Standing in front of a cleared homeless encampment in Los Angeles, Gavin Newsom had a message for local governments: clean up encampments now or lose out on state funding next year.
The announcement on Thursday was part of an escalating campaign by the California governor to push local governments into doing more homeless encampment sweeps.
Last month, Newsom ordered state agencies to start clearing encampments on state land. The order cited a controversial US supreme court decision saying unhoused people sleeping outside can be ticketed and jailed even when there is no shelter available, and directed state agencies to develop policies to remove encampments along freeways and other properties under its jurisdiction. The order also urged local governments to follow suit.
Newsom can’t legally force local governments to act, but he can pressure them by withholding state funds.
“I want to see results,” Newsom told reporters at a news conference on Thursday. “I don’t want to read about them. I don’t want to see the data. I want to see it.”
California is home to roughly one-third of the nation’s population of unhoused people. A 2023 count estimated that there were more than 180,000 people in the state experiencing homelessness, including 123,000 people living outside on the streets in tents, trailers, cars and makeshift shelters.
The crisis is among the worst in the nation, and is increasingly drawing national attention. Republicans have repeatedly used the homelessness crisis to attack the governor and other California Democrats, including presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
But solving it is a problem that has dogged Newsom since taking office. Under Newsom, the state has spent roughly $24bn to tackle the homelessness crisis. That includes at least $3.2bn in grants given to local government to build shelters, clear encampments and connect unhoused people to services.
Those have been unprecedented investments from the state, Newsom said.
Chris Herring, a University of California, Los Angeles, sociology professor and expert on homelessness, told the Guardian last month he saw Newsom’s order as “giving the green light to a harsher approach”.
“It sends a clear message to municipalities that even if you do not have shelter available, you can go through with this. The law now allows cities and counties to cite and incarcerate individuals for sleeping outside,” Herring said.
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But not all local authorities are embracing Newsom’s stepped-up approach. While San Francisco’s mayor has taken aggressive action in clearing encampments after the supreme court ruling, the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, and LA county officials have pushed back, saying the governor’s approach won’t work.
Newsom on Thursday praised Bass’s work at successfully reducing the number of people sleeping outside in Los Angeles, adding that his frustration is mostly directed toward counties.
The California state association of counties, which represents 58 counties in the state, said it won’t weigh in on the governor’s announcement on Thursday. A spokesperson instead pointed to a statement in response to Newsom’s order last month that the counties “will continue to work together with the governor and share his sense of urgency”.
It’s not the first time Newsom has vowed to cut funding over what he sees as the lackluster efforts from local governments to address homelessness.
In 2022, he threatened to withhold $1bn in homelessness spending from cities and counties over the lack of progress. Last month, his office clawed back a $10m grant sent to San Diego to build tiny homes because the county didn’t act fast enough.