Gov. Gavin Newsom talks to reporters in Sacramento, Calif., Oct. 7.
Photo:
Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press
Five days before winning re-election as California’s governor,
Gavin Newsom
surprised local leaders by rejecting every single plan put forward by a city, county or organization to fight homelessness—and withholding $1 billion in state money until those plans improve. He said he’d convene a meeting this month to discuss what really works. He should start with what doesn’t work: everything California has done for years.
Residents have known for years what Mr. Newsom has only belatedly recognized: that the government is failing to address the problem. Homelessness is a nationwide problem, but nowhere is it as bad as in the Golden State. More than 150,000 Californians are homeless on any given night. Most of those—about 70%—are unsheltered. They live outside in streets and parks. Despite billions in state and local spending every year, more than half of the country’s unsheltered homeless are in California.
California’s failed approach to homelessness is built around the “housing first” model. The goal is to get every long-term homeless person into a permanent, government-subsidized home—with no prequalifications like sobriety, drug treatment or psychiatric care. Until that goal is reached, the state will allow people to camp and sleep almost anywhere and to do almost anything.
Research shows these policies don’t work. A 2017 Journal of Housing Economics study found that cities must build about 10 new permanent subsidized homes to get even one person off the street. That’s because many such homes end up occupied by people who would have found a place to live anyway. Free homes are attractive, even to those who could conceivably afford to pay. California can’t build a million free homes for the homeless, especially when recent “affordable” housing in the state costs upward of $700,000 a unit to build.
Studies have…
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