Newsom calls on California cities to ban homeless encampments
Hillel Aron
LOS ANGELES (CN) — California Governor Gavin Newsom called on cities and counties to pass ordinances banning homeless encampments.
"It is time to take back the streets,” Newsom said at a press conference Monday. "it's time to take back the sidewalks. It's time to take these encampments and provide alternatives. And the state is giving you more resources than ever. And it's time, I think, to just end the excuses."
The governor also announced the state would be releasing $3.3 billion in Proposition 1 funding, which will go toward treating the mentally ill and chronically homeless. The money, according to Newsom’s office, will create more than 5,000 residential treatment beds and more than 21,800 outpatient treatment places.
As of last year, there were more than 187,00 people living without a home in California — the largest homeless population in the country — a number that has been ticking steadily upward for decades. The crisis became particularly acute and visible during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, when cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco largely left encampments alone for fear of spreading the virus. In the early 2020s, homeless encampments grew more widespread.
Another major roadblock for cities looking to dismantle encampments was the courts. A number of federal courts had barred cities from making it illegal to live on the street, particularly if there was not enough space in homeless shelters. But in 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could ban street encampments. Newsom said that between the high court and the new sources of funding, the time was right to crack down on camping.
The announcement didn't come with a mandate. But it did come with a "model ordinance," a template he hopes cities will follow to address the most visible and, for many, intrusive aspects of the homelessness crisis. Among other things, the model ordinance bans "persistent camping in one location" and prohibits encampments that block "free passage on sidewalks." It also requires officials to "provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter prior to clearing an encampment."
The ordinance does not impose penalties for sleeping on the street, and includes an admonishment: "No person should face criminal punishment for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go. Policies that prohibit individuals from sleeping outside anywhere in the jurisdiction without offering adequate indoor shelter, effectively banishing homeless individuals from the jurisdiction’s borders, are both inhumane and impose externalities on neighboring jurisdictions, which must face the costs and challenges of an increased unsheltered homeless population."
Newsom called the ordinance a "balanced approach," saying in a statement: "Local leaders asked for resources — we delivered the largest state investment in history. 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.”
The model ordinance is only the latest step in Newsom's longstanding effort at cajoling cities to clear homeless encampments. In July of last year, a month after the Supreme Court decision allowing cities to fine people for sleeping on the street, Newsom ordered state agencies to clear encampments and urged local governments to do the same. In that announcement, he also said there were "no more excuses."
Since then, Newsom has repeatedly implied that certain cities aren’t doing enough to build affordable housing and homeless shelters. Some of these disputes have even led to legal action — last year, the state sued Norwalk over the Southern California city’s ban on homeless housing.
At the press conference, Newsom said he wanted to see "renewed vigor” in the push to clean up tents and makeshift shelters on the streets and in parks.
“It cannot be a way of life — living out in the streets, on sidewalks, in what have almost become permanent structures, impeding foot traffic, impeding the ability of our kids to walk on the streets and in strollers, or seniors with disabilities and wheelchairs,” Newsom said. "We cannot allow that to continue."