LOS ANGELES, July 25 (Xinhua) -- California governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Thursday directing officials in the most populated U.S. state to urgently address homeless encampments.
The executive order directs state agencies and departments to adopt humane and dignified policies to urgently address encampments on state property, including by taking necessary and deliberate steps to notify and support the people inhabiting the encampment prior to removal, said Newsom's office in a news release.
The state, home to nearly 40 million people, is experiencing a homelessness crisis decades in the making, with over 180,000 people estimated to have experienced homelessness on any given night in 2023, including 123,000 people who experienced unsheltered homelessness, living in tents, trailers, and vehicles across California, according to the governor's office.
"This executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them -- and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same," said Newsom in the news release, adding that "the state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets. There are simply no more excuses. It's time for everyone to do their part."
"It is imperative to act with urgency to address dangerous encampments, which subject unsheltered individuals living in them to extreme weather, fires, predatory and criminal activity, and widespread substance use, harming their health, safety, and well-being, and which also threaten the safety and viability of nearby businesses and neighborhoods and undermine the cleanliness and usability of parks, water supplies, and other public resources," he noted in his executive order.
Newsom's office said the governor has made record-level investments to address the housing crisis, investing over 24 billion U.S. dollars across multiple state agencies and departments, including billions of dollars in funding to assist local jurisdictions in providing services and wrap-around support to people living in encampments.
In Fiscal Year 2022-2023, these investments helped lift more than 165,000 people out of homelessness and into interim or permanent housing, the news release added.
The order came weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled in June that local governments have the authority to ban people from sleeping and camping in public places.
California had 181,399 homeless people in January 2023, an increase of 5.8 percent from 2022, according to a national report released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last December. According to the report, California's homeless population accounted for 28 percent of the nation's total, by far the largest among all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
