California Governor threatens funding cuts for counties that don't remove homeless encampments

PIEN HUANG, HOST:

Two weeks ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom put out an executive order. He urged cities and counties in the state to remove homeless encampments. This past week, he upped the pressure, saying he would take state funding away from counties that didn't show, quote, "demonstrable results." It's a move that puts the Democratic governor closer to conservatives on this issue than to the progressives in his own party.

To break down the details and politics of this, I'm joined by reporter Anna Scott in Los Angeles. She covers housing and homelessness with the California Newsroom, which is a collaboration of NPR stations in the state. Hey, Anna.

ANNA SCOTT, BYLINE: Hey.

HUANG: So, Anna, the governor said that he would cut counties off from state funding if they didn't cooperate. Is this a real threat? Did he give any specifics on this?

SCOTT: Yeah, I think it's a real threat. Not a lot of specifics yet, but the state provides a lot of funding to cities and counties for all sorts of different efforts to fight homelessness. The Newsom administration has spent around $24 billion, in fact, on this for things like buying commercial buildings to turn into housing or funding new shelter beds, to name just two things of many.

He didn't threaten to cut any particular funding stream yet from any specific place, but his office told me he's ready to redirect money away from any county that's not meeting milestones set by the state. And he did call out Los Angeles County specifically and said leaders here need to act with more urgency on this issue.

HUANG: So, Anna, what exactly is Governor Newsom wanting counties to do that they're not already doing?

SCOTT: Well, it's not completely clear, other than get rid of more encampments. But the problem is people need places to go. And we're short on affordable housing. We're short on shelter beds here in LA County. Now, LA has made a lot of progress in recent years on adding beds and affordable housing units. But the problem is, in spite of that progress, it's really not visible yet to most people who are walking around and looking at this terrible crisis on the streets.

HUANG: So then, in that case, what would make a visible difference here, just more housing for everyone?

SCOTT: Yes, more housing. That's the simple answer because that's what is at the root of the crisis, a shortage of cheap places to live that has built up over decades. Now, like I said, California, Los Angeles in particular, are making progress on that. But it's a really big gap to close. And on top of that, the crisis is at such a magnitude that you also have to help all the people who are already on the streets get into the housing and stay there, and everybody who's out there probably needs a different intervention. So it becomes very hard to fix. Now, the federal, state and local governments all share responsibility for different pieces of these fixes, but, of course, they can always point fingers at each other.

HUANG: Right. And, Anna, just quickly, are there politics at play behind Newsom's most recent statements here?

SCOTT: Oh, yes, of course. He's a politician. I spoke with a longtime Democratic political consultant about this. Newsom has been talked about as a possible future presidential candidate, but the homelessness crisis in California is a huge weakness for him. And so it makes sense that he's distancing himself from the responsibility a bit and saying publicly to local officials, look, the state's giving you everything you need - money, support. Now you have to act. I've done all I can. But really, there's not a quick fix to this.

HUANG: The California Newsroom's Anna Scott. Anna, thank you so much.

SCOTT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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