A California task force is calling for a constitutional amendment to require local governments to reduce homelessness or face possible legal action.
With public and political pressure mounting to get homeless people off the streets of California, a task force appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom is recommending that local governments face tough new legal sanctions for failing to make progress.for an amendment to the California Constitution that would create a legally enforceable mandate to reduce the homeless population. The Legislature would have to craft the plan, which would then appear as a statewide ballot measure in November.
Money and responsibility for homelessness programs are split between elected officials in cities and counties and the administrators of “continuums of care” — the local and regional agencies created to handle funding and organize the distribution of services for homeless people. “I need other cities to be doing their part because Oakland does not exist on an island,” Schaaf said. “I believe Oakland would pass that accountability test.”
An encampment in Echo Park. A state agency wants to allow California to sue cities and counties — or even itself — if the number of people living in encampments doesn’t decline. “Why would we want to warehouse people?” he said. “That was what was really in advocates’ craw. They were not appreciating that we don’t have to warehouse people.”
The task force’s recommendation likely will be discussed by the Legislature in the coming weeks, but it is far from certain that it will be adopted and put on the ballot for voters to consider. Although the mandate would give the state legal authority to crack down, the task force also said the state needed to take the lead in creating a unified approach: “We lack clarity regarding which levels of government are or should be responsible for funding and implementing various aspects of a response to the crisis of homelessness.”
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