The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released its Annual Homelessness Assessment Report for 2024. The report showed that California homelessness grew by only 3 percent between 2023 and 2024, while total US homelessness increased by a shocking 18 percent. California Governor Gavin Newsom was quick to pat himself on the back for California’s […]
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been on a signing spree lately for new housing bills. To his supporters, the dozens of bills he signed represent a massive effort to overcome the decades-long housing shortage. Unfortunately, the new legislation reflects the same tired ideas that have consistently failed to resolve California’s housing crisis.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
The rising cost of homeownership has made housing policy a central component of Vice President Kamala Harris’s platform. Among her proposals is to provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers who have paid their rent on time for two years.
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore
In Grants Pass v. Johnson, the Supreme Court recently upheld cities’ rights to enforce ordinances against public camping, a euphemism for the homeless encampments that now litter many U.S. municipalities. Weeks later, toward the end of July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order instructing state agencies to remove encampments from state property and urging local officials to do likewise.
It’s time to recognize that Housing First is a flawed policy. One of the core tenets of Housing First is that grant-receiving organizations must prioritize those most in need: the chronically homeless, the unsheltered, and those with severe mental illness or substance-use disorders (heavily overlapping categories). In practice, this often means neglecting those whose conditions are not yet deemed sufficiently desperate to warrant assistance.
The City of Oakland announced recently that it has been awarded $7.2 million from the state to help residents of two homeless encampments. Officials optimistically expect the money to bring 150 people off the streets and into permanent-supportive housing over the next 18 months. Unfortunately, the city’s track record gives us little cause for optimism.
California has spent a record $24 billion fighting homelessness over the past five years, according to a state audit published last month. In other words, the homeless population and homelessness spending have grown in tandem. How is this even possible?
“Don’t California my Arizona”—these words can be found on everything from T-shirts to tire covers. The slogan speaks to the fear that the Californians fleeing to Arizona will bring with them the very policies that propelled their exodus. California’s housing shortage tops the list of troubles that Arizonans wish to avoid. The cost of a home in Phoenix is still modest compared to, say, San Francisco or Los Angeles, but the lack of affordable housing is nonetheless a growing crisis in Arizona’s capital. If legislators are hoping to save Arizona from California’s failures, why are they trying to replicate its policies?
At 5 a.m. on April 18, 1906, San Franciscans were jolted out of their beds by the first tremors of an earthquake whose vibrations would be felt as far away as England. The massive quake brought down lampposts and split gas lines, causing several small fires that quickly converged into one giant conflagration that burned for three days. The fire destroyed more than 28,000 buildings and left a quarter-million residents homeless.