Sacramento – Governor Gavin Newsom again urged California cities and counties to prohibit the camps of homeless people, increasing their pressure campaign on local governments to follow the example of the State and eliminate tents from sidewalks and other public properties.
“There is nothing compassionate to let people die in the streets,” said Newsom in a statement. “Local leaders asked for resources, we delivered the greatest state investment in history. They requested legal clarity, the courts delivered. Now, we are giving them a model that they can put to work immediately, with urgency and humanity, to solve camps and connect people with refuge, housing and care.
The Democratic governor published a model ordinance for local governments to adopt that position described as a starting point before jurisdictions prepare their own policies. The Newsom Plan asks the locals to prohibit the persistent camp in a place and camps that block sidewalks. It also requires local officials to try to sacrifice refuge before eliminating temporary home.
Newsom combined the announcement with the launch on Monday of $ 3.3 billion in funds from proposal 1, approved by voters in 2024, so that communities expand behavioral health and treatment options for their mental and homeless population. The financing does not depend on the cities that prohibit the camps.
The financing adds to $ 27 billion that the State has already granted to local governments to address the lack of housing, a challenging political problem in California.
The defenders of homeless people repeatedly argue that the State does not have enough support and refuge beds to channel those that are eliminated from tents and sidewalks in better conditions. The governor often expresses his frustration due to lack of progress at the local level, launching the lack of housing as a humanitarian crisis and a health and safety problem.
Last year, Newsom issued an executive order that required state agencies to eliminate the camps of homeless people in state property and urged similar to local governments to do the same.
