California Is Waging War On Its Most Vulnerable Residents

Homelessness is a man-made disaster, as devastating as any wildfire, earthquake, or flood.

A society that cannot fully and safely house its people needs to be overhauled. Not with violence or strident acts. But also, not with billions of dollars wasted on inadequate agencies, schemes, and scams that only skim the surface of the problem.

In California, which has the most unhoused population in the country, Governor Gavin Newsom on July 25, 2024, used the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision to issue an executive order directing state agencies to remove homeless encampments, although with some social services and alternative housing, even if temporary.

This has massive ramifications. For example, soon after Newsom’s order, Sacramento, the state’s capitol, closed Camp Resolution, an experimental encampment run by the unhoused themselves. The camp was created on city land with the help of the National Union of the Homeless after years when people, mostly women, were pushed away and criminalized from previous encampments.

“People are realizing they’re gonna have to fight for this housing,” said Anthony Prince, lead organizer and general counsel of the state’s Homeless Union.

Following months of City Council meetings, media interest, and negotiations, the city in April of 2023 signed a lease with the nonprofit Safe Ground Sacramento that also provided for “individual permanent durable housing.”

A year after the agreement, however, the city failed to establish such housing except for two persons among some fifty camp residents. “These people [were] guaranteed housing, and the city [was] nowhere to be found,” said Crystal Sanchez, regional director of the National Homeless Union.

Instead, the city manager declared to Safe Ground Sacramento that Camp Resolution’s lease would be terminated, citing possible liability due to the land being a “toxic dumpsite.” Residents had to leave by mid-May. Safe Ground Sacramento later told media sources the focus on contamination was “bogus.”

Litigation efforts tried to keep the camp open. But, after Newsom’s order in July, Sacramento shut everything down. Tow trucks removed vehicles and dump trucks removed trash and personal belongings. Police arrested four advocates who supported the camp.

California is waging war on its most vulnerable residents.

What happened at Camp Resolution is indicative of how a state with a GDP of $3.8 trillion, making it the world’s 5th largest economy, larger than India or the United Kingdom, is failing its people. Despite its economic prowess, California lacks the political will to eradicate homelessness. Instead, it’s eradicating encampments with anti-encampment directives and police sweeps. Not the same thing.

Like the rest of the country, the state needs fully funded public housing and other means for affordable living conditions. For years, obscene rising costs to rent or own a home in California, due to hedge funds, corporate housing developers, and gentrifiers, has forced more and more people into the streets, prisons, or to leave the state entirely.

This is a man-made disaster, as devastating as any wildfire, earthquake, or flood. State and national sharing of public resources must be activated as well as blocks to large private entities profiting amid the misery.

Our social wealth, technology, and governance should align to meet people’s needs. Yes, fight for democracy. But this is inexorably linked to end poverty, social injustices, and a debilitating climate, as well as for peace at home and abroad.

Luis J. Rodriguez, also known as Mixcoatl Itztlacuiloh, has 17 books in all genres. He’s cofounder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore and founding editor of Tia Chucha Press. From 2014-2016, he served as Los Angeles Poet Laureate.