Newsom Orders California Officials to Remove Homeless Encampments

The directive from Gov. Gavin Newsom is the nation’s most sweeping response to a Supreme Court decision last month that gave local leaders greater authority to remove homeless campers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered California state officials on Thursday to begin dismantling thousands of homeless encampments, the nation’s most sweeping response to a recent Supreme Court ruling that gave governments greater authority to remove homeless people from their streets.

Homeless encampments have vexed California, where housing costs are among the nation’s highest, more than any other state. An estimated 180,000 people were homeless last year in California, and most of them were unsheltered. Unlike New York City, most jurisdictions in California do not guarantee a right to housing.

Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, called on state and local leaders to “humanely remove encampments from public spaces” in an urgent manner, prioritizing those that most threaten health and safety.

His executive order could divide Democratic local leaders in California, some of whom have already begun to clear encampments while others have denounced the decision from conservative justices as opening the door to inhumane measures to solve a complex crisis.

The order also comes as Democrats are uniting around Vice President Kamala Harris, a former senator and prosecutor from California, to replace President Biden on the ballot this fall. Republicans have frequently pointed to homelessness in California as an example of the state’s purported decline under Mr. Newsom and other Democrats, and they are expected to do the same with Ms. Harris in the coming weeks.

The Supreme Court decision on June 28 upheld an Oregon city’s ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors. The Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit had found in earlier opinions that it was unconstitutional to punish people for sleeping in public spaces when they had no other legal place to spend the night.