Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was mocked after he claimed California was the “national model” for dealing with homelessness.
Announcing a $3.3 billion fund to combat homelessness in his state on Tuesday, Newson boasted, “The state of California saw a decline in veteran’s homelessness,” adding that “we have a national model.”
Although California has seen a 30% drop in veteran homeless since 2012, a 2023 federal report determined that 28% of the nation’s homeless live in California and people sleeping on the streets in the state accounted for roughly half of the entire nation’s total.
The Daily Mail noted, “Los Angeles, which has more homeless people than any other US city at a staggering 65,111 people, saw its homelessness rate increase by nine percent in 2023 compared to the previous year.” California’s number of unsheltered homeless, 123,000, is eight times higher than that of Florida, which has just 15,000.
California barely passed Newsom’s $6.4 billion Proposition 1 in March, 50.2 to 49.8 percent, a proposition for which Newsom had raised over $13 million; opponents of the proposition argued that it was far too costly and would jeopardize funding for mental health services and some small mental health agencies.
CalMatters described the proposition: “It includes a bond to build treatment facilities and permanent supportive housing for people with mental health and addiction challenges. It also proposes changes to a longstanding tax on personal incomes over $1 million, known as the Mental Health Services Act, by requiring counties to spend 30% of that revenue on housing instead of other services.”
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“What Proposition 1 did is that it reinforced that model, provided more resources to advance that model, and we’re very excited to get those dollars to work,” Newsom declared.
Newsom was roundly criticized on social media with comments such as, “The model: We don’t know what we did or where the money went,” “Newsom is right, we are a national model, but in the negative sense. Let the nation see us as a dire warning of how not to handle homelessness,” and “Newsom is right. The homeless crisis in California has made several nonprofit executives millionaires.”
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) simply posted on X, “This is the height of delusion.”
This is the height of delusion. https://t.co/Vjiag9IiMg
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) May 15, 2024