Newsom ordered homeless camps cleared. Here’s how 3 California communities respond

 Newsom ordered homeless camps cleared. Here’s how 3 California communities respond

State agencies received an executive order on July 25 directing them to clear homeless encampments on public property across the California, allowing local governments to more swiftly sweep tent cities in the coming weeks.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson ruling on June 28, which gave state and local governments the green light to enforce anti-camping ordinances even when there are insufficient shelter beds to accommodate each homeless person under their jurisdiction. Many Northern California cities quickly issued their support for municipalities’ newly-expanded powers, with officials stating they were considering next steps to sweep public property and respond to the needs of homeless people ousted from their encampments.

City governments pursuing encampment clearings expressed gratitude for the executive order, as assistance from state agencies will speed up the removal process and save them funding. But homelessness advocacy groups reacted with dismay, expressing concerns that the order will deprive hundreds of thousands of homeless people of their property, leave them without spaces to live and encourage police departments to criminally penalize them.

“It was strange seeing California’s ‘liberal’ governor backing the ultra-conservative Supreme Court majority, but it is even more perverse to see him go full throttle in criminalizing poverty,” wrote Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Fund, which oversees the organization Housing Is A Human Right. “Governor Newsom, where do you expect people to go?”

FOLSOM

Folsom police Chief Rick Hillman said that the department’s homeless outreach (HOT) team will continue to work on clearing the 13 known encampments still standing after weeks of tent city removals. The HOT commenced operations on July 1, and it has since swept about half a dozen encampments, according to Hillman.

He stressed that the city’s approach to engaging with tent city residents usually does not involve arrests or legal penalties, unless a resident is “determined to destroy some areas with debris and garbage.” Instead, he said, the HOT’s goal is to connect them with resources when their encampments are dismantled. Before clearing an encampment space, police meet with residents and post a 72-hour notice listing tools for assistance, in addition to coordinating with the volunteer group Jake’s Journey Home to help them access resources like temporary housing, social security cards and mental health services. Hillman added that the HOT has helped four former homeless encampment residents secure housing in the past month.

The tents of a homeless encampment are concealed deep within the Willow Creek sensitive habitat area, managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, in Folsom on Friday. Camps on state-owned land would be directly affected by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new executive order. Hector Amezcua hamezcua@sacbee.com

Tanja Steiner, who has lived homeless in Folsom for four years, gives her dog Tarzan a kiss as she moves her belongings in a cart Friday on their way to a recycling center on Sunrise Boulevard. Hector Amezcua

“It’s not just bringing in crews to take everything away,” Hillman said. “Our goal is to continue to keep our areas in their clean, natural state that they were in and to offer people services and get people help, rather than get people into the criminal justice system.”

But it may take some time to take down the remaining 13 encampments known to the city. Efforts to remove tent cities have often posed financial challenges for Folsom: their hired contractors charge thousands of dollars to clear each encampment, a process that usually takes several days. Gov. Newsom’s order will likely save the city tens of thousands by sending state agencies to perform clearings instead of these companies. Hillman said he believes that state agencies will assist the city in their efforts to accommodate the needs of homeless people, beyond facilitating encampment removals.

CHICO

In the wake of the Grants Pass decision, Chico city manager Mark Sorensen lauded the ruling. But given the stipulations in a 2022 federal court settlement between the city and a group of homeless people in Warren v. Chico, the city could not yet use the Supreme Court decision to enforce anti-camping laws, he noted in a July 1 statement.

At the time, Sorensen wrote that the federal court order resulting from Warren v. Chico “severely restricts and delays the City of Chico’s ability to enforce a variety of historically normal, reasonable and common laws to achieve public safety and public health objectives, and to properly maintain public spaces.”

The terms from the settlement are still in place, so regardless of the executive order, Chico will be unable to move forward with encampment removals until a federal court strikes down or modifies the Warren v. Chico stipulation. Following Gov. Newsom’s order, Sorensen stated that within the next two weeks, the city of Chico expects to find judicial relief from the Warren v. Chico order by filing a motion pursuant to Rule 60 of the Federal Rules Procedure, which allows federal courts to review and correct mistakes in past orders related to oversight and omission issues.

PLACER COUNTY

Chris Gray-Garcia, the Placer County deputy director of communications and public affairs, wrote that the county is continuing to “evaluate the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on existing services and plans to continue enforcement of its camping and personal property storage ordinance.”

The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance regulating encampments in 2022, which allowed “camping by necessity” in permitted areas when sufficient shelter space was unavailable. The legislation also authorized encampment clearings based on health and sanitation needs in public spaces.

According to Gray-Garcia, the county’s mobile temporary shelter at Placer County Government Center in North Auburn has effectively curbed camping on public land. The mobile shelter, which debuted in 2023 after a 70-tent encampment was removed from the site, consists of an open space where about 50 tents equipped with cots and bedding are organized in lines. The lot is located next to a county facility providing referrals to social services, in addition to warming and cooling centers during extreme weather conditions.

In early 2024, Placer County’s Point-in-Time survey recorded 366 unsheltered homeless individuals still living in the county.

ARE COMMUNITIES READY FOR THE SWEEPS?

Scott Silverman, a California addiction recovery counselor who works with homeless people, said that large shelters must focus on helping individuals develop paths to self-sufficiency in order to prevent their return to encampments. He added that some people may opt to live in encampments because they feel unsafe or unsupported in shelters. Since the executive order states that California agencies must request outreach services from local providers — without any directives requiring such provisions to be secured before encampments are cleared — Silverman predicted that many communities may be unprepared to shelter and provide services to upwards of thousands of homeless people.

“You’re dealing with a very vulnerable population, and they decided they want to live outside because either A., they don’t want a structured environment; or B., there aren’t structured environments where they can live where they feel safe,” Silverman said. “It’s going to create a tsunami of unhappiness and in many cases put a lot of people in harm’s way.”