Los Angeles says it will not join Newsom’s push to clear encampments

Days after Gov. Gavin Newsom put pressure on local governments to dismantle homeless encampments across California, leaders in Los Angeles County showed a united front, unanimously passing a resolution with a clear message: We will continue to take a different approach.

The vote Tuesday by the board of supervisors, the five-member governing body of the county, reflected the deep motivation of local leaders to align themselves on strategy for a vast region that includes 88 cities and more than 75,000 homeless people. It also reaffirmed that homelessness would not be criminalized.

“Some things,” said Supervisor Hilda Solis who co-wrote the motion, “are better deliberated at the local level.”

The leaders have the backing of Sheriff Robert Luna of Los Angeles County, who has vowed that his agency will arrest people only if they commit a crime, not simply for living in an encampment.

Los Angeles County has prided itself on what it calls “care first,” moving its public safety response away from incarceration. When it comes to homelessness, it prefers a slower, coordinated approach that begins with encouraging those living on the streets to accept supportive services, with the eventual goal being permanent housing. Those in encampments, local leaders said, need to be treated humanely and without the specter of arrest.

“Criminalization is intentionally not part of the county’s framework because it makes the problem worse by creating more barriers along people’s path toward housing,” said Va Lecia Adams Kellum, CEO of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger called the notion of issuing tickets to homeless people “ludicrous” and counterintuitive to the work that agencies have done to establish trust with the community.

The motion, while absent of Newsom’s name, seemed squarely aimed at his executive order directing state agencies to begin clearing encampments from the streets.

Newsom issued the order in response to a Supreme Court ruling that allowed governments greater authority to eradicate encampments.

Homelessness has been a sweeping and vexing issue in Los Angeles which, unlike New York City, does not guarantee a right to housing. As of 2023, the city of Los Angeles had about 45,000 homeless people but just 16,000 shelter beds, according to the city controller’s office.

Cities such as San Francisco have embraced the state order, with its mayor vowing to make homeless people so uncomfortable on the streets that they accept offers of shelter beds.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.