California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued an executive action this week ordering the removal of unhoused people across the state from encampments they’ve been living in, empowering cities to enforce laws that bar people from sleeping outside in public places.
Newsom did so after the Supreme Court ruled last month that such ordinances do not violate the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment, a ruling that advocates for unhoused people decried as deeply inhumane.
Within that ruling, which was issued in a 6-3 decision along partisan lines, conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch opined that so-called “camping ordinances” didn’t target people based on their housing status, arguing that such laws also affect “a backpacker on vacation, or a student who abandons his dorm room to camp out in protest on the lawn of a municipal building.”
Such laws, however, are primarily used to punish unhoused people, who are far more likely to be targeted by law enforcement than students or vacationers.
In a statement from Newsom’s office website, the order directs state agencies to supposedly “address homeless encampments while respecting the dignity and safety of Californians experiencing homelessness.”
Newsom’s statement was far more direct.
“We’re done, it’s time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites, to focus on public health and focus on public safety,” he said.
And on X, Newsom said:
No more excuses. We’ve provided the time. We’ve provided the funds. Now it’s time for locals to do their job.
California contains around one-third of the entire country’s unhoused population. Advocates have pointed out that punishing and policing unhoused people is an inhumane and ineffective way to address the issue — the best way forward is simply providing housing to those who require it, including providing long-term, permanent housing solutions.
Advocates for unhoused people lambasted the governor over his order.
“Gavin Newsom wants to sweep unhoused people off the streets without any plan of housing,” wrote the social media account for the People’s City Council of Los Angeles. “This means that people will have all of their stuff thrown away & they’ll be arrested & sent to jail.”
This is not a real solution. This means more $ for cops & prisons. This is fascist shit.
LaToya Baldwin Clark, a law professor at UCLA, similarly disparaged Newsom’s call to enforce laws against unhoused people.
“Newsom’s declaration to clear encampments used by unhoused folks is cruel,” Clark said. “In LA, in California, the problem has always been that there is not enough housing, let alone affordable housing. Threatening folks with citations to enter shelters is wrong. Shelter beds are not housing.”
“There is nothing ‘humane’ about Gavin Newsom’s sweeping of homeless encampments in California while failing to provide unhoused individuals with any alternatives,” said Cleo Bluthenthal, a public health student at Johns Hopkins who advocates for social equity and justice. “From a public health perspective, this is ineffective and potentially deadly. On a human level, this is appalling.”
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