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Politics Aug 09, 2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom, wearing dark shirt, and Caltrans workers clean up an area in Los Angeles County that had a homeless encampment. | Photo courtesy of the governor's office
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Following a recent executive order directing state agencies and municipalities dependent on state funding to urgently address homeless encampments, Gov. Gavin Newsom helped clean up several sites in Los Angeles County.
The effort was through the state’s Clean California initiative and featured the governor picking up trash with Caltrans workers near freeway infrastructure once occupied by encampments.
Newsom’s directive “urges local governments to address unsanitary and dangerous encampments within their communities and provide people experiencing homelessness in the encampments with the care and supportive services they need,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.
Since Newsom’s 2019 election, the state has invested over $40 billion for affordable housing and more than $27 billion to address homelessness, the governor’s office reported.
The July 25 executive order on encampments has been met with both support and criticism from local officials and the business community in California.
LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a statement last month, “I applaud Governor Newsom’s emphasis on urgency. He rightfully points out that local government remains at the helm of homeless encampment removals.
LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia said in a statement that removing encampments does “not help reduce homelessness or encampment numbers over time.” He called for city officials to “reject Gov. Newsom’s inhumane, unproven policy.”
LA County Republican Party Chairman Timothy O’Reilly said Newsom’s efforts to reduce homelessness have been “empty promises.”
“While we are hopeful that his encouragement of local agencies will prompt Los Angeles to stop being a mecca for broken souls, Angelenos have seen all-talk, no-action moves from the city and the county before,” O’Reilly said in a statement to City News Service. “You would think that after billions of dollars of spending, our streets, public parks and libraries would be clean and usable by all residents, and that the mentally ill and drug-addicted would be getting the help they so sorely need.”
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision June 28 reversed a San Francisco appeals court ruling that found bans on outdoor sleeping are cruel and unusual punishment when there is no space available at homeless shelters. The Supreme Court’s majority ruled the Eighth Amendment does not apply to laws banning outdoor sleeping.
In June, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority announced the number of unhoused people in the LA area had dropped slightly in 2024, reversing a five-year trend of increases.
LA County has 75,312 unhoused people this year compared with 75,518 in 2023, a slight decrease of 0.27%, according to the annual homelessness census conducted in January. The city of LA has 45,252 homeless individuals in 2024 and had 46,260 in 2023, a 2.2% drop.
