California cities divided on response to homeless encampments

[August 01, 2024]  By Liya Cui

(Reuters) - San Francisco will ramp up sweeps of homeless encampments under a directive issued days after California Governor Gavin Newsom told cities to begin enforcing laws against camping, while Los Angeles said it would effectively ignore the state's order.

Under Mayor London Breed's directive, San Francisco will continue to offer shelter and services for homeless people, but police and city staff will work to prevent small encampments from growing larger and will prevent homeless people from returning to cleared areas, her office said in a statement.

The directive follows a June U.S. Supreme Court decision, powered by its conservative majority, in a case from Oregon that upheld laws used to ticket and fine people living on the streets. That ruling gave cities more authority to enforce laws when people refuse to leave a homeless encampment.

Under San Francisco's new policies, authorities would issue warnings and follow them with citations that could lead to escalating penalties, including arrest.

"The goal is not punishment, it is compliance," according to the city's statement, released late on Tuesday.

A city count from January found that there were more than 8,000 homeless people in San Francisco, with 4,000 shelter beds available.

Breed's crackdown appeared to have begun on Tuesday morning when police, fire department and local officials ordered people to leave a homeless encampment located under the city's Central Freeway, according to the San Francisco Standard news outlet. It reported that homeless people there had no prior notice of the clearance.

San Francisco is one of the first California cities to officially step up enforcement after Newsom issued an executive order last week calling on state agencies to dismantle homeless encampments where they have jurisdiction, while urging local governments to do the same in areas controlled by municipal authorities.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks to the press prior to the arrival of U.S. President Joe Biden at San Francisco International Airport for the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., November 14, 2023. REUTERS/Brittany Hosea-Small/File Photo

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to stick with its existing policies despite the Democratic governor's directive and mitigate any negative effects that the Supreme Court decision could have on its approach to homelessness. Its resolution did not explicitly mention Newsom's order.

"Leaning on increased criminalization of camping without investing in an adequate supply of interim and permanent housing would be misaligned with the county's framework to end homelessness," Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, told a board meeting.

The board has the support of Los Angeles Sheriff Robert Luna.

"Being homeless is not a crime, and we will maintain our focus on criminal behavior rather than an individual's status," Luna said at the meeting.

Advocates for the homeless have said ticketing and arresting people for sleeping outdoors criminalizes homelessness, and that removing camps without enough alternative shelter or housing would only worsen the situation.

Los Angeles County takes what it calls a "care first, jails last" approach to addressing homelessness that favors expansion of services and treatment to encourage people to leave encampments.

The city of Los Angeles had roughly 45,000 homeless people in 2023, with 16,000 shelter beds, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority. The number of homeless people dropped for the first time in Los Angeles since 2018, according to an official count from January.

(Reporting by Liya Cui in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

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