Los Angeles pushes back on Newsom order to clear homeless encampments

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and several county supervisors are pushing back against Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) executive order to start clearing homeless encampments, arguing it’s only a temporary fix to a decades-old problem. 

Bass, whose first act after taking the oath of office as Los Angeles’s mayor in December 2022 was to declare a state of emergency on homelessness, has claimed Newsom’s efforts to clean up the streets won’t work in her city.

“I do not believe that it is ultimately a solution to homelessness,” she said. “How are they supposed to pay for their ticket, and what happens when they don’t pay? Does it go into a warrant and give us an excuse to incarcerate somebody?” 

The clearing of encampments has largely been a partisan issue across the country, with Democrats uncomfortable kicking homeless people off the streets and Republicans, citing public safety concerns, pushing for citations and arrests. 

In California, a deep blue state, the fight over homeless encampments has turned into an intraparty one, with Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed on one side and Bass, along with several Los Angeles County supervisors, on the other. 

The feud escalated after a Supreme Court decision last month gave local officials more power to crack down on those living on the streets and in public parks. 

In Grants Pass v. Johnson, the court sided with the Oregon city in a 6-3 decision, ruling that an ordinance that made it illegal for homeless residents to camp on all public property was constitutional. 

The ruling overturned a lower court decision that called it cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment to punish those sleeping outside if they had nowhere else to go. In one fell swoop, the Supreme Court decision overturned six years of legal protections for the homeless in California. 

Los Angeles County Supervisors’ Chairwoman Lindsey Horvath has called the Grants Pass decision “unconscionable” and ineffective and called for more shelters and affordable housing. At a news conference, she said the solution to homelessness “is not arrest. It is not pushing people from community to community.”

“I want to be crystal clear,” she added. “The criminalization of homelessness and poverty is dangerous. It does not work, and it will not stand in Los Angeles County.”

Hovarth and Supervisor Hilda Solis have proposed a policy of not allowing Los Angeles County jails to hold people arrested for violating anti-camping ordinances. 

On Thursday, Newsom, a Democrat, ordered officials to start dismantling thousands of homeless encampments around the state. 

His order is the most sweeping response to date following the Supreme Court decision. 

Local governments are not legally bound to the order, but they are being encouraged to follow the guidance. Failure to fall in line could result in critical funds potentially being withheld.

Newsom’s executive order will affect thousands of people in his state, which has the highest housing costs and the highest number of homeless people in the country. Last year, 180,000 people were homeless. About 123,000 Californians were unsheltered on any given night, according to a recent count.

Unlike New York City, which guarantees people the right to housing, California does not. 

“The City of Los Angeles must reject Governor Newsom’s inhumane, unproven policy,” Kenneth Mejia, the Los Angeles city controller, said in a statement.

It’s a different story in San Francisco, a city that’s been characterized in the past as being too soft on the homelessness issue.

Breed, a Democrat up for reelection in November, said in the past her hands were tied when it came to unsanctioned encampments that have remained a visible problem in the city. 

After Newsom’s directive, she announced she would spearhead a “very aggressive” effort to clear encampments starting in August, which could include criminal penalties for those who refused to leave. 

During a recent mayoral debate, Breed acknowledged her decision to orchestrate sweeps wasn’t popular but was necessary.

“We have had to move from a compassionate city to a city of accountability,” she said. “And I have been leading the efforts to ensure we are addressing this issue differently than we have before.”