California Gov. Newsom Issues New Executive Order on Homeless Camps, Here’s What It Means

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing state agencies to “urgently take action to address dangerous” homeless encampments and clear them from state lands, while giving city and local leaders the impetus to do the same.

The order comes a month after a Supreme Court ruling that allowed cities to enforce bans on outdoor sleeping in public places.

There were more than 180,000 homeless people in California in 2023. Newsome’s order comes as a housing shortage and rising housing costs are pushing more people onto the streets. In many cities, the number of homeless people far exceeds the number of available shelter beds on a given night.

The order raises questions about how it will be implemented, given the challenges cities face. The governor’s office said the details still need to be worked out.

Here’s what we know so far:

The executive order directs state agencies to remove homeless encampments from state lands. This includes state parks and beaches, agency buildings, and highways and areas beneath them.

In Los Angeles, one of the largest homeless encampments is under the 105 Freeway, which is maintained by the California Department of Transportation, known as Caltrans.

It directs agencies to take swift action and follow the example of the transportation agency, which has removed 11,188 encampments and more than 248,000 cubic yards (189,600 cubic meters) of debris from those encampments along state roadways, mostly highways and expressways, since July 2021.

Caltrans rules include determining whether there is an “imminent threat to life, health, safety or infrastructure” that requires removal of a homeless encampment. Authorities must also provide at least 48 hours of notice before clearing the site and request outreach services for people living in the encampment. The ordinance says people must also be able to store their personal belongings for at least 60 days.

The ordinance also requires the California Interagency Council on Homelessness to provide local governments with guidelines to use in implementing their own homelessness programs.

City and county governments are not legally required to follow the executive order, although it says they are “encouraged” to adopt the same rules. Newsom has threatened in the past to withhold $1 billion from local governments if they don’t make progress on the issue.

Some local officials say they will continue to clear homeless encampments, as they have been doing since a Supreme Court ruling that took effect in August allowed them to remove people from the streets even if there are no shelter beds available.

More than 75,000 people were homeless on any given night in Los Angeles County, according to data from the beginning of the year. About 45,252 were in the city of Los Angeles, where frustration has grown as tents have spread across sidewalks and parks. The county has only about 23,000 emergency shelter beds this year.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stressed the importance of a comprehensive approach to addressing homelessness, which starts with providing housing and services. She criticized the Supreme Court ruling, saying cities can’t “arrest themselves to get out of this problem.”

“Strategies that simply move people from one neighborhood to another or issue tickets in lieu of housing don’t work,” Bass said in a statement. “We thank the governor for his partnership to date and hope he will continue to work with us on strategies that work.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said she will begin “very aggressive” enforcement of homeless camps in light of the Supreme Court’s decision effective in August, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“The San Francisco camp and field teams do this work every day and have been doing it for years,” Breed said. “We already do this work, so there’s nothing new coming from the governor’s direction.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, chairman of the California Big City Mayors coalition, said the group welcomes the governor’s “new stance and sense of urgency to address homelessness with concrete and meaningful action,” though he did not specify what that action would be.

The group includes the mayors of the state’s 13 largest cities.

San Diego passed an ordinance last year banning camps near schools, shelters, transportation hubs, in parks and along public sidewalks if shelter beds are available. The city has opened two campgrounds where people can sleep, with restrooms, showers and 24-hour security.

The order applies to most state agencies, including the Department of General Services, which manages state buildings and parking lots; the Department of Parks and Recreation, which oversees state parks and some beaches; and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which manages recreation areas.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Oregon city’s ban that allows cities to enforce bans on outdoor sleeping in public places, overturning a lower court’s ruling. The case was the most important homelessness case to come before the high court in decades.

A previous 2018 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit found that such bans violate the Eighth Amendment in areas where there are not enough shelter beds.

Once the restriction is lifted, Newsome’s order says, “there will be no further barriers for local authorities” in clearing out homeless encampments.