California Governor Plans $750 Million Fund for Homeless Crisis
California Governor Plans $750 Million Fund for Homeless Crisis
(Bloomberg) -- California Governor Gavin Newsom said he will create a fund, seeded with $750 million from the state budget, to provide rental subsidies and supportive housing services in a state home to a quarter of the country’s homeless population.
The California Access to Housing and Services Fund would help get people off the streets and into programs they need by providing funds directly to service providers, Newsom, a Democrat, said in an emailed statement. He said companies and philanthropists should also donate to the fund.
Newsom said he would also like to direct federal medical assistance dollars to preventive health-care efforts; finance services for people with mental-health needs in three counties; and direct agencies to find state land to temporarily shelter the homeless.
The state must make sure those “on the frontlines providing services have the tools to ensure the populations most in need of treatment get it,” Newsom said in a statement.
A chronic shortage of housing to match growth and rising costs in the state have pushed more people on to the streets. The rapid increase in homelessness in California has offset the decrease nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. President Donald Trump has frequently targeted the California and Newsom personally on Twitter about the crisis.
To contact the reporter on this story: Romy Varghese in San Francisco at rvarghese8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Campbell at ecampbell14@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, Kara Wetzel
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