Will Long Beach heed Newsom’s call to dismantle encampments? City considers ‘adjustments’ to its approach

Long Beach officials said Thursday they plan to bring forward a memo in the coming weeks that will outline “adjustments” to its approach in managing homelessness.

This announcement came hours after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order telling state agencies to begin dismantling homeless encampments on state property and calling on cities to follow their example.

The order is the most striking, and most public, action Newsom has taken since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision on June 28 upheld an Oregon city’s ban on homeless residents sleeping outdoors. An earlier ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had found it unconstitutional to punish those sleeping in public places when they had no other legal place to stay.

In a statement, Newsom asked state officials to work together to “humanely” remove encampments “with urgency” from public right-of-ways, which include parks, sidewalks and waterways. It echoes a similar approach used by Caltrans under its Clean California initiative, which has been used to clear more than 11,000 encampments alongside freeways since 2021, Newsom administration officials said.

“The state has been hard at work to address this crisis on our streets,‘’ Newsom said in a statement. “There are simply no more excuses.”

Without the proverbial teeth to enforce it, the order urges cities to take an approach that matches the urgency displayed by Newsom’s office.

In response Thursday, city officials said they were “aware of the executive order,” as well as the Supreme Court ruling, and have spent the past few weeks crafting a “thoughtful, comprehensive” plan in response.

There was little indication as to where the city stood on the order.

The court ruling, officials said, does provide “additional enforcement tools for addressing problematic encampments,” but much of Newsom’s order is “already consistent” with local practices. Through a memorandum of understanding with the state, Long Beach already provides outreach services and handles encampment sweeps in state right-of-ways.

City officials are still reviewing how the Supreme Court ruling will impact local policy, they said.

“The City stands firm in its commitment of staying human centered by treating people experiencing homelessness with dignity, respect and compassion,” officials said in a statement. “Long Beach continues to focus on upstream prevention, increasing shelter capacity, and assisting people experiencing homelessness in their efforts to secure affordable permanent housing.”

In a written response to the Supreme Court ruling in a June 28 post on X, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said the “ruling alone will not end homelessness.”

“We must continue to address the root causes of homelessness while prioritizing compassion, increasing housing, and expanding shelter options,” Richardson wrote. “Long Beach will continue to develop a multi-layered approach centered on prevention and compassion.”

Before sweeping an encampment, state officials are still supposed to give at least 48 hours of notice to homeless people and offer to connect them with local service providers. The order does not mandate that agencies relocate people to shelters, nor does it specify situations in which those illegally camping will be penalized.

Long Beach enforcement, however, remains in the hands of local authorities. Under its current procedures, Long Beach regularly performs health and safety cleanups at chronic encampments, but those displaced are free to immediately return. The city rarely arrests or cites anyone for camping on public property.

Even if Long Beach did move to aggressively sweep encampments, it’s not clear where the mass of displaced people would go. Local shelters are almost always at or near capacity, and the city is trying to ramp up construction to meet affordable housing mandates.

Newsom’s office cannot mandate a change to these local policies. He can exert political pressure through his control over the state purse, such as in 2022 when he temporarily withheld $1 billion in homelessness spending from local governments over their failure to move the needle on the crisis.

California is home to roughly one-third of the nation’s population of homeless people. In Long Beach, pup tents and sleeping bags line parking lots, parks and public spaces, like the Billie Jean King Main Library in Downtown.

In its last census of the local homeless population, Long Beach officials found 3,376 people living in shelters or on the streets countywide — a 2.1% downtick from last year and the first decline since 2017. More than 70% of the city’s homeless were found living in tents, cars or makeshift shelters.

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