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California Officials Clear Homeless Encampments for the Wrong Reasons… Again

California officials are doing it again. Homeless encampments in Downtown Sacramento were cleared to accommodate the filming of a new movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Homeless camps are common near Cesar Chavez Park. Sacramento officials gave the homeless 24 hours to leave the area and take their belongings with them. 

According to Sacramento spokesperson Tim Watson, the homeless were offered services. 

“Six tents were noticed in the filming area. Through outreach and engagement from city resource coordinators, people in the area were offered connection to services and placement at the city’s Roseville Road campus.”

The Sacramento Homeless Union President Crystal Sanchez was not happy with the officials’ decision. 

“We hope they take a minute and understand the crisis of homelessness and that the film has notably harmed some folks trying to survive this homeless crisis. We ask that the producers are cognizant of the City of Sacramento’s harmful action and would hope they address it with them.”

Despite Democrats claiming to champion compassion and urging leaders to govern with empathy, their actions contradict such ideals. California ranks at the forefront of homelessness nationwide. While the rest of the country has experienced a mere 0.4 percent increase in the homeless population since 2020, California witnessed a six percent rise. 

Anji Barker lives in one of the encampments at Cesar Chavez Park. 

It’s terrible. We have nowhere to go. All our clothes and shoes are wet. We have no food.

Rather than collaborating with missions to transition homeless individuals off the streets and into rehabilitation or necessary assistance while also prioritizing street cleaning and clearing encampments for public safety, their efforts seem to materialize only temporarily when events are scheduled to take place.

They give precedence to street cleaning, relocating the homeless, and temporarily clearing encampments for movie filming and visits by dictators like Xi Jinping. Yet, they show little concern for permanently cleaning the streets or providing shelter for the homeless, leaving hard-working, taxpaying Californians to deal with these issues daily. 

Gavin Newsom (D-CA) admitted that the only reason they cleaned the streets was because they were preparing to host Xi and other world leaders.

In 2008, then San Francisco Mayor Newsom pledged to end homelessness in 10 years. It’s been 16 years, and homelessness in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Sacramento, among other cities, has gotten worse.

Since 2021, California has shuttered approximately 100 residential substance disorder treatment facilities. Repurposing these facilities could serve a vital role, especially amidst the worsening homelessness crisis fueled by housing shortages and the opioid epidemic.

In 2022, Newsom said, “We look like a third-world country,” during a visit to Los Angeles. He later said it’s “organized theft,” referring to what the East L.A. train tracks looked like. 

Homelessness and crime remain a pressing issue for Californians. Despite Newsom acknowledging the failure of both himself and the California legislature and expressing the need for improvement, the situation persists and is deteriorating.

Newsom began his political career in 1996 when he was appointed to the San Francisco Parking and Traffic Commission by then-mayor Willie Brown. With almost three decades in politics, when supporters of Newsom are asked to cite specific improvements he has made in California, their responses often echo Bill Maher’s evasive reply to entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David’s question.

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