What's at stake?
News of the encampment clearings came just days before Newsom finally plans to give “serious thought” to his presidential aspirations after the midterm elections next year.
Encampments of unhoused people in Fresno were cleared quietly out last week by state authorities and new barriers were installed to prevent what the governor’s office described as “repopulation” of at least one campsite.
A statement Friday afternoon from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced the clearing of an encampment near a “pedestrian footbridge” along Highway 180.
The governor’s office also said its SAFE task force cleared a second encampment on Thursday along westbound 180 at the northbound Highway 41 connection. Caltrans reportedly removed about 6 cubic yards of “debris and hazardous waste,” and plans to install additional barriers to further limit opportunities for unhoused residents to make camp.
Newsom’s media announcement included a statement from Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, thanking the governor for “recognizing how important this is to the safety and well-being of our community.”
The governor’s press statement was light on details of the encampments and did not say how many people had been forced out or whether those citizens had been offered or accepted any services.
The statement added that Caltrans’ SAFE Task Force is working with city officials to plan a community outreach fair this coming week for people experiencing homelessness.
Dyer’s remarks included crediting the city’s 2021 Project Off Ramp, which he credited with helping thousands of Fresnans transition from encampments to shelters.
The state’s anti-encampment operation last week also included clearing out camps along a San Diego highway.
Since the Democratic Party’s crushing defeat last year, Newsom has appeared to move to the right on several key issues, from trans and LBGTQ+ rights to homelessness as he moves toward his own long-awaited presidential campaign.
News of the encampment clearings came just days before Newsom finally plans to give “serious thought” to his presidential aspirations after the midterm elections next year.
Newsom’s White House plans hit the news Sunday, one day after former Vice President Kamala Harris was “not done” and said she had not ruled out the possibility of taking yet another shot at a presidential run.
Growing questions around Fresno’s unhoused communities
Last year, in the wake of a contentious Supreme Court ruling, Fresno was one of several American cities that rushed to implement an anti-camping ban on city streets. Fresno County quickly followed suit and by October last year, unhoused residents officially had virtually nowhere left to go.
Officially, the authorities are expected to offer shelter and resources to every person they encounter at encampments, but there are more unhoused people in Fresno County than available beds and to this day there’s been no guidance on where unhoused people trapped in the margins are supposed to go.
The Fresno area’s homeless population increased last year by a reported 3% and at least two shelters have said they might be forced to close by the end of the year.
The city’s law has faced plenty of criticism from advocates and the unhoused, including Fresno City Hall’s botched prosecution earlier this year of an unhoused senior citizen.
But many in the business community, for whom the new law was created, say while they might have mixed feelings about the humanity of the law, it has made it easier to maintain their businesses in an already tough economy.
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