Nearly half of the country’s homeless population could be found in California in 2022, according to the Senate Housing Committee. Since then, California has seen a 5.8​​% increase in its homeless population, according to The San Francisco Standard.

To combat this, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on July 25 that allows state officials to regulate homeless encampments. According to CalMatters, notices are issued at least 48 hours prior to removal, after which people can be ticketed and forced to relocate.

This order was in response to the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to overturn the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court stated that fining or arresting people to prevent them from sleeping in public spaces does not violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause under the Eighth Amendment.

When officers clear out encampments, homeless people with two warnings can now be charged with a misdemeanor even if there is no shelter space available. So far, there is no plan to support people who cannot secure shelter beds, and according to Associated Press News, these individuals will likely return to previous encampments.

To prevent this, Palo Alto Mayor Greer Stone said he believes that cities need better coordination with one another.

“This is an issue that doesn’t have borders,” Stone said. “If one city is taking a very harsh stance, then members of the unhoused community may be forced to move to a neighboring community. It’s critical to make sure that we’re not just moving people around to neighboring cities because one city is heavily enforcing [the order] and one is not.”

Misdemeanors can be found on criminal records, making it harder for those arrested to get jobs. Organizations such as WeHOPE, a nonprofit working to combat homelessness and recidivism in the Bay Area, are helping homeless people clear their criminal records.

“Nonprofits like ours try to help people get their records expunged so that they don’t have all these frivolous charges padding their records,” Alicia Garcia, the chief operating officer at WeHOPE, said. “It [a bad record] makes it more difficult for them [homeless people] to get a job, to get housing and to live a productive life. If we begin arresting people for … things that are not really crimes at all, it’s going to … make life more unstable for them.”

Stone reiterated this sentiment, saying that he believes that making people feel like homelessness is a crime is not a solution.

“Criminalizing homelessness and putting up a penalty or a fine for being unhoused … is not going to address the problem,” Stone said. “If you can’t afford the fine, you’re not going to pay the fine. Now we’re going to throw people in jail because they can’t afford rent.”

However, many people in Palo Alto are in support of the executive order. In a Nextdoor poll of Palo Alto residents conducted by City Council member Greg Tanaka, 61%, or 182 of the 299 respondents, are in favor of clearing encampments.

Though previous action has been taken to mitigate the effects of California’s homeless crisis, including the construction of new shelters and welfare programs, little progress has been observed. There has been an increase of roughly 10,000 homeless people between 2022 and 2023, according to the California State Auditor.

This new order has been a controversial directive implemented under Newsom’s administration, and some are still unsure of whether these new policies will see any meaningful change.

“We’re dealing with the symptoms versus the cause,” Tanaka said. “When people say homelessness, they … usually think it’s one issue when it’s actually several different issues … People think of it as a purely economic issue which it’s not.”

Newsom also revealed that the order has a goal of  supporting people who have relocated, with measures such as setting up transitional housing and services. In a statement made on July 25, Newsom said “This executive order directs state agencies to … address dangerous encampments while supporting and assisting the individuals living in them.”

Though individual cities can decide whether or not this support is provided, some do not believe that larger cities like San Francisco have the necessary organization to address this issue properly.

“If there’s not a sufficient place … for people to go … people will either come back [to the same location], or they will go somewhere not far away,” Garcia said. “You’ll just have new encampments pop up.”

Stone said that it is too soon to tell if the policy will be implemented in Palo Alto, but the City of Palo Alto is also working to create more affordable and transitional housing for its residents.

One development is Palo Alto Homekey, located on San Antonio Road, which will be used as transitional housing for homeless people.

The City of Palo Alto has also invested in expanding a secure parking lot on Geng Road, which is managed by Move Mountain View, an organization dedicated to reducing the problem of homelessness. The lot currently has 12 parking spaces available, but the city is looking to add an additional 10 spaces so that the lot can serve more people.

“It [the homelessness problem] is one of the most challenging public policies that our state is trying to wrestle,” Stone said. “One of the nice things about being in a city like Palo Alto is that we’ll never completely solve the unhoused problem, but because our numbers are relatively low, programs like this can really go a long way in addressing this crisis.”