Newsom tries to shift blame on homelessness – Latest News
Gavin Newsom stood earlier than the cameras in early March and as soon as again blamed native governments for the state’s spiraling homelessness disaster.
“No more excuses,” he thundered, threatening to strip funding from counties he claims are underperforming whereas promising to redirect “every damn penny” to these “getting things done.”
Newsom is as soon as again making an attempt to shift blame for California’s homelessness disaster — the very disaster he has repeatedly pledged to clear up, together with his 2021 vow to finish household homelessness within 5 years.
Since 2017, homelessness in California has surged by more than 40 p.c — from roughly 134,000 people to almost 187,000 in 2024 — regardless of an estimated $30 billion in spending he approved.
His newest tirade in opposition to counties ignores the obvious fact.
The downside isn’t a lack of spending. And it isn’t native governments. The downside is the one-size-fits-all coverage that has dictated each the spending and the strategy.
Since 2017, homelessness in California has surged by more than 40 p.c. AP
The downside has surged regardless of an estimated $30 billion in spending Newsom approved. Apu Gomes for California Post
Despite knowledge exhibiting that roughly 80 p.c of these dwelling on California’s streets battle with extreme mental sickness or habit, the cornerstone of Newsom’s homelessness strategy — Housing First — prioritizes lifelong housing subsidies with no expectation of remedy, sobriety, or work, ever.
The idea is deceptively easy: Give somebody housing and stability will observe.
But that idea has collapsed below the weight of actuality.
Not solely did homelessness surge in California after the coverage was mandated statewide in 2016, it additionally surged by almost 35 p.c as soon as the federal authorities adopted the method in 2013 — regardless of President Barack Obama’s promise that it could finish homelessness within a decade.
Instead of ending homelessness, Housing First has produced one of the most costly social coverage failures in trendy historical past.
Sign up for the California Morning Report publication
California’s high information, sports activities and leisure delivered to your inbox daily.
Thanks for signing up!
Yet Newsom stays one of its most vocal champions. In 2025, he even vetoed laws that may have allowed simply 10 p.c of state homelessness funds to assist sober restoration housing, underscoring his unwavering dedication to Housing First orthodoxy.
Fortunately, a growing quantity of native leaders are charting a completely different course.
In San Jose, Mayor Matt Mahan has rejected the fatalism of sidewalk encampments and embraced a more pragmatic and humane method to addressing homelessness.
His “Responsibility to Shelter” coverage prioritizes speedy construction of interim housing and requires people to settle for out there shelter after repeated refusals or face enforcement actions. The objective shouldn’t be punishment, however intervention to be sure that people affected by habit or extreme mental sickness are usually not deserted to deteriorate on the streets.
By focusing on quick shelter paired with remedy and stabilization — a model the state refuses to fund — San Jose is increasing interim capability and restoring order to public areas.
In San Francisco, Mayor Daniel Lurie can be charting a more humane course.
California is home to almost one-third of America’s unsheltered population. Jonathan Alcorn for CA Post
Through his “Breaking the Cycle” initiative, Lurie is increasing treatment-focused beds which might be exempt from state funding, strengthening outreach groups, and creating a centralized RESET Center to quickly consider and triage people battling habit and mental sickness.
He additionally cancelled a controversial $5 million metropolis program that offered free alcohol to continual alcoholics — a coverage that symbolized a system more excited by managing habit than treating it.
These mayors inherited cities overwhelmed by tents, open drug markets, and collapsing public confidence. Their response has been to restore a fundamental precept that California’s state management deserted years in the past.
The false alternative between enforcement and compassion is lastly being dismantled.
Because actual compassion requires intervention.
That similar philosophy shapes the proposed reforms on the federal stage, below the Trump administration.
Sign up for the California Morning Report publication
California’s high information, sports activities and leisure delivered to your inbox daily.
Thanks for signing up!
In late 2025, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development introduced plans to direct important assets towards sober transitional housing applications that embody mental health remedy, habit restoration, and employment assist.
The objective is easy: promote health and self-sufficiency somewhat than everlasting dependency.
But somewhat than welcome reforms that mirror the options rising in his own state, Newsom joined a multistate lawsuit to block them, claiming the modifications symbolize “cruel cuts.”
In actuality, this resistance has little to do with serving to the homeless and every little thing to do with preserving a system the place funding continues regardless of outcomes.
Meanwhile, the human toll grows. California stays home to almost one-third of America’s unsheltered population, with charges far exceeding the national average.
No press convention can obscure that actuality.
California doesn’t need more blame-shifting; it wants a course correction.
And as Newsom more and more positions himself on the national stage, Americans ought to take a arduous take a look at the outcomes of the insurance policies he championed at home.
Because what occurred to homelessnes in California didn’t occur by chance.
Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and a Visiting Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative. Follow them on Twitter: @SteebMichele and @ DiscoveryCWP.
Download The California Post App, observe us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters
California Post News: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn
California Post Sports Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X
California Post Opinion
California Post Newsletters: Sign up right here!
California Post App: Download right here!
Home supply: Sign up right here!
Page Six Hollywood: Sign up right here!
