California Governor Gavin Newsom came under fire from a reporter after he continued to dodge questions about the state’s waste of $24 billion in spending on homelessness.
Thanks to such spending programs, California’s budget deficit is at least $45 billion, a deficit so large that it led Newsom to propose painful spending cuts that affect immigrants, kindergartners and parents of low-income seeking child care in a state often praised as ranking fifth in the world. largest economy.
The Golden State spent $24 billion to combat homelessness in five years, but failed to track whether the money was helping the state’s growing number of homeless people, a damning report says.
At a press conference announcing his plans, KFF Health News’ Angela Hart asked him if he felt his administration had done enough to ensure the money was well spent and if he was concerned that the appetite for spending was waning due to the homeless program.
The normally confident Democrat hesitated and stammered for two minutes, to which Hart responded, “I’m sorry, Governor, I didn’t hear answers to any of those questions.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom came under fire from a reporter after he continued to dodge questions about wasting the state’s $24 billion in spending on homelessness.
The Golden State spent $24 billion to combat homelessness in cities like San Francisco over five years, but failed to track whether the money was helping the state’s growing number of homeless people, according to a damning report.
The governor said throughout his initial response that the problem was dealing with local governments, but Newsom was clearly rebuked by Hart’s response.
Newsom finally came clean, saying the audit “didn’t surprise me” and agreed with most of its findings, saying the state has made unprecedented investments and sought to increase local governments’ accountability for that spending.
“As far as the public mood is concerned… more is not always better, the public wants to see results,” he added.
Hart finally thanked him for his response, calling it “thorough” before asking Newsom about health care spending cuts and climate change.
The audit criticizes the state’s homeless czars for spending billions on 30 programs between 2018 and 2023, but does not collect data on why the money was not addressing the crisis.
It confirms what is clear to many residents: the homelessness crisis is out of control and that tent encampments and problematic vagrancy in major cities are bad and getting worse.
Homelessness rose 6 percent to more than 180,000 people in California last year, federal data shows. Since 2013, the numbers have skyrocketed by 53 percent.
California is home to nearly a third of the entire homeless population in the United States.
Newsom eventually leveled, saying the audit “didn’t surprise me” and agreed with most of its findings and said the state has made unprecedented investments and sought to increase local governments’ accountability for that spending.
Homeless people line up for dinner outside the Midnight Mission in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles.
State Auditor Grant Parks wrote in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers that “the state must do more to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of its homeless programs.”
Auditors investigated five plans that received a combined $13.7 billion in funding.
They found that only two of them were “likely profitable,” including one that converts hotel and motel rooms into housing and another that helps prevent families from becoming homeless.
The remaining three programs, which have received a total of $9.4 billion since 2020, could not be evaluated due to lack of data.
Thomas Wolf, a San Francisco-based consultant and former homeless drug addict, called the findings a “scandal.”
“The State has spent billions on homelessness, and it’s worse,” Wolf posted on X/Twitter.
“Results literally mean everything when it comes to homeless services and, unsurprisingly, they are data-free.”
For some, the audit confirms fears of a “homeless industrial complex” – a group of funders, officials, shelter owners and charities more interested in gobbling up public funds than solving the problem.
Thanks to such spending programs, California’s budget deficit is at least $45 billion, a deficit so large that it led Newsom to propose painful spending cuts that affect immigrants, kindergartners and parents of low-income seeking child care in a state often praised as ranking fifth in the world. largest economy
Volunteers help clean out belongings at a homeless encampment near the Nimitz Highway in Oakland after the city ordered a cleanup.
Democratic state Sen. Dave Cortese, who requested the audit last year after touring a large homeless encampment in San Jose, complained of a “data desert” and lack of transparency.
Republican state Sen. Roger Niello called the lack of accountability troubling.
“Despite an exorbitant amount of dollars spent, the state’s homeless population is not slowing,” Niello said in a statement.
“The results of these audits are a wake-up call for a shift toward solutions that prioritize self-sufficiency and profitability.”
Newsom has made combating homelessness a priority, and the growing crisis will surely haunt him if he ever sets his sights on national elected office.
The Democrat has pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health problems to receive treatment.
He also campaigned hard for a proposal voters approved in March to have counties spend on housing and drug treatment programs to help combat homelessness.
The state auditor also reviewed homeless spending in two major cities, San Jose and San Diego, and found that both failed to track income and expenses due to a lack of planning.
A camp stands in front of the majestic Ojai City Hall. The number of homeless people is increasing dramatically since last year in Ojai and now everyone is living in a tent at City Hall.
More than two-thirds of Americans say homelessness, which increased 12 percent last year, is out of control.
The report highlights how officials are fighting a rise in homelessness in California and beyond.
A recent DailyMail.com/TIPP poll showed that more than two-thirds of American adults said homelessness was out of control and that officials needed to move those sleeping rough to tent camps outside the towns and cities.
The survey found that 67 percent of Americans are fed up with the rapidly increasing number of homeless people in the country and want mayors to take drastic action to address this scourge.
Former President Donald Trump includes it in his re-election campaign.
in a video in homeless people freed by his campaignTrump said “hard-working, law-abiding citizens” were being marginalized and forced to “suffer at the whims of a deeply sick few.”
He promised to “ban urban encampments” and create “tent cities” on “cheap land” for homeless people that will be staffed by doctors and social workers to help people address systemic problems.