Giving Compass' Take:
- Alex Nguyen reports on the debate over policy supporting housing development to address the housing crisis and encampment sweeps in California.
- How can donors support compassionate solutions to homelessness that connect people experiencing homelessness to resources and care?
- Learn more about key issues in homelessness and housing and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on homelessness in your area.
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In August, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his working-man’s clothes—aviators, jeans, and a trucker hat—starred in a video where he carted people’s possessions out of a homeless encampment near a Los Angeles highway, sparking controversy and debate over encampment sweeps in California.
On any given night in 2023, more than 650,000 people in the US experienced homelessness, with almost 400,000 unsheltered—though that figure may be an underestimate. Research by the federal Government Accountability Office found that every $100 rise in median monthly rent brings about a 9 percent increase in homelessness—notable as rent costs have climbed by 25 percent nationally since 2020, according to CNBC.
Newsom’s photo op followed his July order calling for the encampments sweeps in California on public property, and came alongside a threat to withhold state funding from cities and counties that failed to meet his requirements, much to the ire of local officials like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. On July 25, the day of the order, the governor posted on X: “No more excuses. We’ve provided the time. We’ve provided the funds. Now it’s time for locals to do their job.”
Earlier this month, Newsom approved more than $130 million in funding for 18 cities, including over $12 million to Riverside, to carry out encampment sweeps in California. According to the governor, the goal is to support “efforts to get people out of encampments and connected with care and housing across the state.”
A statewide audit released in April tracked investment during Newsom’s first five years as governor, from 2019 to 2023, and found that California spent roughly $24 billion in that span to address housing and homelessness. At his inaugural address in January 2019, Newsom vowed to “launch a Marshall Plan for affordable housing and lift up the fight against homelessness,” promising to push for the development of 3.5 million housing units across the state by 2025.
According to CalMatters, his administration has since backtracked numerous times, calling in 2022 for cities to have planned a combined 2.5 million homes by 2030. The state still has about one-third of the country’s unhoused people, more than half of whom, in many cities—like San Francisco—are without any kind of shelter.
Read the full article about encampment sweeps in California by Alex Nguyen at Mother Jones.