In late June, the United States Supreme Court ruled that cities can penalize homeless people who are sheltering in public places.
Since that ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom has displayed an eagerness to do just that. On July 25, he issued an executive order requiring state agencies to clear homeless encampments on state property. He has also urged local governments to do the same.
Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley has supported many of Newsom’s positions on homelessness, but he’s not a fan of the governor’s recent move.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KEELEY: The governor has done several very good things on homelessness. The state of California has spent a lot of money the last several years, the governor's getting frustrated. He's getting frustrated with the results. He travels around the state, mostly to big cities. It doesn't have much relevance to the city of Santa Cruz, where what he wants done on state property doesn't exist. There aren't homeless encampments on state property in the city of Santa Cruz. This, I think, is more form than substance. I think this is more performance by the governor than it is actual results. So I'm unimpressed with what the governor is doing on this point. I think it's performance politics. It's not a real thing.
So just to confirm, despite the Supreme Court ruling and Newsom’s executive order, you don’t see the city changing its shelter-first approach, where in order to move someone who is sleeping on city property, you first offer them shelter. Is that right?
KEELEY: As long as I'm mayor, as long as we are getting positive results with the tools in our toolbox and the way we're using them, I see no reason to adopt new tools such as the [Supreme Court] decision or the governor's executive order.
I hear you. Given that stance, are you at all concerned that future funding from the state may be withheld?
KEELEY: I am not at all concerned. I don't think we are in any way, shape or form on the state's bad guys list. I was in Sacramento a lot this spring making the case that, in short, we are a model city for you right now. And we have been for the last few years, increasing housing affordability, number of housing units, reducing street homelessness. So even in this terrible budget year, you might want to reward good behavior in some way, shape or form. I also know that the state of California falls in love and out of love with issues all the time. And on these persistent problems like homelessness, they definitely fall in love and out of love with strategies. So at first, they were very interested in shelter. They spent a lot of money on that. They then recently have said, “boy, we spent a lot of money and we're not getting the results we were hoping for. So we're going to stop funding shelter. We're going to now fund upstream prevention.”
We have continually, the last couple of years, increased the city's contribution to preventing eviction, to providing some assistance here and there, very temporarily, for people, to try to prevent them from falling into homelessness. I'm very comfortable with what we're doing. And what the state is doing right now, they have rewarded us for our good behavior as a city that is achieving results they want. They don't see us as a problem child for them. So I suspect so long as we're achieving the results, they're going to leave us alone.
Fred Keeley is the mayor of Santa Cruz. You can find the first part of this interview here.
