Encampment Sweeps Become Widespread: 2024 California Homelessness Year In Review

2024 was the year California cracked down on homeless encampments.

Fed up with tents taking up sidewalks, parks and vacant lots, officials throughout the state ramped up efforts to remove camps – sometimes even resorting to arresting people for illegal camping.

The biggest shift came in June with the Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court ruling, which gives cities new authority to arrest, cite and fine people for sleeping outside in public places – even if there is no shelter available. Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly followed the ruling with an order of his own: He demanded state agencies clear homeless encampments, and urged cities to do the same or risk losing out on state funding.

California cities were quick to react. A little more than two months after the court ruling, more than two dozen cities and counties had passed or proposed new ordinances banning camping, or updated existing ordinances to make them more punitive. Unhoused Californians, as well as the activists who fight for their rights, told CalMatters that sweeps had become more frequent and more aggressive.

As they ramped up sweeps, California cities used different strategies to relocate people displaced from homeless encampments. San Diego moved hundreds of people into sanctioned encampments. Los Angeles put people up in hotels.

2024 also was the year where everyone promised greater accountability. An April audit found the state fails to track how much it spends on homelessness and which state-funded programs are successful. Following that scathing report, Newsom added new rules requiring cities and counties to better track outcomes when spending state homelessness dollars. He also promised to ramp up enforcement against cities and counties that don’t do their part, and in November, his administration sued the city of Norwalk for putting a moratorium on the construction of new homeless shelters .

Meanwhile, CalMatters crunched new data to show California’s homeless population increased to nearly 186,000 people in 2024 – up 8% from 2022.

2025 outlook

One thing to watch for in the upcoming year will be how the new administration under President-elect Donald Trump handles homelessness at the federal level. Homeless service providers throughout California rely on federal grants, and some operators worry their funding could get cut.

But there is one issue where Trump and Newsom are more aligned than you might think: and that’s how to handle homeless encampments. Trump has promised to tackle encampments by working with states to ban urban camping and arrest people who don’t comply. But many cities in California already started doing that this year, and Newsom has urged local officials to crack down.

CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.