In prior discussions regarding the responsibility of local governments to address the problem of homelessness, Newsom made it clear that withholding funding was definitely on the table.
Reedley City Manager Nicole Zieba has mixed feelings regarding the order and about Newsom’s overall plan for ending homelessness in the state. Regarding the Grants Pass ruling, Zieba said that, as a result, a certain percentage of the homeless may finally be willing to accept shelter and get help.
“Right now, because they have been given ‘free rein’ to be where they want to be, very few choose to accept shelter and assistance when it is offered,” said Zieba. “This has been our experience 99% of the time in Reedley (and we ask on a weekly basis). So, I see this as a potential good thing for that group that will finally get the help they need.”
But Zieba believes Newsom’s “reality” misses the reality of how expensive it is to live in California.
“Now, the Governor’s ‘reality’ is that he believes his push for the new Proposition/bond (Proposition 1) money is going to build all this new homeless housing and that is where the people will go,” she said. “In my opinion, it’s a pipe dream.”
Zieba explained that housing for homeless individuals is hard to build because land in the state is so expensive. Not only that, but people can be so adamantly opposed to it in their areas that they will sue, and that can delay the projects for up to years at a time.
“(Also) if you can build the housing, you must have someone able and willing to run that housing, which takes even more money (money that is not going to be provided by the Proposition/bond funds),” Zieba said. She added, “I sound like a real pessimist, but I’ve been watching the pendulum swing on this issue for 30 years in government. These politicians keep trying the same old things that have never proven to work.”
N-1-24
The order authorizes all agencies and departments subject to the governor’s authority to adopt policies consistent with a Caltrans’ policy to address homeless encampments on state property.
In short, these policies will allow state officials to humanely disband encampments. When exigent circumstances exist for the homeless camps to be removed, officials should do their best to give the campers advance notice of the removal. When there are no exigent circumstances compelling immediate action, state officials must post a notice at the site 48 hours before taking action.
Officials must coordinate with local service providers regarding outreach services for the now displaced campers. Property confiscated during the removal will be collected, labeled and stored for 60 days, provided the property does not pose a health or safety hazard.
In the order, Newsom lauded Caltrans’ efforts to remove homeless encampments along the state’s right of way. Since July 2021, the transportation agency has removed over 11,000 encampments and 248,275 cubic yards of debris from said encampments.
The governor’s announcement described Caltrans as the blueprint for tackling homelessness and encouraged local governments to follow suit.
Per the announcement, “The order encourages local governments to emulate the state’s successful model to adopt local policies to use all available resources, including those provided by the state’s historic investments in housing and intervention programs, to address encampments within their jurisdictions.”
These historic investments include more than $24 billion the state has invested across multiple state agencies and departments since Newsom took office Jan. 7, 2019. The announcement notes that these investments assisted over 165,000 people find interim or permanent housing in fiscal year 2022-2023. However, it should be noted Executive Order N-1-24 begins with the somber statistic that over 180,000 on any given night in 2023 experienced homelessness in the state.
