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California Republican leaders seemed to scoff Governor Gavin Newsom fiery response to a critical analysis of his handling of the Golden State’s homelessness crisis, saying any increase in homelessness is not admirable.
State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones criticized Newsom, calling the US Department of Housing and Urban Development later this year. Homeless assessment report an indictment of his abilities.
“Gavin Newsom literally lost track of the $27 billion he spent on the homeless crisis,” Jones said, citing the report that listed California first in homelessness, with an increase of 3 % up to 187,000.
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“Today’s HUD report makes clear that instead of solving the problem, Newsom’s endless spending ‘solution’ has only made it worse,” said Jones, R-San Diego.
The report, however, also cited Illinois, Wyoming, Hawaii and Colorado as the states where family homelessness doubled or worse.
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A statement from the Republican caucus of the California State Assembly was key in Newsom’s recent sweeping defense against and opinion editing at the CalMatters outlet that made similar criticisms.
“In case you missed it, Gov. Newsom’s office threw a tantrum over a column … that broke his record of failure on homelessness,” collectively wrote the caucus, led by Rep. James Gallagher of Yuba City.
The CalMatters Commentary stated that Newsom’s handling of the homelessness crisis will be a key point of attack for his future candidates in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary if he decides to seek higher office then.
The column quoted Newsom as saying that “what’s happening on the streets has to be a top priority,” and reported that he signaled a willingness to hold local officials accountable as well.
“People need to see and feel the progress and the change …,” Newsom said, according to the column.
Gallagher’s caucus then cited Newsom’s response to the column, which consisted of a series of pointed posts.
“Given the sheer size of California’s population, talking about homelessness without any broader context or how this administration’s efforts compare to the last is a disservice to Californians, plain and simple,” he wrote the account of Newsom’s office at X.
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“As the governor has said many times, the work is far from over and urgency and results at the local level are needed more than ever. That’s why new accountability tools have been put in place, to get results faster. It’s also a long-term effort: through the implementation of Proposition 1, the CARE Court, the just-passed BH-Connect waiver, all of which are aimed at addressing systemic issues of the homelessness, but not quite online yet.”
Newsom’s office also released that unsheltered homelessness grew four times faster during the waning years of Gov. Edmund “Jerry” Brown’s administration than under his own.
“The number of unsheltered homeless people increased by 13.83% during the Newsom administration (2019-2023), compared to a 51.79% increase in the five-year period prior to the administration ( 2015-2019),” the post says.
The 14 percent increase in homelessness in California also fell below the national increase of 21 percent, the governor’s office added.
Assembly Republicans responded to Newsom’s comments.
“Since the governor is committed to gaslighting on this issue, we’ll state the obvious: A 20% increase is not progress,” his statement said.
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San Francisco City Council workers remove a homeless encampment in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco on August 1. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Jones, the Senate minority leader, cited Friday co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation to change California’s homeless policies and focus on “compassionate enforcement” of encampment violations.
One of his proposals this past term, which didn’t make it to Newsom’s desk, focused on existing state law that deemed “lodging” in a public or private place without a permit to be disorderly conduct.
The bill would have delayed any charges in that case for 72 hours after the first notice and would have imposed a “state-mandated local program” for homeless people in those situations.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom for further response to the criticism, but did not hear back by press time.
