Gov. Newsom Releases New Ordinance Pushing Cities To Remove Homeless Encampments

Governor Gavin Newsom issued a new model ordinance on homeless encampments on Monday, pushing cities across the state to begin removing encampments in a “humane” way.

According to the ordinance, cities and local governments are now encouraged to begin removing encampments, specifically ones deemed as “persistent camping” sites, as long as they follow the guidelines listed in the ordinance and follow three basic principles. These include:

• No person should face criminal punishment for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go. Policies that prohibit individuals from sleeping outside anywhere in the jurisdiction without offering adequate indoor shelter, effectively banishing homeless individuals from the jurisdiction’s borders, are both inhumane and impose externalities on neighboring jurisdictions, which must face the costs and challenges of an increased unsheltered homeless population.

• Encampment policies must prioritize shelter and services and ensure that people experiencing homelessness and their belongings are treated with respect.

• Policies must not unduly limit local authority to clear encampments. Officials must be able to enforce common-sense policies to protect the health and safety of their residents and maintain their public spaces.

In addition, all encampment clearing must follow state guidelines, including giving  at least 48 hours’ notice before a clearance, outreach to local service providers, and proper storage of items when addressing encampments. Cities can also modify encampment clearing based on local rules or differing needs, like banning encampments from being on sidewalks or near schools or offering shelter to all homeless people in the encampment before a razing.

“The Governor is calling on every local government to adopt and implement local policies without delay, backed by billions in state funding and authority affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court last year,” said the Governors office on Monday. The model ordinance follows and builds on the Governor’s 2024 executive order, which urged all local jurisdictions to quickly address encampments and use state and local funding to connect people experiencing homelessness with the care and support they need.”

“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets,” added Newsom himself. “Local leaders asked for resources — we delivered the largest state investment in history. They asked for legal clarity — the courts delivered. Now, we’re giving them a model they can put to work immediately, with urgency and with humanity, to resolve encampments and connect people to shelter, housing, and care. The time for inaction is over. There are no more excuses.”

A new order

While Newsom didn’t make many moves on encampment teardowns early on, he softened this attitude in recent years, especially since the Grants Pass ruling in the Supreme Court last year. This included allowing encampment removals from state lands, as well as essentially giving the green light for city-wide encampment ordinances to go fully into effect. Cities like Los Angeles and San Diego, with encampment clearing ordinances already in the books, moved forward with larger-scale clearances. Other cities, including San Francisco and Long Beach, saw the executive order as a way to get around local opposition and remove the encampments based on Governor’s orders over health and public safety reasons.

However, Newsom’s latest homeless encampment removal plan also brings along many issues and problems. In his announcement, Newsom specifically pointed out that the ordinance would be working with their government accountability site to help “assess the progress being made by their local governments on these pressing issues and learn more about the process and funding provided to communities by the state.” This comes in direct conflict with Newsom’s own actions, which included spending $24 billion on homeless endeavors between 2019 and 2024, with little to no oversight or transparency on how the funds were ultimately spent by homelessness groups, NGOs, and other non-profits.

In addition, there’s the fact that cities have been tearing down encampments for years, with the latest ordinance only serving as greater desperation in reducing the problem while also giving an additional $3.3 billion to remove encampments from places like underpasses, parks and local streets.

The action would likewise help deemphasize a major political headache of Newsom: the high amount of homeless people in California and the state being seen as “overrun” by homeless people both nationwide and internationally. Homelessness under Newsom’s Governorship is expected to be a huge issue in the 2028 Presidential primaries and election should he run, and his executive orders and ordinances released in the past several years have been seen as a way to combat criticism against him.

While Newsom’s policies have brought some success, most notably through California’s homeless population only increasing 3% last year compared to a nationwide 18% increase, homeless numbers remain sky high with encampments being tied with crime and drug use. The ordinance released on Monday is there to put a dent in both the overall homeless figure, show that the state is still taking action in removing encampments, and wants the crucial unsheltered population total to go down even further. All three would show progress for Newsom heading into the end of his second term and would help create a substantive rebuttal against California homeless criticisms in the coming years.

And, as the Globe has reported before, Newsom is taking short-term solution paths to run out the clock on his term rather than put in longer-term solutions that wouldn’t see immediate homeless population changes. Homeless experts have said that state assistance to get jobs and permanent shelter are key, with Newsom’s orders, including his latest ordinance, only going for a quick encampment removal strategy with no follow up actions.