In the summer of 2024, California Governor Gavin Newsom took a day trip. Donning some casual clothes, a black baseball cap, and his Ray Ban aviators (retailing at a minimum of $180 per pair), he made his way to multiple homeless encampments throughout Los Angeles County.[1] Then, armed with a trash bag and a reacher-grabber tool, he helped to clear away his constituents’ personal belongings. He even posted pictures of the event on the official California Governor website.[2]

Governor Newsom was following his own orders; On July 25, he had issued an executive order directing state officials to take down homeless encampments.[3] This order, aiming to clear away encampments “while respecting the dignity and safety of Californians experiencing homelessness,” left many homeless individuals without a place to sleep and without any of their belongings.[4] They will likely never see their belongings again.[5] After public backlash, Governor Newsom did sign legislation creating more shelter and housing opportunities, but however positive the intentions are, these bills do not undo the damage already caused.[6] Instead, they completely ignore the underlying moral problem: all of Governor Newsom’s actions at the homeless encampments were (and are still) perfectly legal – and they absolutely should not be.

The executive order followed from the Supreme Court’s decision in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, 603 U.S. 520 (2024), which gave Governor Newsom and officials like him free reign to clear public encampments and punish those sleeping outside.[7] This explicit license to criminalize homelessness is incredibly harmful and does nothing to solve the issue. Indeed, there is a mountain of research showing that taking down encampments does more harm than good, actually exacerbating homelessness.[8] The executive order also highlights a major contradiction of our legal system: while Governor Newsom may be able to do whatever he would like to homeless encampments in public spaces, the homeless are routinely and disproportionately punished for simply existing in public.[9]

Some cities have used other legislative means to tackle homelessness. For example, pre-City of Grants Pass, the District of Columbia amended its Human Rights Act to define homelessness as a protected class – the first jurisdiction to do so.[10] While a step in the right direction, this landmark amendment ultimately offered no protection when, in the spring of 2024, the Biden Administration and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser evicted approximately 90 homeless individuals from their tent communities in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.[11] Even worse, the City of Grants Pass and the Solicitor General actually used these DC evictions to argue that the federal government approved of the encampment raids – and the Supreme Court agreed.[12]

It is time for public officials to listen to their homeless constituents and the research that backs them up, rather than listen to the Supreme Court. John Janokso, a California resident who had once been homeless for a decade, says that “people on the street [he] came across don’t even understand [Governor Newsom’s directive],” just that “their lives are going to get even harder.”[13] Instead of focusing solely on broad legislative solutions — a noble idea, but undeniably slow and arguably ineffective – public officials should be safeguarding their homeless constituents specifically from encampment raids. They certainly should not be participating in them.

[1] Governor Newsom Cleans Up Homeless Encampments in Los Angeles, Governor Gavin Newsom (Aug. 9, 2024), https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/09/governor-newsom-cleans-up-homeless-encampments-in-los-angeles/.

[2] Id.

[3] Governor Newsom Orders State Agencies to Address Encampments in Their Communities with Urgency and Dignity, Governor Gavin Newsom (July 25, 2024), https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/07/25/governor-newsom-orders-state-agencies-to-address-encampments-in-their-communities-with-urgency-and-dignity/.

[4] Id.

[5] Nicola Santa Cruz, Asia Fields, Ruth Talbot, & ProPublica, People Rarely Recover Property Cities Say They Store Following Encampment Raids, truthout, Nov. 30, 2024, https://truthout.org/articles/people-rarely-recover-property-cities-say-they-store-following-encampment-raids/.

[6] Governor Newsom Signs New Laws to Help Communities Further Address Homelessness, Governor Gavin Newsom (Aug. 27, 2024), https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/27/governor-newsom-signs-new-laws-to-help-communities-further-address-homelessness/.

[7] Jennifer Ludden, The Supreme Court Says Cities Can Punish People for Sleeping in Public Places, NPR,  June 28, 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/06/28/nx-s1-4992010/supreme-court-homeless-punish-sleeping-encampments.

[8] Id.; Jason M. Ward, Rick Garvey, & Sarah B. Hunter, Annual Trends Among the Unsheltered in Three Los Angeles Neighborhood (2024), https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1890-4.html; Alisa Dewald, Katherine Levine Einstein, & Charley E. Willison, Policing and the Punitive Politics of Local Homelessness Policy (May 2023), https://community.solutions/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Policing-and-Punitive-Politics-of-Local-Homelessness-Policy-Brief.pdf?utm_source=website&utm_medium=button&utm_campaign=policing&utm_id=policy-brief; J.L. Goldshear et. al., “Notice of Major Cleaning”: A Qualitative Study of the Negative Impact of Encampment Sweeps on the Ontological Security of Unhoused People Who Use Drugs, 339 Social Science & Medicine (Dec. 2023), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953623007657.

[9] Terry Skolnik, Homelessness and the Impossibility to Obey the Law, 43 Fordham Urb. L. J. 741 (2016); Brie Diamond, Ronald Burns, & Kendra Bowen, Criminalizing Homelessness: Circumstances Surrounding Criminal Trespassing and People Experiencing Homelessness, 33 Crim. Just. Pol’y Rev. 563 (2022).

[10] D.C. Code Ann. § 2-1401.01 (West 2022).

[11] STATEMENT: Biden Administration’s Plan to Evict D.C. Encampment Residents Violates Federal Policy, National Homelessness Law Center (May 14, 2024), https://homelesslaw.org/dcencampmentstatement/.

[12] Id.; Transcript of Oral Argument at 30, City of Grants Pass v. Johnson, 603 U.S. 520 (2024).

[13] Ray Sanchez and Stephanie Becker, What Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Order to Clear Homeless Encampments Means for the People Who Live in Them, CNN, July 28, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/28/us/homeless-encampments-gavin-newsom-california/index.html