Fresh off San Francisco’s massive clean-up effort for the recent APEC summit, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Monday new funding will go toward moving the homeless off the streets and cleaning up encampments.
"We've got to move, people are counting on us," Newsom said during a news briefing. "The public has had it, they're fed up, I'm fed up, we're all fed up."
The progressive Democrat said $300 million will go to local jurisdictions to help move 10,000 homeless individuals into housing.
“This new round of funding builds on the $415 million the state has already awarded to cities, counties and continuums of care to clean up encampments and house people living on the street,” according to a statement from his office.
A major priority for the new grants will be clearing the state’s highways of encampments for the safety and security of Californians.
“Since day one, combatting homelessness has been a top priority. Encampments are not safe for the people living in them, or for community members around them. The state is giving locals hundreds of millions of dollars to move people into housing and clean up these persistent and dangerous encampments. And we are doing the same on state land, having removed 5,679 encampments since 2021,” Newsom said in a statement.
"We need to do more to clean up encampments."
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 28, 2023
Gavin Newsom announces $300 million in grants to address homelessness. Newsom hopes to get 10K off the streets. pic.twitter.com/mOXVnIOZQ4
According to federal data, as of 2022, about 30 percent of the country's homeless population resided in the Golden State.
Newsom's administration has removed 5,679 encampments from the state right-of-way since July 1, 2021.