Written by Thomas Geiser
Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom took a trip around California to observe the growing homelessness problem in the state. During this trip, he made the comment that “we haven’t been focused on this issue; there’s a reason things are the way they are. It’s because we haven’t addressed them. It’s happened on our watch over the last decade; in particular, it’s really gotten bad over the last decade. And we were just slow to respond.”
Newsom admits that this homeless crisis grew to its current size because of Democratic negligence—and he is correct. Democrats have been in power for years now and the homeless population just keeps worsening. Last year alone, California’s homeless population rose by roughly 23,000, which was more than every other state combined. Being able to admit fault is an important step towards actually solving the issue. However, Governor Newsom was not quite finished with his speech.
“And that’s why we’re not gonna let that continue or neglect advance any longer. I don’t care if there’s a downturn in the economy, that’s not gonna be an excuse for us to walk away from this,” he continued. But Newsom should care about whether there is a downturn in the economy, obviously. Fixing the problem at the cost of the state’s economy is not a solution, it’s a suicide mission.
Even if simply spending more money was a viable solution, which it is not, the additional problems caused by a downturn in the economy would completely eclipse any success in dealing with the homelessness crisis. And the solution does not need to be so drastic. Targeted programs developed to attack the root causes of homelessness would not be so expensive. The solution to the homeless crisis lies in addressing underlying causes such as mental illness, substance abuse, and high costs of living in California.
Whatever Governor Newsom and his Democratic allies in the State Legislature decide to do, they need to get to work fast because the homeless problem is snowballing out of control. The Department of Housing and Urban Development said that California was the ultimate driving force behind the growing numbers of homeless people across the country.
The increases in the homeless population in California and Oregon last year offset the decreases across the rest of the country and ended up increasing the national homeless population by 2.7%. It’s time for some decisive action to combat this problem, sooner rather than later.
