Californians support removing homeless camps — unless Trump does it

A majority of Californians say they are OK with clearing out homeless camps, they just don’t want President Donald Trump to do it.

The poll, from the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy and the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, found that nearly 52 percent of those surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed that they support removing homeless tent encampments from public spaces.

However, that attitude changed when the federal government came up.

Just 47 percent of those surveyed said they would support the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducting such a camp removal.

If Trump suggested such a proposal, support for removal dropped down to 41 percent.

“The findings suggest that while voters are generally supportive of removing homeless tent encampments from public spaces throughout the state, they are less supportive when intervention is proposed by the federal government,” according to the USC report.

The poll comes amid an intensified state focus on the issue of homelessness. California Gov. Gavin Newsom made it the focus of his State of the State address Wednesday.

Trump, for his part, occasionally floats the idea of federal intervention when discussing homelessness in California. As recently as this week in Los Angeles, Trump said he’d take action if the city doesn’t “clean it up fast,” according to The Associated Press.

“If they can’t do it themselves, we’re going to do it,” Trump said. “The federal government is going to take it over, we’re going to do it.“

A November poll from the Public Policy Institute of California found that 85 percent of Californians are concerned about the state’s homelessness crisis, with 70 percent supporting a mandate that local governments provide enough shelter beds for every homeless person.