Read the full article by Scott Thomas Anderson at Sacramento News & Review
“No more excuses,” Gov. Gavin Newsom posted on X (formally Twitter) on July 25. “We’ve provided the time. We’ve provided the funds. Now it’s time for the locals to do their job.” Newsom wrote these lines above an Associated Press story he was reposting, one that announced he’d “issued an executive order for the removal of homeless encampments in the state.”
The governor’s order hit many Californians as the news equivalent of a thunderbolt, with some property owners believing they’d never deal with an encampment again and advocates for the unhoused fearing that a mass-mobilization of law enforcement would displace tens of thousands of vulnerable people and forcefully scatter them to the winds.
A few weeks later, neither of those scenarios has come to pass. Despite the language in Newsom’s post appearing to call out — and command — local governments, the fine print of his mandate shows that it only applies to state agencies working for him.
And the two state agencies on the frontline of illegal camping in the Sacramento region are now refusing to answer questions or grant interviews regarding how, or if, they will carry out Newsom’s executive order.