As Newsom pressures cities to clear homeless camps, they say Caltrans is moving too slow

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM ordered state agencies to clear homeless encampments from their properties last summer, holding up the California Department of Transportation as an example of how it should be done.

But in the more than nine months since, cities up and down the state have complained that Caltrans isn’t doing enough. City officials and staff say the state agency is slow, sometimes taking months to respond to their requests to clear an encampment. They complain the agency doesn’t consistently tell them when it plans to clear a camp. In at least one city, officials have no idea if Caltrans is offering services to the homeless people it kicks off its land.