SACRAMENTO — Home to the largest homeless population in the country, California officials are rushing to get tens of thousands of people off the streets and into shelters and tents to slow the spread of the coronavirus among one of the most vulnerable and difficult-to-reach groups. There has been only...
Newsom: 60,000 Homeless Could Get Virus
SACRAMENTO — As worries about the spread of the coronavirus confine millions of Californians to their homes, concern is growing about those who have no homes in which to shelter. Gov. Gavin Newsom estimates up to 60,000 homeless could end up infected. California has more than 150,000 homeless people, the...
Homeless at 'Double Risk' of Getting, Spreading Coronavirus
SALEM, Ore. — They often don't have places to wash their hands, struggle with health problems and crowd together in grimy camps. That's what makes homeless people particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. Almost 200,000 people live in those conditions in the United States, according to a White House report, with...
Walters: California Getting Tough on Homeless?
Gov. Gavin Newsom devoted most of his State of the State address this month to California’s ever-growing crisis of homelessness, outlining a broad new approach and pledging that he will make it work. “I don’t think homelessness can be solved,” he concluded, “I know homelessness can be solved. This is our cause....
Newsom Makes Homelessness the State's No. 1 Issue
California should lower the legal bar for providing forced treatment to the mentally ill and building more homeless shelters, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday in his second State of the State address. He took the unusual step of devoting most of the annual speech to just two related issues: affordable...
LA Adopts New 'War Room' Strategy for Tackling Homelessness
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles city and county officials on Tuesday announced a new strategy to speed the process of getting homeless people into permanent housing that is modeled on the federal government’s response to natural disasters. The creation of a “Housing Central Command” marks an overhaul of how agencies...
Homelessness, Mental Health Top Newsom's Wednesday Address
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to call for better mental health care to help the state's huge homeless population when he addresses one of the state's most pressing problems in his second State of the State speech. Last month, Gov. Newsom offered what he called “a little preview”...
Legislative Analyst Criticizes California's Homeless Plan
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom's budget proposal likely won't have a meaningful impact on the nation's largest homeless population, according to a new analysis from the state's nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Newsom's proposal “falls short of articulating a clear strategy for curbing homelessness in California" by shifting decision-making authority away...
California Just Finished Its Homeless Count. It's Sure to Be Inaccurate, and Politically Weaponized
By Manuela Tobias, The Fresno Bee and Matt Levin, CalMatters With yellow vests and flashlights, over 200 volunteers fanned out across Fresno to count homeless people on Tuesday night. Along the railway, one group walked by a freight container with a mattress and shoes inside, and past a dirt cot...
Borgeas Explains Why He Voted 'No' on SB 50 Housing Bill
SACRAMENTO — Desperate for more housing in the nation's most populous state, the leader of the California Senate committed Thursday to passing a law this year to add more housing in a state facing a shortage of 3.5 million homes. Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins' comments came moments after...