Governor Gavin Newsom announced a new round of money Friday for clearing homeless encampments in California and finding shelter or housing for those who live in the camps.
The state is sending over $130 million to local governments in grants for specific projects through a grant program that started in 2021. That comes three months after the governor signed an executive order encouraging local governments to clear camps.
Newsom says he wants cities and towns to be more proactive.
“I have a strong bias – it’s hardly exclusive – but a strong bias to what’s happening with tents and encampments on the street,” he said at a Friday press conference.
The city of Sacramento will receive more than $18 million – the largest cut of money in the state.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg said $12 million will go towards doubling the capacity of a trailer and pallet home site on Roseville Road in North Sacramento. The site is mostly for people encamped on the nearby bikeway.
“The people who live in those encampments are suffering but so is the community that cannot use the bikeway for its intended purpose,” he said.
The rest of the state grant money is slated to go towards helping 100 households into permanent housing through the city’s Street to Housing program.
The Newsom administration says over the past three months, it’s helped clear nearly 1,000 encampments and removed more than 18,000 cubic yards of debris through the grant program. Meanwhile, during the three years of the grant program, it says it’s helped nearly 21,000 people “transition out of homelessness.”
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