Gov. Newsom Launches New Task Force to Clear California Homeless Encampments

CalMatters originally published this story. Sign up for their newsletters.

Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a new homeless response task force on Friday, marking the latest escalation in his ongoing campaign to eradicate encampments.

Newsom’s office expects to deploy the team within the next month to camps in California’s 10 largest cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, Anaheim, Bakersfield and Fresno. It will address encampments on state property, such as along highway medians or on and off ramps, and under overpasses.

The news comes as Newsom in recent months has pushed for more enforcement against all encampments that line city streets and sidewalks, dot public parks and wind along waterways throughout the state. In May, he urged cities to make it illegal to camp in one place for more than three nights in a row. Last year, he ordered state agencies to ramp up encampment clearings.

“California has put in place a strong, comprehensive strategy for fighting the national homelessness and housing crises — and is outperforming the nation as a result in turning this issue around,” Newsom said in a statement. “No one should live in a dangerous or unsanitary encampment, and we will continue our ongoing work to ensure that everyone has a safe place to call home.”

Dubbed the State Action for Facilitation on Encampments Task Force, Newsom’s new team will include representatives from six different state agencies and departments, each with a different role to play in removing an encampment:

• The California Highway Patrol will be responsible for providing public safety support during a removal, and later for monitoring the area to prevent the encampment from returning.
• The Office of Emergency Services will oversee logistics and procurement of resources.
• The Department of Housing and Community Development will be in charge of providing housing and supportive services for the people living in encampments.
• The Interagency Council on Homelessness will guide local governments on how to help those people.
• Health and Human Services will support local governments’ efforts to provide health care to people in encampments.
• Caltrans will do the actual work of clearing encampments.

It’s too soon to tell exactly how this new directive will change the state’s response to homeless encampments, said Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The language in the news release sent out by Newsom’s office had few specific details about how the task force will function. Newsom’s office did not respond to a request for an interview.

But the only proven way to resolve an encampment is to move people into housing and connect them with the other services they need, Visotzky said.

“My hope is that the task force will make sure we’re understanding the needs of residents of those encampments,” he said, “and what barriers they’re facing to getting back into housing, if we’re going to see results.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass applauded the new task force on Friday.

“Homeless encampments, debris and graffiti located on highways and freeways are under state jurisdiction,” she said in a statement. “I am glad that the Governor is continuing action to collaborate with local efforts. Los Angeles has bucked nationwide trends of increasing homelessness and Governor Newsom’s announcement of a task force today will help keep that momentum.”

A 2024 U.S. Supreme Court ruling gave cities and counties more freedom to ticket or arrest people for camping in public, even if there are no shelter beds available. Since then, homelessness-related tickets and arrests have soared in some California cities.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration is cracking down on encampments at the federal level. Trump signed an executive order this summer pushing cities and states to use law enforcement to get people off the streets.

Some experts and advocates in the homelessness sector have pointed out the similarities between Trump and Newsom’s approaches to clearing encampments.

But on Friday, Newsom’s administration tried to distance its policies from that of the president, stating in a news release:

“Unlike the haphazard strategies employed by the Trump Administration, California’s SAFE Task Force brings together each of the tools created by Governor Newsom to clear encampments and connect people with the care they need.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.