Gavin Newsom Presses Supreme Court To Review Rule Preventing Cities From Clearing Homeless Camps

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a previous ruling that prevents cities from clearing out homeless encampments, according to a Friday press release.

U.S. District Court Chief Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu issued an injunction in December that prevented San Francisco, California, from continuing its efforts to clear tent encampments, which the city appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in January. Democratic Mayor London Breed and Newsom have demanded that the injunction be overturned, and the governor issued an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to allow state and local governments to take “common sense” actions to address homelessness, according to a press release. 

“As California invests billions to address housing and homelessness, the courts have tied the hands of state and local governments that seek to use common sense approaches to clean our streets and provide help for unhoused Californians living in inhumane conditions,” Newsom said in a statement. “While I agree with the basic principle that a city shouldn’t criminalize homeless individuals for sleeping outside when they have nowhere else to go within that city’s boundaries, courts continue to reach well beyond that narrow limit to block any number of reasonable efforts to protect homeless individuals and the broader public from the harms of uncontrolled encampments.”

Newsom, who previously served as mayor of San Francisco, has warned of the dangers of the homelessness crisis, arguing that it has caused mass migration out of the cities, business loss and overdose deaths, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

In 2022, San Francisco reported that roughly 4,400 people lived on the streets. Businesses have been fleeing the city in droves, with Nordstrom, Whole Foods, T-Mobile and others leaving downtown, citing rampant theft.

“It’s time for the courts to stop these confusing, impractical and costly rulings that only serve to worsen this humanitarian crisis,” Newsom said in the press release.