Gavin Newsom orders California to remove homeless encampments after Supreme Court ruling

Executive order cannot force local officials to remove homeless encampements but provides guidance for those that choose to

Governor Gavin Newsom will order state officials to begin dismantling homeless encampments in California (Getty Images)

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order allowing state officials to begin dismantling tens and thousands of homeless encampments nearly a month after the Supreme Court ruled that homelessness could be criminalized. 

The order will ask state agencies and departments to create “clear policies” that address homeless encampments that could pose a health or safety risk. Newsom asked that the policies be consistent with those adopted by the California Department of Transportation.

The Department of Transportation has cleared more than 11,000 encampments over the last three years from underneath overpasses and near offramps.

The state will give those people 48 to 72 hours’ notice and connect them with local service providers and housing. Any personal property will be collected, bagged, tagged and stored for at least 60 days.

“No more excuses. We’ve provided the time. We’ve provided the funds. Now it’s time for locals to do their job,” Newsom wrote on X in response to the Thursday order.

It is the governor’s first sweeping effort to tackle California’s homelessness problem – something he has made a priority of his governorship. Approximately 181,000 people in the state are estimated to be homeless, making California home to the largest population of unhoused people in the country.

Tents for the homeless line a street corner in Los Angeles. On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an order allowing state officials to remove encampments (AFP via Getty Images)

Cities and counties across the state have approached the encampment problem from various angles but with mixed results.

Last month, the Supreme Court essentially gave cities the go-ahead to enact ordinances that target homelessness by punishing people for sleeping outside on public property. The conservative majority of the court said that a set of rules that allow law enforcement to ticket, fine or jail people sleeping outside did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Newsom praised the ruling, saying it would allow officials to “enforce policies to clear unsafe encampments” and lifted limitations on “their ability to deliver on common-sense measures to protect the safety and well-being of our communities.”

But human rights groups condemned the ruling, saying it was not a proper solution to homelessness.

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks with media at a long-standing homeless encampment along Highway 80 on August 9, 2021 in Berkeley, California. (Getty Images)

“We cannot arrest our way out of homelessness,” Scout Katovich, an ACLU attorney in the Trone Center for Justice and Equality, said in a statement last month.

“It is hard to imagine a starker example of excessive punishment than fining and jailing a person for the basic human act of sleeping,” Katovich added.

Ann Olivia, the CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, said the Supreme Court’s ruling set a “dangerous precedent” and allowed elected officials to “shift the burden” of homelessness solutions on law enforcement.

Newsom’s executive order cannot force cities to take action but will serve as a guideline when officials are faced with a homeless encampment that they believe is a health or safety risk.