California Governor Newsom Orders Dismantling of Homeless Encampments
Homeless people in California, U.S. Photo: X/ @pawyai1
July 26, 2024 Hour: 8:49 am
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local governments have the authority to ban people from camping in public places.
On Thursday, California governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing directs state agencies and departments to urgently address homeless encampments.
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California, home to nearly 40 million people, is experiencing a homelessness crisis decades in the making, with over 180,000 people estimated to have experienced homelessness on any given night in 2023, including 123,000 people who experienced unsheltered homelessness, living in tents, trailers, and vehicles.
“This executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them — and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same… The state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets. There are simply no more excuses. It’s time for everyone to do their part,” Newsom said.
“It is imperative to act with urgency to address dangerous encampments, which subject unsheltered individuals living in them to extreme weather, fires, predatory and criminal activity, and widespread substance use, harming their health, safety, and well-being, and which also threaten the safety and viability of nearby businesses and neighborhoods and undermine the cleanliness and usability of parks, water supplies, and other public resources,” he noted in his executive order.
Newsom has made record-level investments to address the housing crisis, investing over US$24 billion across state agencies and departments, including billions of dollars in funding to assist local jurisdictions in providing services and wrap-around support to people living in encampments.
In Fiscal Year 2022-2023, these investments helped lift more than 165,000 people out of homelessness and into interim or permanent housing, the news release added.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that local governments have the authority to ban people from sleeping and camping in public places.
California had 181,399 homeless people in January 2023, an increase of 5.8 percent from 2022. California’s homeless population accounted for 28 percent of the nation’s total, by far the largest among all 50 states and Washington, D.C., according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Autor: teleSUR/ JF
Fuente: Xinhua
