Gov. Gavin Newsom expressed concerns over homeless encampments in California’s cities on Thursday, calling them “not acceptable” and appealing directly to the federal government for additional support in response to the issue.
“You got to be honest, this is not acceptable,” Newsom said, visiting the site of an encampment in the process of being cleared away alongside Interstate 5 in Stockton. “People shouldn’t be living out in the streets and sidewalks,” he said.
According to Newsom’s office, individuals in Stockton whose belongings were cleared away during the governor’s visit were “offered options to move out of tents and into safer, more stable shelter and housing.”
The stop is part of a multi-city tour for Newsom ahead of the Sept. 14 recall election.
The homelessness crisis appears to be at the front of California voters’ minds. A recent poll conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley highlighted that although a majority of voters approve of the governor’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, homelessness and rising housing costs remain significant points of dissatisfaction.
Newsom made reducing homelessness a key part of his 2018 campaign for governor, but critics note the state’s unhoused population has ballooned since he entered office—up nearly 25 percent to more than 160,000 people by 2020.
Voters have noticed. The UC Berkeley poll found that 57 percent of respondents rated Newsom’s job performance as “poor” or “very poor” on the issue of homelessness. Only 13 percent rated it as “good” or “excellent.”
The governor’s tone in Stockton was strident, and at times plaintive. “We’re going to need the federal government’s help at a massive level,” he told reporters on the scene. “We’re talking to the feds about it now. We need a massive intervention of support to get under the hood here and turn this around.”
In a visit to another clean-up site in Long Beach later on Thursday, Newsom’s tone shifted—away from blaming the state’s homelessness crisis on stagnant federal support, opting instead to highlight the steps his administration has taken to better understand the issue at home.
There, alongside Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia, Newsom touted a $3 billion investment by the state for “behavioral health and conservatorship housing.”
“We have to get to the root issues of why people end up on the street in the first place,” Newsom said. “And for many, that’s due to deteriorating mental health conditions.”
The multibillion dollar investment plan in behavioral health services is expected to create 22,000 new beds and treatment slots, according to the governor's office. It is a component of a broader $100 billion “California Comeback Plan” aimed at resolving persistent problems in the state, like homelessness, housing affordability, wildfires and the economic residue of the COVID-19.