Caltrans would have to help homeless people find housing before clearing their tents from state property under a new proposal in the California State Legislature.

The proposal would create a new classification of workers at Caltrans who would visit the people living in homeless camps and attempt to connect them with housing and supportive services before maintenance crews clear the camps.

It would also require Caltrans to post a link on its website for people to report homeless camps and require the department to send workers to assess reported camps within 24 hours.

Assemblyman Phillip Chen, R-Diamond Bar, recently introduced the proposal.

“No human being should have to seek shelter underneath a freeway underpass,” Chen said in an emailed statement. “This bill will help them find the supportive services they need to get back on their feet and lead productive lives.”

Caltrans routinely clears roadside homeless camps in the interest of keeping highways safe of hazards. That work has taken up an increasing amount of time and money as the state’s homeless crisis worsened, with spending on camp cleanups more than tripling between 2013 and 2018 to $12.4 million, according to department records.

Homeless people and their advocates have called the department’s policies for clearing camps inhumane and ineffective, while its workers have said they lack the training and equipment to carry out the policies.

Under current policies, Caltrans sends out crews after posting notices at the camps three days in advance. The crews load much of what they find into dump trucks outfitted with trash compactors. Often the people whose belongings are cleared return as soon as the crews leave.

About 151,000 homeless people were living in California in 2019, an increase of about 16 percent from the year before, according to federal data. Caltrans clears up to dozens of homeless camps every day, according to data obtained by McClatchy.

The department’s approach to cleanup drew broad attention in 2018, when a Caltrans worker clearing a camp in Modesto hit Shannan Bigley, 33, with a piece of heavy equipment while she was sleeping, killing her.

Caltrans workers have complained that they have neither training nor equipment to clean up the camps, which can contain hazardous materials including human waste and hypodermic needles.

Their union, the International Union of Operating Engineers, filed a grievance with Caltrans over cleanups last year. CalOSHA fined the department last year over conditions the workers faced cleaning up a camp under the Vietnam Veterans Bridge on U.S. Highway 50 in Placerville.

More than 100 people have filed claims with Caltrans for damages related to the cleanups over the last few years, McClatchy has reported, and several lawsuits have been filed over the last decade, including a class-action suit in Alameda County Superior Court that alleges Caltrans’ disposals violate the U.S. Constitution.

Chen’s proposal, Assembly Bill 1908, would require Caltrans to create a Homeless Encampment and Litter Program within its maintenance program.

The new program would send workers to homeless camps and require them to “use best efforts” to get homeless people to “voluntarily accept supportive services and relocate” before Caltrans clears a camp, according to the proposal.

Under current state laws, Caltrans has leeway to rent its properties at below-market rates for homeless programs in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara County and San Joaquin County.

The proposal would strengthen that program, making it mandatory for Caltrans to offer properties for lease if the department responds to three or more homeless camps at the same location within 30 days. The requirement would only go into effect if the Legislature designated money for it, according to the bill.

This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 7:00 AM.