California Governor Gavin Newsom had a message for local governments: clean up homeless encampments now or lose out on state funding next year.
The announcement on Thursday was part of an escalating campaign by the California governor to push local governments into doing more homeless encampment sweeps.
In July, Newsom ordered state agencies to start clearing encampments on state land. The order cited a controversial US supreme court decision saying unhoused people sleeping outside can be ticketed and jailed even when there is no shelter available, and directed state agencies to develop policies to remove encampments along freeways and other properties under its jurisdiction. The order also urged local governments to follow suit.
Tents used as encampments for unhoused people line a street as one person walks by
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Newsom can’t legally force local governments to act, but he can pressure them by withholding state funds.
“I want to see results,” Newsom told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. “I don’t want to read about them. I don’t want to see the data. I want to see it.”
California is home to roughly one-third of the nation’s population of unhoused people. A 2023 count estimated that there were more than 180,000 people in the state experiencing homelessness, including 123,000 people living outside on the streets in tents, trailers, cars and makeshift shelters.
The crisis is among the worst in the nation, and is increasingly drawing national attention. Republicans have repeatedly used the homelessness crisis to attack the governor and other California Democrats, including presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
But solving it is a problem that has dogged Newsom since taking office. Under Newsom, the state has spent roughly $24bn to tackle the homelessness crisis. That includes at least $3.2bn in grants given to local government to build shelters, clear encampments and connect unhoused people to services.
Those have been unprecedented investments from the state, Newsom said.
Chris Herring, a University of California, Los Angeles, sociology professor and expert on homelessness, told the Guardian last month he saw Newsom’s order as “giving the green light to a harsher approach”.
“It sends a clear message to municipalities that even if you do not have shelter available, you can go through with this. The law now allows cities and counties to cite and incarcerate individuals for sleeping outside,” Herring said.