California: Governor Newsom convenes statewide task force to prioritize and dismantle homeless encampments and accelerate care
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Aug 29, 2025

Governor Newsom convenes statewide task force to prioritize and dismantle homeless encampments and accelerate care

What you need to know: Governor Newsom is announcing the SAFE Task Force to aggressively prioritize and deploy California's comprehensive network of services to quickly remove encampments on state rights-of-way and help connect people with wrap-around supportive services and shelter.

SACRAMENTO — Just over a year after the Governor issued an executive order directing encampment cleanups and months after providing a new draft ordinance for local governments, the Governor is advancing Californians' statewide strategy to address the homelessness crisis through a new statewide task force to prioritize and remove encampments and bring services and shelter to individuals experiencing homelessness along state rights-of-way in California's ten largest cities.

This continues California's effective strategies, which have led to reductions in unsheltered homelessness in communities throughout the state.

"California has put in place a strong, comprehensive strategy for fighting the national homelessness and housing crises — and is outperforming the nation as a result in turning this issue around. No one should live in a dangerous or unsanitary encampment, and we will continue our ongoing work to ensure that everyone has a safe place to call home. Today I am establishing a new task force that pairs urgency with dignity — restoring safe, usable public spaces while providing care for Californians living in dangerous encampments."

Governor Gavin Newsom

California's State Action for Facilitation on Encampments (SAFE) Task Force brings together expertise and programs from across state agencies to target encampments, with a particular focus on emergency management, social services, health care, substance use support, resource and land management, and public safety. Working together with local governments to provide shelter and social services, the SAFE Task Force will prioritize encampments on state rights-of-way in California's ten largest cities and assist in finding suitable shelter options for individuals residing there.

Dismantling dangerous encampments

This announcement builds on the Governor's broader effort to address the homelessness and housing crises affecting the entire nation and reverse a problem that has been decades in the making. Governor Newsom has set a strong expectation for all local governments to address encampments in their communities and help connect people with support. In 2024, Governor Newsom filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to recognize the need for state and local authority to clear encampments. After the Supreme Court issued a ruling that removed legal ambiguities that had tied the hands of state and local officials, Governor Newsom issued an executive order directing state entities and urging local governments to clear encampments using a state-tested model to address encampments humanely, offer housing, and provide people with adequate notice and support.

A strong strategy that works

Governor Newsom is creating a structural and foundational model that will have positive impacts for generations to come by streamlining and prioritizing building of new housing, funding new shelters, housing, and supports, holding local governments accountable, addressing mental health and its impact on homelessness through voter-approved Proposition 1, and creating new pathways for those who need it most through updated conservatorship laws and a new CARE court system.

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SAFE task force

Today's announcement brings these strategies together by establishing the statewide SAFE Taskforce. California's SAFE task force brings together state agencies responsible for delivering key components of the Governor's strategies to ensure that local communities have the support they need to quickly and humanely clear encampments, connect people with housing and care, and prevent repopulation.

Unlike the haphazard strategies employed by the Trump Administration, California's SAFE Task Force brings together each of the tools created by Governor Newsom to clear encampments and connect people with the care they need. The task force is made up of the following state agencies and departments, who will provide appropriate support:
  • California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES): Responsible for logistical coordination and procurement, ensuring the efficient deployment of resources.
  • Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency (BCSH): This agency, including through its Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), will continue to be instrumental in administering and overseeing housing and homeless grant funding that can be used for these efforts, and providing connections to housing solutions and supportive service providers.
  • California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH): Offering vital  guidance to local government facilitating homeless outreach coordinating supportive services, and facilitating collaboration with local agencies.
  • California Health and Human Services (CalHHS): Supporting and monitoring locally-provided comprehensive health care and behavioral health support, including critical substance use treatment facilitated through Proposition 1 funding.
  • California Highway Patrol (CHP): Providing essential public safety support during encampment operations and monitoring cleared encampment locations.
  • California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA): Directly responsible for the immediate clearance of encampments located on state rights-of-way, ensuring safety and public access. Since July 2021, Caltrans has removed more than 18,000 encampments along the state right-of-way and collected approximately 334,440 cubic yards of litter and debris — the equivalent of filling 11,950 garbage trucks.

Upcoming encampment operations

Together with local partners, the Task Force will focus on encampment operations throughout the state within the next 30 days. The task force will work in a unified way across state government to clear highly visible and unsafe encampments on state property while expanding access to housing, shelter, mental health, and substance use services. Locations identified include areas with large encampments and high-priority encampments on state rights-of-way in California's ten most populous cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, Anaheim, Bakersfield, and Fresno.

A strong partnership in San Francisco

This week, Caltrans reached a new agreement with the City of San Francisco that improves coordination on state right-of-ways. This Delegated Maintenance Agreement (DMA) will help the city address sites quickly and work with local partners who are equipped to offer services and housing to people experiencing homelessness.

Kicking off this agreement, in just the first two days, Caltrans and its city partners cleared encampments on state right-of-way at Cesar Chavez Junction and 13th and Van Ness, connecting 12 individuals with social services and shelter, and collecting roughly 90 cubic yards of unsafe and unsanitary waste and debris.

Since July 1, 2024, Caltrans has removed 81 encampments in the city and removed more than 1,150 cubic yards of waste and debris from sites along the state right-of-way, a 58% increase from the previous year.

Caltrans also reached a similar agreement with San Diego in July.

Reducing homelessness throughout the state

These agreements align with Governor Gavin Newsom's multi-pronged approach that is reshaping how homelessness is addressed in our state. Some of California's largest communities are already reporting substantial decreases in homelessness numbers – indicating that California's comprehensive and strategic approach to reversing this national crisis and getting people out of encampments is working. The broad scope of positive reports points to good news for California when the final data in December is counted.

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Here's where California is already seeing reports of reduced homelessness.
  • Los Angeles County (-9.5% unsheltered homelessness)
  • Los Angeles City (-7.9% unsheltered homelessness)
  • San Diego (-6.6% in total homelessness)
  • San Diego City (-13.5% total homelessness)
  • Riverside County CoC (-19% unsheltered homelessness)
  • San Bernardino County CoC (-14.2% unsheltered homelessness)
  • Sonoma CoC (-22.6% total homelessness)
  • Contra Costa County CoC (-25.5% total homelessness)
  • Ventura County CoC (-15.6% total homelessness)
  • Watsonville/Santa Cruz City & County CoC (-20.4% total homelessness)
  • Bakersfield / Kern County CoC (-2.3% total homelessness)
  • Kings County (-26.7% total homelessness)
  • Tulare County (-7.1% total homelessness)

Reversing a decades-in-the-making crisis

Between 2014 and 2019 — before Governor Newsom took office — unsheltered homelessness in California rose by approximately 37,000 people. Since then, under this Administration, California has significantly slowed that growth, even as many other states have seen worsening trends.

In 2024, while homelessness increased nationally by over 18%, California limited its overall increase to just 3% — a lower rate than in 40 other states. The state also held the growth of unsheltered homelessness to just 0.45%, compared to a national increase of nearly 7%. States like Florida, Texas, New York, and Illinois saw larger increases both in percentage and absolute numbers. California also achieved the nation's largest reduction in veteran homelessness and made meaningful progress in reducing youth homelessness.

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