Governor Newsom’s SAFE Task Force partners with Sacramento to clear encampment

What you need to know: The Governor's SAFE Task Force conducted an encampment operation in Sacramento, connecting 14 people with shelter.

SACRAMENTO - As part of Governor Gavin Newsom's statewide strategy to address homelessness, the Governor deployed his State Action for Facilitation on Encampments (SAFE) task force to address homeless encampments on state right of way in Sacramento. The task force worked with the City of Sacramento, which received Encampment Resolution Funding from the state to help accelerate this work. Through the operation, the task force and the city connected 14 people with shelter at the city's nearby small home community, which is operated by homelessness nonprofits that provide people with care and support to gain self-sufficiency.

There's nothing humane about letting people languish outdoors without shelter or support. We've been leaning in with unprecedented state help - real resources for our cities and counties - to turn this national homelessness crisis around and to get people the care they need. And today in Sacramento, we're standing with our local partners to move people out of encampments and into a safe, stable place.

Governor Gavin Newsom

"This SAFE Task Force operation in Sacramento reflects California's commitment to turning historic investments into coordinated, tangible solutions, rooted in evidence-based practices," said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Secretary Tomiquia Moss. "This collaborative spirit is key to our success as we align our efforts to make a lasting impact across California."

"California is building a stronger, more equitable behavioral health system so every person can get the right care at the right time," said Kim Johnson, Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency. "The SAFE Task Force is a powerful example of this work in action, demonstrating what's possible when we come together with a shared commitment to helping people stabilize, recover, and thrive."

About the Governor's SAFE Task Force

California's SAFE Task Force brings together expertise and programs from across state agencies to target encampments. The SAFE Task Force not only clears encampments but also brings together emergency management, social services, health care, drug treatment, and public safety. SAFE focuses on removing encampments on state property in California's most populous cities. SAFE has now cleared encampments in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Fresno, Long Beach, Sacramento, and San Diego - with more to come.

This week's encampment operation addressed a site located on state property alongside Interstate 80 off Roseville and Winters roads. The task force worked with local service providers for weeks to provide outreach to inhabitants of the encampment, offering shelter and supportive services, including health care.

After moving people into shelter and off the encampment site, Caltrans teams picked up debris and hazardous materials, in total clearing approximately 350 cubic yards of debris, including two vehicles, two boats, over 40 tires, and 470 gallons of hazardous waste.

From January 1, 2023 to December 4, 2025, Caltrans has removed 1,010 encampments in Sacramento County, with 930 in the city of Sacramento, and collected over 9,600 cubic yards of litter and debris, equal to 436 garbage trucks.

This adds to work that has been underway since 2021, with Caltrans having removed more than 19,000 encampments on state right-of-way and collected approximately 354,000 cubic yards of litter and debris.

Providing shelter in Sacramento

Fourteen people experiencing homelessness in the encampment were connected with shelter through the operation, being moved from the hazardous outdoor location to a small homes community nearby, which was funded by the City and operated by a local homeless provider. At the site, the individuals are provided food, care, and supportive services to help ensure they have what they need to gain stability and exit homelessness.

Strategies that work

Governor Newsom is the first Governor to make addressing homelessness - a decades in the making issue - a top priority. Since taking office in 2019, Governor Newsom has created unprecedented policy and structural changes in state government to help California better address its housing and homelessness crises, including additional and unprecedented support for local governments, stronger accountability and enforcement, transformational changes to mental health services and state government, and groundbreaking reforms to create more housing, faster than ever before.

Turning around a nationwide crisis

The Newsom Administration is making significant progress in reversing decades of inaction on homelessness.

Last year, the state held the growth of unsheltered homelessness to just 0.45%, compared to a national increase of nearly 7%. States like Florida, Texas, New York, and Illinois saw larger increases both in percentage and absolute numbers. In 2024, while homelessness increased nationally by over 18%, California limited its overall increase to just 3% - a lower rate than in 40 other states. California also achieved the nation's largest reduction in veteran homelessness and made meaningful progress in reducing youth homelessness.

And this year, many of California's communities are reporting reductions in homelessness - with a particularly notable reduction in unsheltered homelessness.