Newsom's funding threat risks worsening homelessness and racial disparities

Governor Gavin Newsom recently threatened to withhold funding from cities and counties that he believes have not made enough progress on removing people experiencing homelessness from the streets. This threat follows several other actions the Governor has taken over the last two years: he publicly condemned a federal magistrate judge's issuance of an injunction that prevented San Francisco's removal of unhoused people who have no reasonable alternative shelter outside of street encampments; filed an amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to take up the Grants Pass case; issued an executive order to dismantle all encampments on state land; and urged cities and counties to follow his lead.

These actions represent a disastrous and inhumane approach to the significant and ever-growing economic inequality and housing instability that Californians are facing. These issues make life in the state even more precarious for Black Californians, who, despite only being 7% of the California population, represent over a quarter of those experiencing homelessness, according to a recent report from the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Center. Houselessness also disproportionately impacts older Californians, with almost half of all single adult Californians experiencing homelessness being 48 years old or older. The Black/white racial disparity exists within this subgroup as well. This is unsurprising as Black Californians lag behind white Californians in almost every economic metric, an economic gap that the Black Policy Project at UCLA found would take over 248 years to close. These gaps include rental burden, home ownership, and stagnant income growth.

Since Black Californians are also most severely impacted by the criminal legal system and people experiencing homelessness are overwhelmingly systems-impacted, using the bully pulpit of the Governor's Office to pressure cities and counties to use police power to disappear our unhoused neighbors is not only bad policy but contrary to the recommendations of the California Reparations Task Force.

The Governor's threats will only add to the already chaotic conditions on the ground while having no long-term positive impact.

Aside from the policy implications, there are legal questions as well. The Supreme Court's decision in Grants Pass holds that the enforcement of anti-camping laws on public property does not rise to cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. But, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent states, and the opinion of the majority itself suggests, other legal protections and Constitutional safeguards are available to address the ways that States and local governments treat the person and the property of houseless individuals. For example, the federal and the state constitutions prohibit unreasonable search and seizure and property destruction as well as deprivation of due process. Federal and state statutes grant protections against discrimination that harms people with disabilities. How the state and local governments carry out the policies they so eagerly embraced upon the Supreme Court's release of its decision in Grants Pass should and will be closely scrutinized under these and other safeguards.

Ultimately, we cannot sweep, handcuff, or banish our way out of the homelessness crisis. There is ample evidence that affordable housing, together with supportive services, help people get and stay housed. We agree that local governments must do more, but not in the manner the Governor is urging. While it is clear we must address the housing shortage, his efforts to put the onus on cities and counties to fulfill their responsibility to ensure housing for low-income residents continue to deflect fundamental root causes of affordability and homelessness.

The Governor should not incentivize local governments to disappear our most vulnerable neighbors. The Governor can most effectively, and most humanely, wield his political power to follow through on his commitment to ensure that cities and counties fulfill their responsibilities to plan and permit their fair share of housing for those with low incomes, as well as make investments in employment and services. True leadership demands commitment to real solutions.