California Gov. Gavin Newsom urges cities to remove homeless encampments
May 12 (UPI) -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom released guidelines for city leaders across his state to have homeless encampments removed on Monday.
The governor's plan prohibits persistent camping in a single location, prohibits encampments that block sidewalks and requires local officials to provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter before removing an encampment.
"There's nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets. Local leaders asked for resources -- we delivered the largest state investment in history," Newsom said in a statement. "They asked for legal clarity -- the courts delivered. Now, we're giving them a model they can put to work immediately, with urgency and with humanity, to resolve encampments and connect people to shelter, housing, and care. The time for inaction is over. There are no more excuses."
Rollout of Newsom's model to "resolve encampments" is partly backed by $3.3 billion in voter-approved funds. It follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision made last year in the case Grants Pass, Ore., vs. Johnson.
The high court ruled that Grants Pass did not violate the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution when it enacted penalties for camping on public property.
Citing this decision, Newsom's plan calls on local governments to immediately "address dangerous and unhealthy encampments and connect people experiencing homelessness with shelter and services."
The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that more than 187,000 people experienced homelessness in California last year, a state record. Two-thirds of unhoused Californians lived without any shelter, representing about half of the unsheltered population throughout the United States.
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