Newsom wants locals to break up homeless encampments. California’s blame game begins | Opinion

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new executive order, urging local governments to tear down “dangerous” homeless encampments, culminates his months-long effort to politically shift responsibility and blame for the problem to city councils and county supervisors.

The governor’s approach - promising tiny home sites and never coordinating with local governments to get them built - is hardly a template for success. In the Sacramento region, Newsom’s order might encourage communities to enact ordinances that would simply push the homeless into other communities. Already, it is the city of Sacramento that is bearing the brunt of the crisis.

Meanwhile, what a weird publicity stunt by a governor addicted to public attention.

Opinion

Newsom has been eclipsed by the Californian now running for president, Kamala Harris. So Newsom’s way of getting a top headline in the New York Times is to remind the nation how badly California is handling its homeless issue.

The governor’s latest move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light to local governments throughout the nation to remove homeless people from public property even if there is no alternative shelter space for these dislocated souls to live safely. Previously such local efforts were restricted in western states due to an appellate court decision that declared that dislodging the homeless in such circumstances violated the constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Newsom was among a large contingent of leaders urging the high court to consider that there was nothing cruel about moving homeless people when there is nowhere designated for them to go. Newsom got his wish thanks to the conservative majority of the court.

“It’s time to move with urgency at the local level to clean up these sites,” said Newsom, wearing sunglasses against the backdrop of an unidentified road site, workers and law enforcement in the background busy cleaning up the debris of a shuttered encampment. “There are no longer any excuses.”

The homeless crisis demands resources and far better coordination between the state and local branches of government. Those 1,200 tiny homes that Newsom promised, and never delivered, is a perfect example. He now appears to be fed up with local government. There’s plenty of human imperfection to go around on this particular issue.

Locally, the latest bi-annual census of the homeless found an unsheltered population in Sacramento County that appeared to be both decreasing and consolidating into the capital city. Sacramento sheriff’s deputies, one step ahead of the governor, managed to drive down the unincorporated county’s share of the population from 20% to 14%. All that did, however, was to increase Sacramento’s share of the homeless from. Two years ago, the city had 67% of all homeless residents in the county. Now it is 77%.

The court decision and the governor’s blame game may rekindle efforts in Sacramento to move the homeless around more. Last year council members Rick Jennings and Eric Guerra, for example, floated the idea of banning homeless encampments on public property during daytime hours. This idea could resurface and trigger a debate on a city council that may move toward increased homeless sweeps thanks to the governor.

If that happens, it won’t be because the data says that rousting homeless people works. There is no statistical evidence it does. What we should be watching for are unintended consequences resulting from Newsom’s latest publicity stunt.

If, for example, Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies get more aggressive in moving the homeless, it could push them into the city of Sacramento.

The bottom line is that local governments here and throughout California do not own the homeless problem. They have been addressing it primarily with somebody else’s money, namely the state’s. And if that money begins to dry up, as Newsom has threatened to do, don’t expect cities like Sacramento to use their own money to run shelters and build affordable housing. So then more homeless would end up back on the streets, where they can now be arrested or their tents taken away.

Newsom joins a very long list of elected leaders who are playing to a fed-up public’s anger with the homeless problem. The governor does deserve credit for historic improvements in the state’s mental health strategy and providing new bond funds for expanded treatment and housing. But declaring himself victorious and claiming that cities now have all the tools they need to solve homelessness, that’s pretty delusional.