- California Gov. Gavin Newsom is cracking down on homelessness with an order requiring officials to remove sidewalk tent encampments.
- California, which struggles with the worst homelessness crisis in the nation, has recently invested billions of dollars into new laws and programs targeting the issue.
- As a result, the rest of the nation's homelessness problems are worsening significantly more than California's. Could California's actions be a model for the rest of the country?
For years, California has struggled with a homelessness crisis like no other state — of the estimated 771,500 people experiencing homelessness in the nation, nearly a quarter live in California.
On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a plan to remove homeless individuals from the street with a new directive for cities, towns and counties to ban tent camping on sidewalks and in parks.
“There’s nothing compassionate about letting people die on the streets. Local leaders asked for resources — we delivered the largest state investment in history,” Newsom said on Monday, referring to a recently-passed state measure that allocates billions of dollars to help homeless individuals and address mental health.
“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,” he wrote.
Where will homeless individuals go?
With 48 hours of advanced notice, individuals are required to clear their camps from sidewalks or from any location they have sheltered in consistently, says the order. Officials must store their belongings for at least 60 days and can request local organizations to provide “services for displaced residents.”
Ideally, officials want to move the unhoused individuals indoors, to shelters or affordable housing. California cities and counties reported about 76,000 emergency shelter and transitional housing beds in 2024.
They would need more than twice that number to house all the homeless individuals in California.
Nevertheless, Newsom’s order is not restrictive. Localities have been provided a “template” that they may tailor according to their specific needs.
Newsom has focused on homelessness during his tenure as governor. A year ago, he issued a similar executive order requiring state agencies to remove homeless encampments throughout the state, calling them “dangerous” and asking officials to “support ... and assist ... individuals living in them.”
Since then, thousands of encampments have been removed, with Newsom releasing footage of him participating in cleanups himself.
Last year’s order received significant pushback from organizations like the National Alliance to End Homelessness, which report that forced encampment evictions do not actually solve homelessness in the long term.
“The blanket order (in 2024) to clear encampments without addressing the immediate and long-term needs of their residents will displace thousands and increase their risk of harm,” said Ann Oliva, the alliance’s CEO. “It will also hinder the progress of California’s deeply under-resourced providers who are working day and night to rehouse the state’s unsheltered population. That is not a solution to California’s homelessness crisis.”
It appears that Newsom’s 2025 order focuses more on mental health than the 2024 order. Newsom was set to discuss behavioral health services in the state during a livestream on Monday.
California looks for solutions to homelessness crisis
Though California is known for its homelessness crisis, the problem grew more slowly in the state last year than it did in other states, per the Public Policy Institute of California.
From 2023 to 2024, the rate of homelessness grew nationally at 18%, while in California it only grew 3%; the number of unsheltered homeless individuals jumped at a rate of 7% nationwide, while in California it only rose by 0.4%.
California has conducted statewide audits, proposed state housing and homelessness committees and invested tens of billions of dollars in an effort to support homeless programs and individuals.
After California, New York comes in at a close second for most homeless inhabitants in the nation, at over 158,000; then Washington, at about 31,500; Florida, at about 31,300; and then Massachusetts, at about 29,300. These statistics come from U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 findings.
As the Deseret News previously reported, Utah has made significant efforts to improve its homelessness policies since its homeless rates began growing in the last decade.
In the 2025 Utah legislative session, lawmakers passed bills banning drug usage in homeless shelters and requiring housing programs to develop mental health, education, relationship and drug addiction plans.