Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco made a gubernatorial campaign stop Tuesday on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, where he said Democrats’ policies have led to a crisis of homelessness and lawlessness.
Bianco, a Republican who according to recent polls is leading the field of declared candidates, and veterans advocate Kate Monroe toured areas of downtown Los Angeles where for decades encampments have lined the streets and people experience unsheltered homelessness daily.
“We have complete lawlessness down here, it is complete lawlessness uninterrupted that we are seeing,” Bianco said in a video posted to social media. “We have laws that prevent this, and we have politics that enable it. And that all has to change.”
The candidate, Monroe and reporters walked a section of Skid Row near the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sixth Street station. Monroe and Bianco spoke with several individuals in the area about their experiences living without shelter.
Bianco, who was elected Riverside County sheriff in 2018 and reelected four years later, called for “compassion for these people that need our help instead of money for campaigns.”
He has criticized Gov. Gavin Newsom’s policies as ineffective and possibly corrupt.
“We keep calling it homelessness,” Bianco told USA Today. “It has nothing to do with homeless here. We walked around building after building after building of homes — the people are still living in tents. This is not about homes. This is about drug addiction, alcohol addiction, mental health care and the complete failure of us to address human beings in a compassionate manner to get them the help that they need.”
In an interview with KTLA in September, the sheriff said law enforcement know-how is the key to solving the homelessness crisis and accused Newsom and the State Legislature of not effectively addressing the issue because it’s a “money grab” and a “money laundering scheme to NGOs and nonprofits.”
According to the governor’s office, the Newsom administration has provided over $27 billion to local communities to address homelessness.
Last spring Newsom, who is termed out and has served as governor since 2019, released a model ordinance for local governments statewide to use as a guideline for enacting their own policies for removing homeless encampments. The legal framework outlines activities that are prohibited regarding encampments and ways to approach enforcement.
However, last year the California State Auditor found that California “must do more to assess the cost-effectiveness of its homelessness programs.” Auditors noted that three of five state programs to address homelessness they reviewed could not be assessed for cost-effectiveness because of a lack of sufficient data.
According to the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Homeless County, 3,400 people were homeless on a single night last February on Skid Row, with more than half living unsheltered. Skid Row is four square miles of downtown Los Angeles, near the Arts District and Little Tokyo.
Bianco and Monroe, the CEO of VetComm which helps veterans with VA disability claims, suggested a “base camp” model to address homelessness. The idea is for people seeking a path off the the streets to live at a temporary site where they can receive services they need, including addiction rehabilitation, learning a trade and, if they find a job, live in something akin to a group home, Monroe told USA Today.
“From the law enforcement perspective, I’m watching hand-to-hand exchanges of drugs, I’m seeing needles. It’s an issue, it’s a major issue,” Bianco said in a video posted to social media. “From a human perspective, from a non-law enforcement civilian perspective, you’re seeing faces and you’re hearing voices, they’re real people. You’re hearing story after story of the same thing — they all know what’s broken, they all know this is broken, they all know that government is not helping.”
Data from the 2025 homeless count showed over 72,000 people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County, with over 43,000 in the city of LA. The county’s population totals nearly 10 million.
Last year nearly 4,000 Riverside County residents experienced homelessness. The county’s population is around 2.5 million people.
