Gavin Newsom Touts His Efforts To Tackle Homelessness, But It Has Skyrocketed on His Watch
25th June 2024
California governor Gavin Newsom, in a pre-recorded state of the state address on Tuesday, touted himself as the first Golden State leader to write a homelessness plan. California’s homeless population has grown 17 percent since Newsom took office and the state has the largest homeless population in the country.
“Let me remind you that when I became governor in 2019, there was no state homeless strategy, no state plan,” Newsom said. “There was no significant investment. … There was no accountability expected or anything demanded in return, no requirement for demonstrable results.”
His boast comes just a few months after a state auditor found that California officials failed to track $24 billion in homelessness spending and have no way to determine which of their many costly programs are working. Since Newsom assumed office in 2019, California’s homeless population has grown from 151,278 people, according to federal figures, to 181,399 at the last count.