FILE - A tarp covers a portion of a homeless person’s tent on a bridge overlooking the 101 Freeway in Los Angeles, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
Gov. Gavin Newsom urges California cities and counties to ban homeless encampments
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥 Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday urged California cities to clear homeless encampments, escalating once again his efforts to address an intractable issue of his time in office: the makeshift tent camps that line underpasses, parks and local streets up and down the state.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) 鈥 Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday urged California cities to clear homeless encampments, escalating once again his efforts to address an intractable issue of his time in office: the makeshift tent camps that line underpasses, parks and local streets up and down the state.
Newsom’s administration drafted a local law that counties, cities and towns can directly adopt or modify to achieve the Democratic governor’s goals. He’s also releasing $3.3 billion in voter-approved funds to expand housing and treatment options for homeless residents.
鈥淭he time for inaction is over. There are no more excuses,鈥 Newsom said in a statement.
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Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, made tackling homelessness a priority of his administration when he took office in 2019 and since then, Democratic leaders in the state have moved toward cracking down on encampments. The state accounts for nearly a third of the homeless population in the United States. More than 187,000 Californians are in need of housing.
With tents lining streets and disrupting businesses in cities and towns across the state, homelessness has become one of the most pressing public health and safety issues in California and one sure to dog Newsom if he runs for national office.
His declaration comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Court made it easier for officials to ban homeless people from camping outside. It was a ruling welcomed by many Democratic leaders, including Newsom, despite pushback from homeless people and their advocates that the decision by the conservative court was cruel.
The key provisions of the model ordinance announced Monday include prohibitions on 鈥減ersistent camping鈥 in one location, a ban on encampments that block sidewalks and a requirement that local officials provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter prior to clearing an encampment. Providing a ready-made local law could bring uniformity to how cities and counties deal with encampments though Newsom is urging local officials to modify his proposal as needed.
Major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have already started clearing out encampments, saying they are not fair to children, seniors and disabled people who need access to parks and sidewalks.
San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, pledged to clean up city sidewalks while in San Jos茅, Mayor Matt Mahan has proposed arrests if a person refuses shelter three times.
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In 2024, that imposes strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment programs to tackle the . It was a signature proposal for Newsom, who campaigned for the measure鈥檚 passage.
Under the measure, counties are required to spend about two-thirds of the money from a voter-approved tax enacted in 2004 on millionaires for mental health services on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems.
The governor has also pushed for laws that with behavioral health issues into treatment. And he has repeatedly threatened to withhold state money from cities and counties that do not step up to address homelessness.
But despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California does not have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn鈥檛 improve in many cities, according to a 2024 state audit.
The audit found California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the previous five years but did not consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money actually improved the situation.
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Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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