BY JEREMY B. WHITE 09/01/2024 07:00 AM EDT SACRAMENTO, California - Gov. Gavin Newsom has recited a consistent message to cities and counties over the years as he tries to leverage billions in state funds to combat homelessness: Get people off the street, or else. He said it in 2022, when briefly froze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid by rejecting every local plan to address homelessness. He said it in 2023, when he questioned the rationale to "provide them one dollar more" if they "can't clean up the encampments." He said it in April, warning they "sure as hell shouldn't get another penny if they didn't use the money wisely."

This time, he says he means it. But some local officials aren't buying it and are pushing back, arguing the governor is unproductively threatening needed dollars and a shifting blame for a problem he's been unable to solve. "If we don't see demonstrable results, I'll start to redirect money," Newsom said in mid-August, wearing aviator sunglasses, a T-shirt and a cap as he cleaned up an encampment in Los Angeles with news cameras recording - a recurring feature. The repeated threats illustrate the gravity and intractability of the homelessness issue for ambitious Democrats like Newsom, who has called it "the biggest scar on the reputation of the state of California." Newsom's aides describe a yearslong effort to raise the political cost for mayors and county supervisors who refuse to clear encampments or get people housed, often buckling to pushback from voters who don't want shelter or services in their neighborhoods.

The intraparty dispute is unfolding as the nation's most prominent California Democrat is running for president and fending off Republican attempts to tie her to the state's homelessness crisis.

But Newsom's persistent need to reiterate the same call also shows the limited power of his office and the fundamental necessity of local officials' buy-in to execute his vision. The federal count of unhoused Californians has risen by 30,000 people since Newsom took office in 2019, to roughly 181,000 last year. Newsom, emboldened by a Supreme Court ruling in June that lifted constraints on clearing encampments, issued a sweeping executive order to get unhoused people off of streets weeks later. But the order only applied to state land, limiting its scope. Prominent Democratic officials have pushed back on the governor's threats, and even some who welcome Newsom's pressure play warn it won't allay the deeper problems. "We can't simply wave a magic wand and make encampments disappear. We also have to offer people a place to go," San Jose's Democratic Mayor Matt Mahan said. "My fear with the [Supreme Court] decision and the governor's executive order is we could create a race to the bottom in which cities and counties focus their taxpayer dollars on simply shifting people to other jurisdictions."

Newsom's office declined to comment, referring back to his remarks in Los Angeles. Repeated threats When Newsom froze funds in 2022, the result was a meeting where local officials promised to make larger reductions their unsheltereda populations and ultimately saw the funding restored. At the time, Newsom said he was satisfied with their "recognition that we have to get to another level." The next year, Newsom questioned in his January budget press conference whether cities deserved another dollar. Months later, he signed a budget allocating another $1.4 billion for two marquee programs, touting "new accountability measures" that required better regional coordination. Applicants also have to set more concrete targets - like building shelters or hiring outreach workers - and show progress on them.

This year, one way he's trying to crack down is through a budget that imposed more conditions on aid dollars, allowing the state to block funds if local agencies have made "insufficient progress" toward goals like getting people out of encampments. Newsom said in L.A. that next year's budget will withhold money from places that don't show "specific results in the next few months." His encampment crackdown met resistance from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and county officials.

He's also pushing legislation that would make cities and counties plan low-cost housing, which cleared the Legislature last week and now awaits Newsom's signature. But even the Democrat who carried Newsom's planning bill bemoaned a lack of clear expectations. "We have had strings attached through the budget and those strings have gotten stronger every year about what the expectations are for performance, but there is no data," said Assemblymember Chris Ward from San Diego. He said that threatening to pull money is "unfair, because we are not stating what the clear expectations are for success." He warned Newsom against "knee-jerk reactions to ultimately stop momentum that we're trying to build on over the years. And while Newsom faults local intransigence, his detractors believe he is cynically shifting blame after his administration unaccountably spent billions of dollars with little to show for it: A scathing state audit earlier this year found the administration hasn't tracked if homelessness money is producing results.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5587423&forum_id=2]#48038587)

Kevin Dalton

@TheKevinDalton

“Homelessness is my #1 priority” - Gavin Newsom, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5587423&forum_id=2]#49541174)