In the wake of a Supreme Court case which overturned a 9th Circuit decision on public camping, Gov. Newsom got aggressive on cleaning up homeless camps. Just over a week ago he signed an executive order calling on other state officials to clean up their rooms, so to speak.

Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, called on state officials and local leaders to “humanely remove encampments from public spaces” and act “with urgency,” prioritizing those that most threaten health and safety.

Some of his own agencies are expected to take action immediately on state property. He cannot force local governments to sweep encampments, but can exert political pressure through the billions of dollars that the state controls for municipalities to address homelessness.

Some cities, including San Francisco, got right to it. Mayor London Breed ordered aggressive sweeps of homeless camps with outreach efforts backed by police. This is exactly the sort of effort that the 9th Circuit had long prevented.

Outreach workers, backed by law enforcement officers, have fanned out in recent days in targeted efforts to clear some of San Francisco’s most visible encampments, confiscating personal belongings and telling the owners it’s time to pack up and go.

They’ve cleared unsanctioned tent cities under freeways and a stretch of sidewalk in the drug-plagued Tenderloin with the aim of forcing people off the streets. On Monday, city workers visited a longtime encampment lining the sidewalks outside San Francisco’s only DMV office that had been cleared more than a dozen times this year only to resurrect days later.

By Monday night, the sidewalks were clean.

Homeless advocates have noted that city shelters are already near capacity but the reality is that most of the people living in these camps won't accept an offer of shelter even if it's available. Most of them are outside because they want to be outside. And sure enough only 10% of the people who were in these camps have accepted offers of shelter. 

Mayor Breed is also using another strategy to get people off the streets, one that has been employed by San Francisco and other cities for years: If you're homeless, the mayor has a free, one-way bus ticket for you.

On Thursday, Breed put weight behind another approach. She issued an executive directive requiring outreach workers to offer homeless people who aren’t from San Francisco free transportation out of town — to cities where they have family, friends or other connections. Cretan said the city would cover the cost of bus, plane or train fares.

It's still a bit early to tell how well this is going to work but there are already some indications that cleaned up areas are taken as an invitation for more homeless people to move in.

"This (tent) definitely wasn't here this morning. This gentleman just moved in right now," said Ramsey Armstrong as he walked along Treat Avenue.

Armstrong works at a salon across from the Treat Avenue encampment. City workers cleared the area about five days ago. A few people returned Sunday morning to set up their tents.

"As soon as the cops go, they'll be back the next day," Armstrong said. "Where do they got to go? I mean it doesn't surprise me at all."

So, probably not a definitive solution but at least they are trying. Meanwhile, it sounds as if LA County has decided it will ignore Gov. Newsom's order. That's bad news because about a quarter of the state's population lives in LA County along with about 40% of the state's 180,000 homeless people.

Los Angeles County is choosing to continue with the "care first, jails last" approach when addressing the more than 75,000 individuals experiencing homelessness in the county, despite recent pressure from California's Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"We can't arrest our way out of what's going on in the streets," said L.A. Board Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who is one of five board members who unanimously voted this week against Newsom's executive order on dismantling homeless encampments across the state...

Showing a united front with the board of supervisors, L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said during the meeting Tuesday, "Being homeless is not a crime, and we will maintain our focus on criminal behavior rather than an individual's status."

No one said being homeless was a crime, but camping overnight in a public park is a crime. So is blocking a sidewalk, openly using drugs on the street, having open fires on the street and lots of other things that homeless people routinely do without consequences. So while "care first, jails last" sounds good, what it means in practice is more of the same status quo.

If Newsom really wants to see things change, he needs to apply some pressure to LA County to fall in line. He's shown plenty of willingness to do this in the past when it comes to things like forcing Orange County cities to prepare plans for more high-density housing. But taking on red cities like Huntington Beach is politically easy for Newsom. He's more than happy to bully Republicans. Taking on LA County is another matter. I'm not sure he's willing to challenge members of his own party on this, at least not publicly.