In summary
As California’s homelessness crisis worsens, politicians have shifted from promising solutions to blaming failures.
Over the past five years, the state government has spent about $24 billion to improve California’s worst homelessness crisis in the nation. Local governments and private charities have spent countless more.
Despite these massive expenditures, the number of unhoused Californians continues to grow, to more than 181,000 at the latest federal census. This is not only the highest number of states, but also the highest percentage of the population, accounting for 28% of the nation’s total.
The data suggests that everything authorities have been doing so far isn’t working. Or, even more ominously, that the underlying factors, such as extremely high living costs, especially the cost of housing, and macroeconomic trends, are so powerful that the authorities can only nibble away at the profits at all costs. It suggests. how much money they spend.
Recent political debate on this issue has shown that Gov. Gavin Newsom, state legislators, and local government officials have acknowledged, if not publicly acknowledged, that it is virtually impossible to significantly reduce homelessness. This shows that they are aware of this and are therefore developing a self-protective shift of responsibility.
When Newsom ran for governor six years ago, he promised to appoint an “emperor” who would launch a frontal attack on homelessness. A year after he became governor, reporters asked him if he would keep his promise. A clearly frustrated Newsom took to the stage at a budget press conference and said, “You want to know who the homeless czar is?” I’m California’s homeless czar. ”
As the homeless population continues to rise, Mr. Newsom has begun to shift from promising effective action to blaming others, especially local government officials, for failures. Just last month, for example, Newsom called for more oversight of local performance and withheld additional funding from those deemed ineffective, saying, “We’re no longer interested in funding failure.” he threatened.
Local officials, most of whom are Newsom’s fellow Democrats, have complained that the one-year budget makes it impossible to establish permanent programs to move people off the streets and into housing. ing.
read more: California fails to track homelessness spending and results, new audit says
Both Newsom and local officials are unhappy with a federal appeals court ruling that says homeless encampments cannot be cleared unless residents have access to housing. The issue is currently awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the state comptroller’s office released a report last month highly critical of the Newsom administration’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (California ICH), stating that the agency did not accurately report on its efforts to address homelessness and state said it has not coordinated its efforts.
“Until California ICH takes these important steps, the state will lack up-to-date information that can be used to make data-driven policy decisions on how to effectively reduce homelessness,” the report said. declared.
State legislators from both parties engaged in a blame game this week during an “oversight” hearing in a legislative appropriations subcommittee.
They in turn criticized California ICH Executive Director Megan Marshall for lacking data on which programs were effective.
“When you come to the budget committee, there are no numbers,” Rep. Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, told Marshall. “How many people have we helped? How many people have we taken off the streets? … Because that’s what the public wants to know: What was that money used for?”
She responded that “data quality issues are delaying the collection of the data Ting had hoped for.” “That sounds like an excuse,” Ting retorted.
“At the end of the day, we have to stop measuring success by how many dollars are spent,” agreed Republican Rep. Josh Huber of Folsom. This is because there is a lack of data. ”
As the homelessness crisis worsens, as voters become increasingly dissatisfied and politicians, including governors with national ambitions, seek to avoid its fallout, the outcry will likely grow louder.
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