Western cities won the right to clear homeless encampments—but will they use it?

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Thursday pushing cities to remove homeless encampments following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision clearing the way for such actions.

California, like other Western states, had been prohibited by courts since 2018 from threatening people with arrest or criminal penalties for camping on public property unless there was adequate space at local shelters for those people to use. But the Supreme Court overturned those rules in June, finding that they were impractical and legally unsound.

Since the court’s decision in Johnson v. Grants Pass, many Western cities have renewed efforts to eliminate encampments. Officials in Portland, Oregon, started enforcing a new ordinance in July that carries potential penalties of up to seven days behind bars. San Francisco Mayor London Breed promised that the city would become “very aggressive and assertive in moving encampments” starting in August.

But others have stuck with the same policies they had before the decision. A new Oregon state law limits local governments’ options for clearing out encampments. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said the ruling “would not affect” the city’s approach. And Las Vegas’ policies have also gone untouched since the decision. In fact, the governors of both Nevada and Washington state indicated they would not issue an executive order like Newsom’s.

Newsom said in his decree that “there is no longer any barrier to local governments utilizing the substantial resources provided by the state, in tandem with federal and local resources, to address encampments with both urgency and humanity, or excuse for not doing so.”

The governor ordered state agencies to begin clearing encampments using policies developed by the California Department of Transportation, which works with local governments and nonprofits to find services in advance of removing people from its property.

The governor “encouraged” local officials to follow suit, noting that the state has provided $1 billion to cities and counties to help clean up encampments, part of $24 billion the state has spent to address the housing crisis.

“We’re done,” Newsom said on social media. “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. There are no longer any excuses. A billion dollars this state has invested to support communities to clean up these encampments.”

“This executive order,” Newsom added, “is about pushing that paradigm further and getting the sense of urgency that’s required of local government to do their job.”

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said Thursday that big cities like his in California are already working to clear encampments.

“We all understand encampments are unsafe and unhealthy, you do have to give people a place to go,” he told CBS 8. “I’m hopeful his announcement today is really a directive to smaller cities, not big cities up and down the state who I think are working in good faith to expand shelter capacity, but really those small and midsize cities in our county that do none of this work.”

But The San Diego Union-Tribune noted that the state could use the executive order, which affects state properties, to clear riverbeds and highway underpasses in the region.

Advocates for people experiencing homelessness, meanwhile, are criticizing Newsom’s order.

“Gov. Newsom’s pursuit of political expediency will harm unhoused people and worsen homelessness in communities throughout California,” said Diane Yentel, the president and CEO of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, in a statement. “He is flouting decades of evidence on effective solutions and urging communities to merely move unhoused people out of public view rather than work to solve their homelessness. Urging communities to use an ineffective, harmful, wasteful tactic to relieve political pressure on himself isn’t leadership. It’s cowardice.”

The order would disproportionately hurt people of color who suffer from higher rates of homelessness than white people, she said.

Yentel also emphasized that the root cause of homelessness was the scarcity of housing for low-income people. In California, she said, there were only two units of low-income housing for every 10 households who needed it.

Donald Whitehead, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, told Route Fifty in an interview that Newsom’s directive follows a “trend toward criminalization and control” that has gained momentum across the country in recent years.

Newsom’s order, he said, “is a worst-case scenario for us, with a governor mandating those kinds of actions instead of thinking about the consequences for those people who are going to be caught up in those sweeps.”

Newsom has a long history of limiting choices for people experiencing homelessness, Whitehead said. Before he became San Francisco mayor, for example, Newsom led a 2002 ballot measure known as “Care Not Cash” that took away direct financial support for homeless adults in exchange for shelters and other services. More recently, as governor he championed the creation of a CARE Court that allows family members and others to get courts to compel people with untreated mental illness to seek it, and for counties to provide that care.

Whitehead said state and local leaders should focus on providing housing—which is less expensive than incarceration—rather than adding more punitive measures.

“No form of encampment, in my mind, is an adequate solution,” Whitehead said. “People need a roof over their head, and they need support for whatever got them to homelessness in the first place, and you can’t really do that in an encampment setting. But it’s better than being arrested.”

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News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

Gig Economy
California upholds gig worker law. The California Supreme Court on Thursday upheld Proposition 22, the voter initiative that allows Uber, Lyft and other gig economy companies to classify drivers for their ride-hailing and delivery services as independent contractors rather than as employees. The ruling marks the end of a years-long legal fight over the initiative, which essentially carved out a new classification for workers who are entitled to limited benefits but not the rights granted full-fledged employees. The decision is likely to have ripple effects on drivers across the U.S., as Uber has pushed for laws similar to Proposition 22 in other states.

Schools
New York bans realistic active shooter drills in schools. The state Department of Education said the decision is part of an effort to make the drills less traumatic for students. The new rules call for a “trauma-informed” and “age-appropriate” approach to drills that excludes the use of any props, actors or tactics depicting violence when school or extracurricular activities are in session. They also require schools to notify parents, staff members and pupils about drills ahead of time. New York schools—public and nonpublic—will still be required to conduct eight evacuation drills and four lockdown drills every year. 

Climate Change
25 states file emergency appeal to U.S. Supreme Court to halt EPA’s carbon rule. Attorneys general in 25 states have sent an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to immediately halt a Biden administration rule that they say threatens to shutter the country’s remaining fleet of coal-fired power plants. The appeal to stay the Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to require strict greenhouse gas emissions standards, filed by a coalition of Republican-led states, argues that the EPA has overstepped its authority in mandating greenhouse gas regulations that are impossible to meet because the technology either currently doesn’t exist, or would be so cost prohibitive that it would make using coal impossible.

Economic Development
Chicago lands “transformational” quantum computer commercial development. California-based tech company PsiQuantum is investing billions in a long dormant site on the Southeast Side of Chicago in a quest to build the world’s first commercially viable quantum computer. The project promises to establish the city as a leader in the nascent quantum computing field, while revitalizing an area that has struggled economically since the closure of that U.S. Steel plant there more than 30 years ago. The city and state worked together to lure PsiQuantum as the anchor tenant for a quantum computing park that city officials say could bring $20 billion in economic impact and thousands of jobs.

Book Bans
Another book ban battle emerges in Florida, with high stakes for the First Amendment. The sued school district is launching a controversial defense that could shake First Amendment law nationwide. Facing a federal lawsuit over its removal and restriction of school library books, Nassau County school district officials say such decisions are actually protected by the First Amendment, which they are accused of violating. "[Our] actions constitute government speech for which no First Amendment protections attach," they wrote in a Friday court filing. The argument has also been used multiple times in the courts by Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and other school districts, who maintain that governments can remove any school library book regardless of reason. 

Local News
California’s news industry is in steep decline. Here’s what is at stake. Economic forces and new technology have dramatically reduced local reporting power. A new series from the Los Angeles Times examines the crisis in California and novel efforts to save local news there. The series looks at laws in Australia and Canada that require Big Tech companies like Google and Facebook to pay for news articles they share on their sites—legislation that the Golden State is hoping to replicate. Other articles look at misinformation and a real-world example of what happens to a city and its government when there is no local news.

Voting
How some states are making it harder to register voters. Voter registration groups working to increase voter turnout are finding new barriers in Florida and other states to the sorts of voter registration drives that have been a campaign staple for both parties. A 2023 Florida law imposes new regulations, with criminal penalties for violations, on groups that sign up new voters. For example, it allows fines of up to $2,500 if a registration form delivered to election officials contains a mistake. If a registration drive allows people with certain felony convictions to sign up new voters or handle registration applications, the fine could rise to $50,000. Laws similar to Florida’s have been passed recently by a number of Republican-controlled state legislatures. The Florida League of Women Voters and other groups sued in federal court to block the law last year. A ruling is expected soon.

Water
Hot, inland California cities face the steepest water cuts with new conservation mandate. Facing a future of shortages, California is entering a new phase of water conservation: Cities and towns must meet new mandates ramping down use over the next 15 years—and some will be hit harder than others. New state rules require 405 cities and other urban suppliers serving 95% of Californians to meet individualized water budgets. Coastal California is expected to escape relatively unscathed with its cool climate, while hot, inland communities will face far steeper conservation requirements. 

Redistricting
Ohio anti-gerrymandering amendment on its way to November ballot. A proposed amendment that would remove politicians from the redistricting process in favor of a citizens commission has gathered enough signatures to proceed to voters in November. If approved, the ballot initiative would replace the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which is made up entirely of elected officials, with an independent 15-member redistricting commission. The constitutional amendment would also ban current or former politicians and party officials, along with lobbyists, from having a seat on the commission, and “require the creation of fair and impartial districts, prohibiting any drawing of voting districts that discriminate against or favor any political party or individual politician.”

Schools
Pickleball to become a varsity sport at some Maryland high schools. All 25 Montgomery County, Maryland, public high schools will offer pickleball as a varsity sport starting in the fall. Maryland’s largest school district was the first in the country to offer it as a varsity sport when it piloted pickleball at 11 county high schools last year. It will be offered as part of the corollary sports program, which aims to offer more participation opportunities for students with and without disabilities. The county already offers handball, bocce and allied softball in its corollary sports program.

Picture of the Week

More than 350 people submitted proposals for a redesign of the original Maine state flag that will be the subject of a referendum vote this November. The so-called Pine Tree Flag, featuring a pine tree and a blue star set against a buff background, was only the official state flag for a few years in the early 1900s. But the 1901 design has exploded in popularity in recent years. After several years of debate, state lawmakers opted to give voters a choice this fall: either stick with the current state flag, featuring the state seal against a dark-blue background, or revert to the 1901 version. But with so many subtle variations out there, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows launched a design contest last month asking Mainers to submit their proposed design for a new take on the old flag. The contest deadline was late last week. The final design will be unveiled in August.

What They’re Saying

“When they read the word ‘boneless,’ they think that it means ‘without bones,’ as do all sensible people.”

Justice Michael P. Donnelly of the Ohio Supreme Court in dissent of a ruling on Thursday that found that consumers cannot expect boneless chicken wings to actually be free of bones, rejecting claims by a restaurant patron who suffered serious medical complications from getting a bone stuck in his throat. In a 4-3 ruling, the state Supreme Court said that “boneless wings” refers to a cooking style, and that the restaurant patron should’ve been on guard against bones since it’s common knowledge that chickens have bones. The high court sided with lower courts that had dismissed the suit. The dissenting justices called the reasoning for the ruling “utter jabberwocky.”