Gov. Gavin Newsom told California cities this week that there “were no more excuses” for homeless encampments, a message he has repeated often over the years with little success.
Visible signs of homelessness still line sidewalks and freeway underpasses from Sacramento to Los Angeles, an entrenched crisis rooted in a tight and unaffordable housing market that grew worse in January when more than 12,000 homes burned to the ground in Los Angeles County.
Newsom, widely considered a Democratic contender for the 2028 presidential race, appears to be toughening his stance on issues likely to follow him on the campaign trail.
His "no more excuses" message included the suggestion that municipalities ban camping on public property for more than three nights in a row, one of several perceived moves to the center the former San Francisco mayor has taken recently.
On Wednesday, Newsom unveiled a revised budget that makes significant cuts to reproductive health services and walks back his signature policy to provide free healthcare for low-income undocumented immigrants.
The rollbacks were meant to help balance California’s budget and turn around the “Trump slump,” Newsom told reporters, referring to economic fallout from the president's trade war.
Asked if his apparent move to the center is related to a possible 2028 run, he said, “I’ve been, always, a hardheaded pragmatist.”
Yet the guidelines on homelessness that he announced this week do not carry enforcement power. Local leaders can ignore them and continue to pursue their own policies.
But if the situation doesn't improve before the primaries in 2028, Newsom may be forced to explain to a national audience why his state, with the fourth-largest economy in the world, has the largest homeless population in the U.S., with about 187,000 people living on the streets, in cars and in decrepit RVs on any given night.
“It’s pure triangulation,” said Democratic strategist Max Burns, referring to Newsom's attempt to appeal to both the right and the left. “This is Gavin Newsom trying to enact this theory that the reason we lost last year was because we were just too progressive."
Newsom's call to clear encampments and roll back services for undocumented immigrants and reproductive health care have left many voters wondering where his priorities lie.
Carolyn Coleman, CEO of the League of California Cities, said the housing crisis has deep roots that "won’t be resolved without a partnership between state and local governments.”
“California cities are not the obstacle to reducing and preventing homelessness,” she said.
Newsom, 57, has attempted to tackle the homelessness crisis since entering politics more than two decades ago. In 2002, as a San Francisco supervisor, he pushed a measure to cut the budgets of general assistance programs and redirect the money toward providing more shelters and other services for unhoused people.
Fast forward to 2024 when the U.S Supreme Court ruled that banning encampments on public property does not violate the U.S. Constitution. Newsom reacted by telling cities and counties to start getting people off their streets, but to do it "with compassion.”
He suggested local leaders establish programs and systems to help unhoused residents find shelter, mental health services and drug treatment centers.
Some complied, some didn’t. In Los Angeles, which has a homeless population of 45,252, Mayor Karen Bass said she would continue to focus on pairing unhoused people with temporary or transitional housing and would not clear encampments if shelter was unavailable.
Several cities, including some in nearby Orange County, have cracked down on encampments and strengthened anti-camping laws.
Other local leaders, like the mayor of San Diego, have commended Newsom for continuing to address the crisis but said they have successfully implemented their own policies without his direction.
“It’s tempting to look at every single thing that Gavin Newsom does as part of his presidential aspirations,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California, San Diego.
“But this is absolutely in line with the direction that he’s been moving in on homelessness throughout his governorship, and also fits longterm parts of his political career.”
If Newsom faces voters in 2028, which coincides with the L.A. Olympics, he opens himself up to attacks from both the right and left, Burns said.
“The problem is voters aren’t sure what to believe,” he said. “They’ve seen him toss so many of these values overboard that no one can quite tell you what Gavin Newsom stands for, and that is going to be a bigger problem for him than anything.”
