California bishops urge officials to place homeless in mental health, housing programs

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to reporters in the spin room following the CNN presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump at the McCamish Pavilion on the Georgia Institute of Technology campus on June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. / Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Aug 2, 2024 / 15:05 pm (CNA).

The California Catholic Conference (CCC) urged government officials this week to “shepherd” the homeless population into mental health and housing programs, with the state’s bishops issuing the call as Gov. Gavin Newsom orders officials to clear homeless encampments throughout the state.

“The greatest travesty would be for those whose camps are removed to be then left in this hot climate without shelters or to become incarcerated because of their forced transiency,” the bishops’ executive committee said in a July 29 statement.

A 2023 annual federal report estimates that more than 181,000 people were homeless in California, making up 28% of all people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. Newsom’s executive order to clear encampments, issued last week, followed a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ruled cities can arrest or fine homeless individuals for camping in public spaces.

“The continuing human tragedy of the homeless epidemic in California does not have an easy solution,” the bishops said in their statement this week. 

“The Catholic Church in California has been a staunch advocate and resource for unhoused populations, providing both emergency shelter and pathways to permanent housing.” 

The bishops emphasized that homeless people must be “treated with respect in keeping with their human dignity.”

“It is a tragedy that people live in roadside encampments,” the bishops stated. “It is a tragedy that mental health and substance abuse needs are not met.”  

The CCC highlighted recent legislative action in the state designed to help homeless people.

The bishops said they urged “in the strongest terms” the “dignified and respectful removal of homeless encampments and concurrently desire that the unhoused who are being displaced are shepherded into the mental health or housing programs that Gov. Newsom has championed and that the voters approved with the passage of [Proposition] 1 in March.”

Passed in March of this year, Proposition 1 includes a $6.4 billion bond measure designed to transform the California mental health system and tackle homelessness by funding 10,000 treatment and housing beds as well as drug addiction treatment. 

Newsom has argued that the measure should allow an enhanced state response to homelessness. “Local governments now have the tools they need to address the decades-long issue of homelessness,” he said in a post on X last week.

“Today we’ve invested over $1 billion in encampment resolution grants, not only to clean up sites … but to address the underlying issues in the first place,” the governor said in a video posted on X announcing the executive order this week.