For Immediate Release | Media Contact: Jesse Dean, jesse.dean@csh.org, 347-931-0132
The shortsighted executive order will cause further harm and trauma to thousands while resulting in no sustainable improvement in homelessness.
July 25, 2024 | Los Angeles, CA – Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) joins California-based homelessness and housing organizations condemning Governor Gavin Newsom’s executive order calling for state officials to begin demolishing homeless encampments that will lead to forcefully removing people and their belongings, as well as ticketing or arresting people experiencing homelessness. As written, the order would create unnecessary confusion making it harder for state and local agencies to implement effective solutions.
The Governor’s order follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s ideology-driven ruling on Johnson v. Grants Pass last month that reversed constitutional protections for people experiencing homelessness and emboldened jurisdictions seeking to criminalize homelessness.
The Governor’s order represents a dangerous and rapid shift in this country moving away from proven, affordable housing and supportive services solutions and back to regressive, punitive-driven, costly, and discriminatory approaches that were tried before but failed.
“What works is ongoing funding for housing with evidence-based services. What doesn’t work is giving people 48 hours to move out which is traumatizing, stigmatizing and creates more barriers to rehousing by creating instability” said Sharon Rapport California State Policy Director at CSH. “This order won’t reduce homelessness or deter encampments, but it will leave vulnerable people even farther away from home and health than they are today.”
CSH and organizational partners call on the Governor and state officials to acknowledge that the order will disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and People of Color, perpetuating racism and systemic inequalities such as poverty, discrimination in housing, employment, and education.
The Statewide Homeless Assessment reported stark racial disparities among unsheltered homelessness in California: The proportion of Black individuals in the annual Point-in-Time (PIT) Count was 5.3 times higher than their proportion in the state’s total population. Indigenous people experiencing homelessness were represented at a rate 5.0 times higher, and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders experiencing homelessness were represented at 2.8 times higher than their shares of the population.
Further, the executive order blatantly ignores compelling, independent research, including a recent analysis of Los Angeles practices and a RAND report, proving that a punitive approach to homelessness like clearing encampments is ineffective and temporary, and disproportionally harms people of color, people with mental illness, older adults, and people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. These practices lead to erecting barriers to housing or shelters, causing service providers to lose contact with their clients, people losing their identification and other documentation needed to move into housing, and driving people further into poverty.
“Jurisdictions that aggressively close encampments without ensuring that the people living in them have access to affordable housing and necessary services will fail,” said Deborah De Santis, President and CEO at CSH. “Instead, we can choose to invest in effective solutions that create sustainable, healthy and safe communities, reduce taxpayer burdens, and ensure dignity and housing for all.”
CSH and partners urge the Governor and his administration to reverse the executive order and focus on a better way forward based on data-driven, equitable, and fiscally responsible solutions, including the necessary investments identified in the California Homeless Housing Needs Assessment. These include:
- Working in coordination with—rather than competition with—local governments to ensure people receive evidence-based approaches to assisting people in encampments to move into permanent housing,
- Accelerating new affordable housing development and repair and preserve existing supportive and public housing,
- Mobilizing public health teams,
- Engaging people living in encampments and connecting individuals to housing and supportive services, and
- Leveraging insights from those with lived experiences of homelessness. Such approaches uphold individual dignity, improve community outcomes, and enhance public safety.
“CSH and partners acknowledge the Newsom Administration’s unprecedented investment in housing and homelessness programs. We look forward to working with the Administration to achieve ongoing funding at the level of funding identified in the California Homeless Housing Need Assessment of 2.7% of the state’s budget,” added Rapport.
This statement is endorsed by Housing California, People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), Housing Now!, Western Region Advocacy Project, Compass Family Services, Laura Chatham, Santa Cruz County Mental Health Advisory Board Member, District 1 Representing the Unhoused Community of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Cares, Community Forward, Safe Place for Youth, and Equal Rights for Every Neighbor Coalition.
“Housing California is disheartened by this executive order. Homelessness cannot be solved by encampment sweeps and criminalizing individuals who are struggling to make ends meet. Policies that criminalize homelessness also disproportionately impact people of color – particularly those who are Black, American Indian, and Pacific Islander – and they threaten to widen racial disparities in our state. At a time when Californians put solving homelessness at the top of their priorities, we should not enact policies that exacerbate the crisis. Instead, we should provide on-going investments in solutions that work: growing our supply of deeply affordable and supportive housing, expanding supportive services, and increasing the availability of rental assistance. Housing California is committed to working towards a future where every Californian has a safe, affordable home.” — Christopher Martin, Policy Director at Housing California
“Governor Newsom signed legislation authorizing funding for shelters to improve conditions in their facilities and knows very few accessed available state funding to improve conditions in their facilities. Today, he is ordering unhoused individuals living in encampments into those very same spaces even though we feel he is aware the conditions are far from suitable, especially for people with complex health needs.” — Paul Boden, Executive Director, Western Region Advocacy Project
“Arresting people and displacing folks from their shelter, however temporary, is not only cruel it has been shown to not be effective. Governor Gavin Newsom, we know what works to end homelessness– affordable homes. Let’s focus on the solutions that work and fully fund the state’s own goal of 1 Million Affordable Homes by 2030. To do that, we need ongoing funding at-scale. Spending money on sweeps means less affordable homes in the short term for Californians and more homelessness in the long run.” — Rev. Rae Huang, Senior Organizer from Housing Now!
“California should not exploit the Supreme Court’s decision to double down on failed policies that harass and displace people who have no place to call home. Governor Newsom’s executive order does nothing to address California’s housing affordability crisis, which benefits corporate developers while hurting low-income and unhoused families the most. We urge county and city leaders to reject this cruel and discriminatory directive and instead heed their constituents’ call for humane and lasting solutions — housing-first interventions and robust voluntary services.” — Equal Rights for Every Neighbor Coalition
About CSH
Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) advances affordable and accessible housing aligned with services by advocating for effective policies and funding, equitably investing in communities, and strengthening the supportive housing field. Since our founding in 1991, CSH has been the only national nonprofit intermediary focused solely on increasing the availability of supportive housing. Over the course of our work, we have created more than 467,600 units of affordable and supportive housing and distributed over $1.5 billion in loans and grants. Our workforce is central to accomplishing this work. We employ approximately 170 people across 30 states and U.S. Territories. As an intermediary, we do not directly develop or operate housing but center our approach on collaboration with a wide range of people, partners, and sectors. For more information, visit www.csh.org.
