During remarks on the House Floor, made on Thursday, Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) discussed the recent California Supreme Court ruling relating to mitigation of the homeless population.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Madam Speaker, today is a new day for California.
00:20The United States Supreme Court has just issued a landmark decision relating to homelessness
00:26and has taken the course of action that I asked it to in an amicus brief that I organized
00:33on behalf of myself and several other representatives from California and other western states.
00:40This decision gives our communities back the power to regulate homelessness in a smart,
00:49common sense, and compassionate way.
00:53Right now, homelessness in California is a crisis.
00:57It is a tragedy.
00:59It is a national disgrace.
01:02Half of the unsheltered homeless in the entire country are in California.
01:07And the consequences of that throughout our state have been profound.
01:12The unchecked growth of homeless encampments is causing many of our communities to deteriorate.
01:20It's associated with crime, disease, open drug use, and many other problems.
01:26Businesses are closing in California seemingly every day because of this problem.
01:33You have families that have to walk around tents or dodge needles just walking their
01:38kids to school or going out to get groceries.
01:42And the problem has only continued to get worse and worse.
01:47It is rooted in many respects in an extremely misguided and unique across the country decision
01:56from the Ninth Circuit, which covers California and some other states in the West.
02:03This decision, known as Martin v. Boise, tied the hands of states, cities, counties, local
02:12communities in being able to deal with homeless encampments.
02:17It effectively has made it impossible to ban camping in public places or to regulate
02:23encampments in our parks, streets, and sidewalks in a common sense way and limit the ability
02:28to set up tent encampments.
02:31This decision, again, came from the Ninth Circuit in California, covering all of California,
02:36and such a decision does not exist anywhere else in the country, yet our communities have
02:41been subject to it for several years now.
02:45So today's decision from the U.S. Supreme Court finally looked at whether that local
02:51lower court decision in the Ninth Circuit was correct.
02:55And I wrote an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Boise decision.
03:02And that is precisely what the court did today.
03:06This is an incredibly significant moment for our state.
03:10It is restoring the power to local communities that should never have been taken away.
03:18And it is a chance to truly turn things around.
03:21It presents an opportunity for a much better future in California.
03:26We can now reclaim our public spaces, restore order, reduce crime.
03:31We can make our communities safer and healthier.
03:36Our streets and sidewalks can become walkable and safe again.
03:40Communities can return and local economies can flourish.
03:44Our parks can become places for recreation and can be safe and pleasant for kids and
03:50families.
03:52And maybe most important of all, we can get homeless individuals into shelters and connect
03:58them with the services that they need to get back on their feet and turn their life around.
04:05This is the true tragedy of the situation that has been allowed to exist and fester
04:12and get worse and worse in California.
04:15Is that we have so many people living in our streets and all too tragically nearly every
04:20day dying on our streets.
04:23Who have substance abuse problems.
04:26Who have mental health issues.
04:28And yet because of the state of the law are not getting access to the help they need.
04:34These are folks that could live great, happy, fulfilling lives, but because of the state
04:40of the law, they're stuck.
04:43Living in terrible conditions, unable to turn their lives around.
04:49This decision also comes just one day after the California Secretary of State has certified
04:56for November a ballot initiative that would in large part overturn and amend Proposition
05:0347, which has also been linked to the rise of homelessness and crime in California.
05:10This initiative will restore appropriate consequences for repeat thieves.
05:15It will enable us to get treatment for repeat drug offenders, and it will toughen penalties
05:22for fentanyl dealers and help us get that crisis under control.
05:27So these two things, the reversal of the Boise decision and the opportunity to reform
05:34Proposition 47, truly are a turning point for California.
05:41For those who look around and wonder every day what became of our beautiful state, today
05:46is a new day.
05:48Our state has been heading in the wrong direction for some time, but I believe this is a chance
05:53to move in a totally different direction.
05:56This is a chance to restore common sense and improve the quality of life for all Californians.
06:02This is a chance to make our communities a better place to live, work, raise a family,
06:08and retire.
06:09It's a chance to become the state that leads the nation in the right ways again.
06:15California has so much to offer, so much potential, so much possibility, and today I am as hopeful
06:22for our state as I've been in a very long time.