CA cities jump on homeless encampment bans

(CALMATTERS) – For five years, California officials responding to the homelessness crisis had to work around one big restriction imposed by the federal courts: Because they didn’t have enough shelter beds, cities generally couldn’t make homeless camps illegal.

It made getting people to leave encampments complicated and often flawed, and city leaders and housed residents complained it led to sprawling health and safety concerns. But advocates and legal experts said the restriction forced cities to actually try to figure out how to offer suitable alternative housing — rather than forcing unhoused residents to choose between criminal citations and sleeping on an airport tarmac.

That’s changing dramatically. As CalMatters’ homelessness reporter Marisa Kendall writes, we’re entering an era of zero tolerance.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that restriction on cities, greenlighting local bans on homeless camps. Gov. Gavin Newsom, one of numerous California Democratic leaders who had asked for such a decision, followed up with an executive order encouraging local governments to clear camps. 

Since then, Marisa reports that dozens of California cities and counties are considering or have already passed new bans on sleeping in public spaces, or are making existing bans even stricter — whether or not they have enough shelter beds. It could lead to more fines, citations and arrests.

San Joaquin County, for example, is considering forcing unhoused residents to move along from where they’re sleeping every hour. 

• Supervisor Tom Patti: “We’re going to have zero tolerance. We’re going to have definitive enforcement.”

Nearly two-thirds of the 186,000 Californians who are homeless are “unsheltered,” meaning they sleep outside. The total homeless population is up 8% since 2022, according to an exclusive CalMatters analysis.

The encampment bans are happening across the state, and span conservative-leaning and Democratic-run cities. For more on whether it could make a difference in the homelessness crisis, read Marisa’s story.