Homeless advocates across California say they’re terrified people living without housing are running out of places where they can legally sleep outside.
The web of sleeping bans unhoused Californians face is growing more complex, as cities respond differently to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order telling local officials to start cracking down harder on homeless encampments.
Newsom said he wants cities to implement the kind of enforcement the U.S. Supreme Court legalized last month , when it ruled in its Grants Pass decision that cities can fine and arrest homeless people for sleeping on public property , including when no shelter beds are available.
“It’s been very upsetting because these efforts end up exasperating homelessness,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness in San Francisco. “People are traumatized daily.”
More than 180,000 people live without housing in California, representing nearly a third of the U.S. homeless population, and the majority live outside, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.