SAN FRANCISCO — California voters have grown so frustrated with the blue state’s failure to reduce homelessness that well over a third of the electorate now supports local laws that allow police to arrest people camping outside if they refuse shelter.
About 37 percent of voters support arresting homeless people if they refuse to accept shelter, according to a poll from POLITICO and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center that surveyed registered voters as well as political and policy professionals for the first time about the contentious approach to the homelessness crisis. Another 24 percent of voters surveyed “somewhat” agree with that approach, and 38 percent oppose the idea.
“If I were a policymaker, I would read this as people expressing frustration that homelessness hasn’t decreased in absolute terms,” said Jason Elliott, a veteran Democratic consultant and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former deputy chief of staff. “Californians are right to be frustrated.”…