Governor Gavin Newsom is a Homewrecker
On Monday, May 12, Governor Gavin Newsom urged every city and county government in California to ban homeless encampments [1]. His new ordinance will force people living in encampments to pack up their belongings and move at least 200 feet every three days or be criminally charged [2].
This escalation will not solve California’s homelessness crisis — it just punishes those who are already vulnerable. Governor Gavin Newsom is a homewrecker.
This is the Governor’s latest push to strong-arm cities and counties into compliance with threats of withholding critical local funding [3]. By further criminalizing poverty and displacing half of America’s homeless population, Governor Newsom is wrecking homes to further his political career [4].
The cost of living in California is too damn high. Newsom’s demands to ban homeless encampments will do nothing to address California’s exacerbating housing crisis. Even though our state is the world’s fifth largest economy, California has 181,000 homeless residents–a staggering number, driven by greedy corporations who are price-gouging tenants [5]. California has the resources it needs to solve homelessness. It’s time for Newsom to put working-class Californians over the billionaires and corporations profiting from the housing crisis.
Rent increases cause homelessness. California’s 17 million renters are often one missed paycheck away from homelessness [6]. 90% of adults experiencing homelessness reported that the high cost of housing as the main reason they could not escape homelessness [7]. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in California have also been hit hard by our state’s housing crisis. 49 percent of AAPI households in California spend a third of their income on housing, and 28 percent spend over half of their household income on housing [8]. Despite being undercounted in housing surveys, many AAPI families, students, and elders experience housing instability and homelessness [9].
From our 2024 Voter Insights Survey, over one thousand Asian American voters across the state said that the cost of housing is among the top 5 issues in California. 59 percent support rent control measures, including allowing cities to limit the rent that landlords can charge to new tenants. 81 percent of voters said they approve providing more affordable housing to address homelessness [10]. While Californians had the opportunity to vote in a statewide ballot measure that supported rent control, landlord lobbyists spent over $100 million to mislead voters in 2024 [11].
This year, AAPI FORCE is supporting priority bills that address the root causes of homelessness. These include:
AB 1157 (Kalra): Affordable Rent Act
AB 1248 (Haney, cosponsored by AG Bonta): End Unfair Junk Fees on Renters
SB 52 (Perez): Stop Artificial Intelligence Rent Hikes
SB 436 (Wahab): Extension of eviction notice period
Our government must protect renters against unchecked rent increases, exploitative junk fees, and unjust evictions. Governor Newsom and our legislators must work to stabilize rents so Californians do not need to choose between paying rent, having enough food to eat, or paying for medicine. We cannot allow homewreckers to displace any more Californians.
Instead of treating housing as a human right, Newsom is moving with a fascist strategy that treats unhoused people as criminals, instead of addressing the root causes of California’s housing crisis. His approach doesn’t just fail to solve homelessness; he is actively displacing more people from their homes. It’s time for Governor Newsom to advance policies that make housing affordable for Californians.
Housing is a human right!