California to spend $300 million to clear homeless encampments near highways
Iman Palm
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 28: People walk past a homeless encampment near a Target store on September 28, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. State and local lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, are seeking to overturn lower court decisions which currently block their power to clear encampments with unhoused people. Dozens of leaders, many from Western states including California, have turned to the Supreme Court to overturn the rulings. Skid Row is home to thousands of people who either live on the streets or in shelters. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
California will set aside approximately $300 million for local jurisdictions statewide to help clear homeless encampments, Gov. Gavin Newsomannounced Monday.
About half of the grants will be used to prioritize clearing encampments near “state right-of-way, helping to make sure the state’s highways remain safe and secure for everyone,” a news release said.
“Since day one, combatting homelessness has been a top priority. Encampments are not safe for the people living in them or for community members around them. The state is giving locals hundreds of millions of dollars to move people into housing and clean up these persistent and dangerous encampments. And we are doing the same on state land, having removed 5,679 encampments since 2021,” Newsom said in a statement.
A person walks past a homeless encampment near a Target store on Sep. 28, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
FILE – Robert Mason, a 56-year-old homeless man, warms up a piece of doughnut over a bonfire he set to keep himself warm on Skid Row in Los Angeles, on Feb. 14, 2023. A Sacramento prosecutor is suing California’s capital city over failure to clean up homeless encampments. Sacramento District Attorney Thien Ho announced the suit Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023, during a news conference in Sacramento. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 14: A homeless encampment lines a sidewalk in the Skid Row community on December 14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. New Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency on her first day in office in an effort to tackle the city’s homelessness crisis where an estimated 40,000 residents are unhoused. The Skid Row community is home to thousands of people who either live on the streets or in shelters. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A homeless man pushes his belongings at a homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake where social activists, including a coalition of homeless-serving organizations, homeless residents and supporters rally at the start of a 24-hour vigil to block a planned shutdown of a homeless encampment at Echo Lake Park in Los Angeles, California on March 24, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)
A homeless encampment lines a street in Skid Row on Dec.14, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. ( Mario Tama/Getty Images)
FILE – A man stands next to tents on a sidewalk in San Francisco on April 21, 2020. Homeless people are asking a federal judge for an emergency order to stop San Francisco from dismantling tent encampments without offering shelter beds. They are also asking the court at a hearing Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022, to stop the city from destroying the belongings of homeless people. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE – Sotero Cirilo stands near the tent where he sleeps next to other homeless people in the Queens borough of New York on April 14, 2021. The City Council unanimously approved a “Homeless Bill of Rights” in April 2023 that would make New York the first big U.S. city to establish an explicit right to sleep in at least some public places. If Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, allows the measure to become law, it could be a notable departure for the city — which has for years sent police and sanitation crews to clear homeless encampments as they arise. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
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The new grant comes after the state awarded $414 million from the Encampment Resolution Fund, established through Assembly Bill 140 in 2021. The bill was created to help local governments provide housing options for those living in encampments near highways.
According to state officials, within the last two years, Caltrans has cleared nearly 5,700 encampments statewide and partnered with local organizations to provide housing for those impacted before the encampment being cleared.
“Through the Encampment Resolution Grants, Caltrans is working to connect people experiencing homelessness on its right-of-way to more secure and stable housing situations offered by local partners,” Alisa Becerra, a Caltrans official, said in a statement.
“The strength of this effort relies on collaboration, trust, and a shared commitment to creating real solutions that help the people who need it most.”
