The League of California Cities, which represents nearly 500 California cities, called for Gov. Gavin Newsom April 12 to allocate $3 billion annually for cities to use to combat homelessness.
“The state’s affordable housing crisis and homelessness crisis is worsening by the minute,” CEO of the league, Carolyn Coleman said during a press conference in Sacramento April 12, which included a number of city mayors. “But without a dedicated ongoing stream, little progress can be made.”
According to Coleman, funds will additionally go toward building more affordable housing across the state.
“Cities can’t solve this challenge alone, we need the state to be a strong partner with us,” she said.
During the press conference, Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua said the funds can additionally be used to address mental health issues as well as “other issues that are just as important” plaguing homeless individuals.
San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica Stewart also stressed the need for continuous funding and that “every single person deserves housing.”
“The cities alone are not going to be able to do this forever,” she said. “We want the state Legislature and the governor to act and provide permanent, long-term, stable, ongoing funding.”
According to a recent survey from the league, 84 percent of cities have implemented programs to deal with homelessness, but 87 percent expressed fiscal concerns to keep the programs going long-term. Nearly 80 percent of cities, the survey found, also allocated money from their general fund to address the homeless as well.
The request, which the league first made in a December 2022 letter to the governor, comes as the state deals with a $22.5 billion budget shortfall for its fiscal year 2023–2024 and has spent $20 billion on homelessness in the last five years.
Currently, Newsom’s grant program for cities dealing with homelessness stands at $1 billion. But the league argued that the governor has not distributed that money consistently.
The league’s letter also said that the state must help with such costs that cities are taking on and if they are required to keep doing so will “threaten the ability of local governments to fund essential services to communities.”
In response to the league’s request, a spokesperson for Newsom’s office told The Epoch Times in a statement that under the governor’s leadership it has increased homelessness funding from $500 million to over $20 billion, “providing local governments with more financial support and resources than ever before to address the challenges of housing and homelessness” and that such will “result in improved outcomes” on the issue.
Earlier this month, state officials agreed to audit California’s homeless spending to determine whether funds have been used effectively to address homelessness over the last three years.
Currently, there are 172,000 homeless people in the state.
