El Dorado County Homelessness Digest

State lawmakers will debate a bill to require annual inspections, new complaint processes and harsher penalties for local governments that don’t file mandatory reports.

The Fremont city council has revised a new city camping ordinance, removing what had become a controversial clause — first reported on by CalMatters — that could have punished those  “aiding and abetting” encampments.

This appears to be the first such injunction since the U.S. Supreme Court let cities crack down on homeless encampments in California and beyond.

RED MEANS FAILURE, green means progress. Gov. Gavin Newsom introduced a new tracker tool this week that shows how local agencies are using state funds to eradicate homelessness and rates their success. The concept is to pool data on grants and reporting so counties can watch other counties; the public can watch state spending; and the governor can make the argument for granting or cutting funds.

It’s been eight months since the U.S. Supreme Court fundamentally changed how cities in California and beyond can respond to homeless encampments, allowing them to clear camps and arrest people for sleeping outside — even when there’s nowhere else to sleep.

California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, a new law that stiffened penalties for certain drug and theft charges, and pledged to provide “mass treatment” for those facing drug charges.

But since the law took effect, some counties have been scrambling to implement the measure without new funding or, according to people involved in enforcing the law, sufficient resources.

Shelters have become California’s go-to solution for homelessness. A CalMatters investigation finds the vast majority of residents stay homeless.

Outreach workers in the Bay Area city of Fremont worry the new ordinance could target them, despite assurances from the city.

In their January 28 meeting, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors heard the second reading of the updated camping ordinance and approved it unanimously. Read on to learn more.

The unusual move is alarming activists who worry they could be in the ordinance’s crosshairs.

In their January 7 meeting, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved moving forward with proposed changes to camping and parking ordinances in line with county policy in regards to homelessness. Read on to learn more about the ordinances involved.

Jennielynn Holmes stood in the middle of a make-shift evacuation center when the scope of the crisis hit her.

Gov. Newsom launched an ambitious program that uses Medi-Cal to help Californians access housing, healthy food and more. Now, its fate is in the hands of President-Elect Trump.

Learn more about the new Upper Room Dining Hall food truck serving the hungry and food insecure in El Dorado County.

Many California cities offer their homeless residents one-way bus tickets to other places.

Learn more about the clearing of three homeless camps and the thousands of pounds of rubbish removed before being covered by coming winter snows.

November has been designated by Tahoe Youth and Family Services as a time to focus on runaway or homeless youth in the community. Read on to learn more.

Homeless Californians face many barriers to casting a ballot, even in elections that affect their lives. Some counties and nonprofits are trying to boost turnout.

In the face of vigorous opposition, Housing El Dorado dropped a proposal to rent an empty space at the Cameron Park Community Services District campus to use as an inclement weather shelter for local homeless.

Multiple state agencies spent nearly $24 billion on housing and homeless programs in the first five years of Gavin Newsom’s governorship, but the number of people without homes continued to grow, rising by 20% to more than 180,000 in the most recent federal count in 2023.

Homeless service providers are scaling back and taking out loans as they wait for late payments from the government.

Over the last five years, the state government has spent some $24 billion to ameliorate homelessness, which, according to polls, is California’s most troublesome issue.

Failed legislative bills have attempted to create safe parking programs for students to sleep in their cars on California campuses while awaiting housing. Meanwhile, Long Beach City College allows homeless students to park overnight.

For five years, California officials responding to the homelessness crisis had to work around one big restriction imposed by the federal courts: Because they didn’t have enough shelter beds, cities generally couldn’t make homeless camps illegal.

More than two-dozen California cities passed, strengthened or are considering ordinances that penalize people for sleeping outside, after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed cities to crack down.

An exclusive CalMatters analysis of the latest California homeless count reveals some good news and bad news: Though the growth rate of homelessness appears to be slowing, the overall number of unhoused Californians increased from two years ago.

California has allocated more than $20 billion to alleviate the state’s homelessness crisis since Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019, but there’s precious little data on how the money was spent and what effect it’s had, other than the number of unhoused people has continued to climb.

A critical new federal audit calls out California for doing too little to prevent fraudulent spending of homelessness funds. Nearly $320 million was at risk.

In 2021, responding to reports that the state’s homeless shelters were dirty and dangerous, the state Legislature crafted a plan: It would require local governments to inspect their shelters after complaints and file annual reports on shelter conditions.

The Supreme Court’s decision on homelessness will test a shelter system that’s full of problems – and lacking accountability.

Taking advantage of new state funds, some California healthcare providers are starting to offer what their homeless patients really need: housing.

There’s a lot of misinformation floating around out there about homelessness in California. We use data to dispel several common myths.