On July 27, California Governor Gavin Newsom, a prominent “progressive” Democrat, issued a statewide order to tear down homeless encampments. His order directed state agencies to remove homeless tent sites on state property and urged local municipalities to do the same.

This came several weeks after the fascist U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities and states can ban homeless people from sleeping outdoors, a decision Newsom had pushed for! The Supreme Court overturned a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said criminally charging people who had nowhere else to sleep was cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional.

If you’re outraged by these cruel and heartless measures against some of the most vulnerable sections of society, the first question to ask is: Why is there homelessness? Housing is one of the most basic human needs, and there is no secret to building it—the people, know-how, technology, and resources are available. So why are some 653,100 people homeless on any given day throughout the U.S.? 

Bob Avakian (BA), revolutionary leader and author of the new communism, spoke sharply to this in an interview several years ago:

The scourge of homelessness... the terror of evictions (now sharply on the rise as temporary pandemic moratoriums and limited financial support run out)... and the obscene lack of affordable and decent housing in the U.S.—all this is rooted in the nature and workings of the capitalist-imperialist system, and particular changes and transformations over the last several decades. There is no fundamental “right to shelter” under this system. This is not an economy organized around human need, in which social priorities are established and plans drawn up to allocate resources accordingly. Under this economy and system, housing is a commodity produced for profit. It is an object of financial investment and speculation. (INTERVIEW WITH BOB AVAKIAN, Part 5)

The Rulers—Democrats or Republicans—Have NO Solution to Needless Outrage of Homelessness

Newsom brags that under his leadership, California has spent $24 billion on the problem of homelessness. He says he and the Democratic Party are the polar opposites of the Republicans on this and other issues. 

But the undeniable reality is that those who rule this country—Democrats as well as the fascist Republicans—have no solution to the crisis of homelessness that is in the actual interests of humanity. 

Why? Because, as BA hits at, the scourge of homelessness is built into the very workings of their system of capitalism-imperialism. This is the system that Newsom and the Democrats represent, promote and defend, even as they have sharp differences with Trump and the Republi-fascists over how to do so. And to preserve the system and this society’s “social order” in the face of rising homelessness, they are relying on the same brutal, inhumane approach they accuse the Republicans of using.

Newsom claimed that clearing the homeless camps off the streets was needed for “public health” and would be done “humanely.” Humanely?! What happened immediately after Newsom’s order speaks to the utter inhumanity being perpetrated against those without a place to live. Cities across California began draconian assaults on homeless encampments—this in a state where upwards of 170,000 people have no homes and are forced to live in tents, cars, and other makeshift shelters, often in encampments. 

Fresno approved an ordinance making “sitting, lying, sleeping or camping on a public place” a misdemeanor punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and one year in jail. The mayor of Lancaster said, “I’m warming up the bulldozer.”

San Francisco’s liberal mayor, London Breed, said she was “excited” by the Supreme Court’s order criminalizing homelessness and ordered “aggressive” sweeps with teams of police and public works employees targeting encampments. She even directed that homeless people be given bus tickets out of town before offering any shelter or services. One pig was captured on video shouting at a homeless person, “No more on the streets, no more encampments. No more.” The crew grabbed the person’s tent while they tried to hold on to their sleeping bag and other items inside.

Some counties and cities like Los Angeles have balked at implementing Newsom’s directive, offering social services to homeless people instead (an approach which has never ended homelessness either). Newsom’s response? Staging a photo-op under a highway overpass in Los Angeles County and helping clear out a homeless encampment—including throwing personal belongings in the trash. Then, like a Mafia-boss, he threatened areas which haven’t yet enacted his ruthless directive with the loss of state funds. “No more excuses,” he declared. “If we don’t see demonstrable results, I’ll start to redirect money.”

This vicious offensive against the homeless criminalizes people for just trying to meet a basic human need—to have shelter and sleep. It’s often robbing people of their few cherished possessions and pushing them deeper into the shadows, further degrading and beating them down. 

One formerly homeless man in Oakland told CNN what his friends living on the streets are going through: “It’s a hammer on the head day in and day out. ... A lot of my friends out there just sort of just shake their heads, like, ‘OK, well, how do I get through my next hour? How am I going to eat, you know? … It’s like, OK, I’m going to lose all my sh*t again. Nobody gives a f**k about us...” 

How Long Will This Nightmare Go On?

This system’s politicians have been promising to end homelessness for decades, yet this crisis has only gotten worse. How long will this nightmare go on? 

The larger reality is this: the outrage of homelessness is totally unnecessary. There is a vision and a plan for a radically different society and a totally different, emancipating way to live spelled out in We Need and We Demand: A Whole New Way to Live, A Fundamentally Different System from the revcoms (revolutionary communists), and in more depth in the Constitution for the New Socialist Republic in North America, authored by BA. And crucially, in BA, we have the leadership to make an actual revolution and get to this liberating future. 

The challenge is posed to all who are outraged by seeing human beings without homes being further abused and discarded, and by the many other intolerable outrages of this system: Get with Bob Avakian and this revolution. Now, at this pivotal moment in history when crises are coming to a boil and revolution has become more possible!