Sacramento Report: Newsom’s Encampment Order Is on Everyone’s Mind

As state Sen. Catherine Blakespear prepared to host a summit on homelessness Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped a bombshell: an executive order directing cities to clear homeless encampments.

Following a recent Supreme Court decision empowering cities to take action against encampments, Newsom’s order requires California state agencies to clear camps on state property, and encourages local governments to do the same on city and county land.

Blakespear applauded the move. “I do not think we should have encampments in our open spaces, our natural spaces, our downtown sidewalks and streets, our parks,” she said. “They’re unsafe and unsanitary.”

Earlier this year Blakespear, D-Encinitas, co-authored a bill with Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, which would have done much the same thing. It passed the Senate Public Safety Committee, but never made it to a floor vote. 

The bill was modeled after the city of San Diego’s “Unsafe Camping Ordinance,” which bans camping on public property if shelter is available, and outlaws it all the time near schools, transportation hubs, parks and waterways.

San Diego’s ordinance has received mixed reviews. City officials cite an apparent reduction in homeless encampments in downtown areas, but critics say the ban pushed them to areas around freeways and along the banks of the San Diego River, Cal Matters reported. 

Not surprisingly, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, a speaker at the summit, also praised Newsom’s move and touted the results of the city’s camping restrictions.

“I think it’s beneficial to have alignment with what the city and state are doing,” Gloria said at the summit. It could ease the game of “whack-a-mole” that officials play while policing encampments between city and state jurisdictions, he said.

It’s unclear where people will go after they’re moved out of encampments, but Blakespear said she thinks the anti-camping policy could force cities to find solutions.

“I think the tail can actually wag the dog here,” she said. “If we say you cannot have encampments, that will drive cities toward housing.”

Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, who chairs the assembly’s housing committee, wasn’t sold on Newsom’s plan. It will leave homeless people with even fewer options, he warned, noting that there would be a “bit of a time lag between having the enforcement bill and having housing built.”

Ward hit on the fundamental issue that speakers agreed on; California’s housing shortage drives homelessness. That seems obvious, but isn’t always front and center amid discussions about shelter plans and outreach programs. Ultimately the goal is to get people into permanent homes.

But that’s not happening. The homeless population in California rose by more than 50 percent, from 118,552 in 2013 to 181,399 a decade later, according to a state audit of homeless programs in San Jose and San Diego that was released in April and discussed in one of Thursday’s panels.

Two of the five programs evaluated in those cities were likely effective, the audit concluded, but the other three lacked data to measure their results. And the vast majority of people served aren’t placed in permanent homes, the audit found. Statewide, 86 percent of people leaving homeless programs move into interim housing instead of permanent housing.

“California has spent $24 billion on homelessness in the past five years, but homelessness continues to rise, not go down,” Blakespear said.

That’s because the state faces a housing shortage that’s decades in the making.

“You cannot solve a multigenerational problem – 40 years of underproduction – in one year of housing production,” Gloria said.

Here’s What Officials Think California Should Do

• Require cities to provide homeless-serving housing in proportion to their homeless populations. (Blakespear)
• Prevent homelessness in the first place: build lots more homes, add “shallow rent subsidies” to keep people such as seniors in their homes, and help renters with security deposits. (Gloria)
• Make a long-term funding commitment to the state Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Grant Program (HHAP,) the $1 billion per year program that has been the bread and butter of cities’ homeless efforts. (everyone)

For more details about Newsom’s executive order, read this Morning Report item by our Lisa Halverstadt, or this story by Cal Matters reporter Marisa Kendall.

Fighting Fentanyl

Fentanyl deaths have climbed over the past decade, with 726 fatal overdoses in San Diego County and 7,385 deaths statewide in 2022, according to the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard. It’s readily available, and many other street drugs are contaminated by the powerful opioid.

This year California passed a number of laws to chip away at the fentanyl problem. Here are some of the bills sponsored or co-sponsored by San Diego lawmakers.

AB 2429, by Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego, requires high school health classes to include instruction in the dangers of fentanyl use.

AB 461, co-authored by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, requires each community college district Cal State universities to stock fentanyl test strips and let students know where to find them.

SB-19, by state Sen Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrietta and Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, establishes the Fentanyl Misuse and Overdose Prevention Task Force to collect data on use of the drug and increase public awareness of its dangers.

The anti-crime Proposition 36 would crack down on fentanyl trafficking by authorizing felony charges for possession of drugs including fentanyl, tighten laws on fentanyl trafficking and restore penalties for dealers whose drugs kill or seriously injure a user. We’ll take a deeper look at that ballot measure in coming weeks.

Coastal Commission Dives Into Sea Level Rise

The California Coastal Commission released a draft of its latest guide to Sea Level Rise Policy, this month and opened it to public comment.

Average global sea level rose 8 inches over the last century. It’s expected to surge another one to six feet by the end of this century, depending on how quickly global ice sheets melt.

That spells trouble for San Diego coastal communities that already suffer from crumbling bluffs, eroding beach sand, floods and storm surges. 

The report offers guidelines for addressing those risks. For instance, existing structures should be protected without the use of seawalls, which can hasten erosion. Natural ecosystems such as wetlands, which buffer shorelines from sea level rise, should be conserved. 

The commission will present the report at upcoming meetings, and you can submit comments to statewideplanning@coastal.ca.gov until Sept. 23. 

The Sacramento Report runs every Friday and is part of a partnership with CalMatters. Do you have tips, ideas or questions? Send them to me at deborah@voiceofsandiego.org.