Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to state agencies to begin removing homeless encampments that are on state land. The move comes in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling by a 6–3 majority in the Grants Pass v. Johnson case that allows cities to enforce anticamping bans.
The executive order directs state agencies to remove the encampments from state land such as state parks, beaches, agency buildings, and highways. On the county and city level, the order doesn’t apply, other than to encourage local leaders to act.
Newsom’s office said in a statement that his administration had spent tens of billions of dollars for services to people living in encampments, and that this expenditure had succeeded in helping move 165,000 people into interim or permanent housing. The administration noted billions more was available for local officials to provide services to the homeless, so the encampment cleanups could take place “while respecting the dignity and well-being of all Californians.
The executive order directs state agencies to remove the encampments from state land. The order doesn’t apply to cities and counties, other than to encourage local leaders to act.
Naturally, not everyone was convinced. Critics claimed the governor’s order would just result in people being shifted from one place to another. Supporters greeted the move as a late-but-welcome measure.
Below, we’ve collected quotes from Californians covering a range of viewpoints — positive, negative, and the inevitable snarky.
Positive
Gov. Gavin Newsom: “This executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them — and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same. The state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets. There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part.”
State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones: “It’s about damn time! Letting people live and die on the streets or in our parks is unsafe and unsanitary. … I am cautiously optimistic that the governor has finally taken note of the urgency of this problem, albeit many years later than needed.”
Bay Area Council CEO Jim Wunderman: “Getting our many thousands of unhoused residents indoors and out of unsafe, unhealthy and inhumane outdoor encampments is critical to ending California’s homelessness crisis.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed: “San Francisco is already doing what the Governor is calling for, with efforts well underway since long before the Grants Pass ruling. We’ve made significant investments in shelter and housing, and consistent daily outreach continues to offer services and support. This proactive approach has led to a five-year low in our street tent count.”
Venture capitalist Vinod Khosla: “Agree but if, and only if, we provide them an alternative location to sleep. We are rich enough as a society to afford this level of caring if the left ‘do gooders’ don’t create expensive ‘minimal standards’ that make this unaffordable. It should be better than a street tent, with a place to go to the bathroom and shower, transport to jobs so the homeless can get a job. If so cost of homelessness will decline. Mental health homeless folks should be treated separately/differently. Meritocracy is great as long as we take care of those who are temporarily or permanently disadvantaged in some way and cannot take care of themselves. The minimum level of care should be based on affordability by society and hence GDP growth.”
San José Mayor Matt Mayan: “We’re eager to work with the state to responsibly and quickly remove encampments from state property in San Jose, especially those adjacent to neighborhoods and in dangerous areas along our freeways and on- and off-ramps.”
Negative
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass: “Strategies that just move people along from one neighborhood to the next or give citations instead of housing do not work. … We thank the Governor for his partnership thus far and hope that he will continue collaboration on strategies that work.”
The People Concern CEO John Maceri: “The broom theory of sweeping people from here to there, it doesn’t solve anybody’s problem.”
Assemblyma Alex Lee: “Pushing unhoused [people] from site to site is shown time and time again to not work. You get your highway off ramp clean for a moment only. Without meaningful services and HOUSING all sweeps do is making a prominent inequality less visible”
LindyLuan: “Tell us you have no clue about housing instability without telling us[.] Things like this DO NOT HELP[.] I work at a nonprofit that helps people find safe, stable, affordable housing & instead of helping NPs help others, you just made doing the same work in your state so much harder[.]”
UC Berkeley sociology professor Daniel Aldana Cohen: “This is what odious looks like: When Newsom was first elected, he promised a “Marshall Plan for affordable housing,” saying he would build 3.5 million units in 4 years. 5 years and almost no progress later, he’s pivoted to clearing homeless encampments.”
Snarky
Michael AB: “Wow and no one in the administration sued him or the state to force his hand to do this. It’s almost like he’s wanted to do this all along but was looking for an excuse to make it hurt him less politically[.]”
Liberacrat Media: “No more excuses? What about the last *checks notes* 23+ years of you saying the same thing?”
Time columnist Ian Bremmer: “[A]nd he waited until three months before the election why?”