The push comes as rows of RVs and lived-in cars line streets in cities across the state, frustrating voters and creating issues with trash, waste water and traffic visibility.
Within the next month teams will be sent to camps in California’s 10 largest cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, Anaheim, Bakersfield and Fresno.
Providing free bus tickets to unhoused people is nothing new in SF, which has been offering some form of this program for about two decades but usage declined during the pandemic.
Nonprofits that provide everything from shelter beds, to counseling for homeless residents, to affordable housing, say they regularly are kept waiting weeks, if not months, for the city, county and state funding they rely on.
After a court ruling this summer, Gov. Newsom issued an executive order directing state agencies to clear encampments on state property, and encouraging local governments to do the same.