The mayors of California's 13 largest cities have a big request for state lawmakers. They’re asking for $4 billion a year to end homelessness.
“Today we stand together to issue a clear call for historic investment in California’s shameful scourge of homelessness,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo.
The investment is $4 billion a year for the next 5 years to end what Liccardo called the crisis that will still be around after the pandemic is over.
“This is the biggest crisis in California,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said. “We see it on our underpasses and overpasses. We see it under our bridges, and unfortunately it’s not just there anymore in the shadows. It’s in front of businesses and homes. It is everywhere.”
But, the mayors of California's 13 biggest cities said they have solutions that work, from modular housing to hotels and services.
“Homelessness must not be hopelessness, and it need not be hopelessness because we know what works,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg noted.
The legislature has set aside the $4 billion in proposed budgets, but that figure could be trimmed down before being approved and signed by the governor.
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