Removing Homeless Encampments

19th August 2024

Dear Governor Newsom,

In relation to the policy of aggressively removing homeless encampments I feel that my insight on the subject may be of help. The homeless need to be somewhere but finding the right place is key and getting them to move there is a goal that has proven harder than expected.

In an ideal world we would bring the homeless back into society as full members. We want them to enjoy their rights, vote, pay taxes, and contribute to the economy. In that vein, building tiny homes and homeless shelters will do little but cement the idea that this is a permanent problem and not one we can move past as a society.

In the great depression homeless encampments were tolerated because there was little option. Again, the ideal solution would be to resolve the homeless situation and see the encampments shrink of their own accord. This is unrealistic but this does not change the fact that we need to work with not against the homeless.

Where the problem lies is that homeless shelters are places of high theft, little freedom or privacy, and to move to one the homeless are asked to toss away all that they own or a good amount of what little they have. Living in a dorm may look better than living in a tent, but they have a tent and can come and go as they please.

Why not designate tent encampment sites where food, sanitation, and civil services are rendered? Let them keep their tent or motor home, but place these things in an old parking lot or the like and provide them with bathroom and laundry services. This would likely be less of a burden on the taxpayer.

They need to be somewhere and so we should give them a place to live where they can live as they please out of the way of the industrial and commercial engines that will pay for their water and power.

Much as I understand that there will be no easy solutions to this problem I recognize that we need to give these people the stability to vote and pay taxes. We want them to participate in our society rather than live on the fringe.

Give it a thought,



Richard Leland Neal

Golden City Proposal

31st October 2023

Dear Governor Newsom,

I turned on the news the other day to see another nightmare in this time of civil unrest. This was taking place in our home California and the question that comes to mind when I think of my beloved golden state is: what will we do about homelessness?

Yes, the story was about looting in Oakland, but my own home of Los Angeles is suffering from the problem as are many of the major cities of our great state. To compound the issue, the tourism dollar is what will most likely bring the Specter of prosperity back to us, and the large homeless population of inner-city LA is ward against this spirit.

There are places where we can’t walk in Los Angeles because of all the tents and garbage kept by the homeless. Looting and shoplifting is closing businesses and who would want to come and see a city plagued with trash and human suffering?

Further, not only do we receive the homeless of the rest of the country we also get refugees and all the tired poor masses yearning to breathe free from all the world. California has become a dumping ground for the world’s unwanted and we have no choice but to embrace these migrations. We, the Golden State, need to find a place for these unwanted masses, and I think I know where they may go.

A hundred miles north of the great metropolis of Los Angeles is California City. This is a place tooled to be as large as Los Angeles and with long forgotten unpaved roads where no development has kept the city plans alive.

The reason for the desolation of California City is a lack of an economic engine to drive construction. There is plenty of room for expansion and all the empty plots one would need to build the houses and amenities needed to support the homeless of Los Angeles.

I would call this the ‘Golden City Proposal’ and would mean the designation of part of California City as a rehabilitation center for the state's homeless. We can’t move the homeless encampments and Hoovervilles without a place for the homeless to go so why not build a place for them to go two hours outside of the largest city in the state.

We need a place for the homeless to go and moving them out of the city of L.A. should improve the economy, bring in more tax revenue, and bring more people out of homelessness.

Just a thought,



Richard Leland Neal