Gavin Newsom, governor of California, just issued an executive order to remove homeless encampments throughout the state. He states, “This executive order directs state agencies to move urgently to address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them — and provides guidance for cities and counties to do the same.” This makes me unbelievably angry. These encampments are people’s homes because they are unable to afford actual stable dwellings because of pervasive policies favoring the wealthy and a lack of public housing options. What are these homeless persons to do when no services exist for them. What does the word salad, “…supporting and assisting individuals living in them.” actually mean when there are none?
Newsom is taking action without having a specific plan for solving the housing crisis. He merely doesn’t want the appearance of homelessness in his state. What of the people living in these encampments? They will be bulldozed and swept away without the people living in them having any recourse or any place to go. Newsom is incredibly cold-hearted. He’s what we would call the quintessential neoliberal politician. He wants the appearance of solving the crisis by merely removing what he coins as “blight.” These are 100,000+ human beings, not blight. You cannot make homelessness go away by merely removing its appearance. You have to do big things like make affordable housing available.
Solving the housing problem is deceptively difficult. There is just no political will; plenty of inertia. Criminalizing someone’s status and removing what meager possessions they have is not doing society an ounce of good. There is plenty of vacant housing available, enough to house the homeless. Use taxes from the billionaires to fund the housing. This is not a novel idea. We like to espouse how freedom isn’t free so let’s make the billionaires pay for their freedom like you and I have to.
For now my heart goes out to the hundreds of thousands that are going to really suffer under Newsom’s plan. They’re already suffering living in pup tents so imagine losing whatever they have and wandering the streets aimlessly. I am so angry I cannot even muster the words to adequately describe the emotion I feel! America is nothing more than a third world nation with a pretty coat of paint on it. I’ll leave you with that.