California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered the removal of a homeless camp in Los Angeles on Thursday, demanding more urgency from local partners as he took part in the demolition.
In a state-owned underpass beneath Interstate 10, Newsom tore down campsites, signaling to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — who championed a less destructive approach to housing individuals — that he would use the state’s power to crack down on the issue.
Newsom also told reporters that he would be “redirecting money” away from counties like Los Angeles that took less aggressive stances.
“We’ll send that money to counties that produce results,” Newsom said, per local KCRA correspondent Ashley Zavala.
The sweep comes two weeks after an executive order cracking down on so-called “homeless encampments,” which line some sidewalks in cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. The move was heralded by a bipartisan selection of California politicians, who said the time had come.
But some progressive Californians have blasted Newsom for the order, citing a lack of housing alternatives for unhoused Californians.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to displace and dispossess unhoused people, even though the state does not have enough housing, is a cruel tactic that only masks the problem,” the ACLU of Northern California wrote in a statement on the initial order.
Newsom’s actions were enabled by the Supreme Court’s June decision to allow municipalities to criminalize homelessness, specifically its overturning of a doctrine banning a sweep unless unhoused individuals were provided sufficient shelter bed space.
In a phone call with the New York Times, Bass said she hadn’t spoken to the governor, but that she was not necessarily critical of the sweep today, adding that she’d have joined him if she weren’t in Paris preparing for Los Angeles’ 2028 Olympic Games.
“I know he’s frustrated with a lot of cities that do not address the problem, but Los Angeles is one of the cities that does address the problem. For the first time in years, homelessness in Los Angeles is down,” Bass said.