Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom is attempting to crack down on homeless encampments in the Golden State after his administration spent years shelling out billions of dollars in an attempt to address the state’s worsening homelessness crisis.
Newsom on Monday called on California’s local governments to effectively ban homeless encampments on sidewalks and other public places, claiming that “the time for inaction is over.” Newsom’s model ordinance also includes recommendations such as prohibiting persistent camping in one location along with a requirement that local officials must provide notice and “make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter prior to clearing an encampment.”
“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets,” Newsom wrote in a press release. “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.”
California’s homelessness crisis has considerably worsened over the past several years. The Golden State has spent roughly $24 billion on homelessness since 2019 — the year Newsom took office — according to a July 2024 report from the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank.
In 2024, California had a record-breaking number of over 187,000 homeless people, accounting for almost half of the nation’s homeless population, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Additionally, the Golden State has seen a significant number of its residents leave in recent years, with many of them citing California’s high cost of living.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2024 that cities are allowed to enforce bans on sleeping or camping on public property, even for homeless people, and that doing so does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Newsom’s office referred the Daily Caller News Foundation their press release when reached for comment.
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