California *Probably* Just Voted For Billions To Help Homeless People
Since when does throwing money at it get people homes?
California held its primary election last week, but as everyone knows, the state takes forever to count its mail-in ballots, so if an election is close, it can take a very long time for the final results to be decided. That’s what’s happening right now in the case of Proposition 1, a central part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to address the state’s chronic problem with homelessness. Prop 1 would fund a $6.4 billion bond, of which $4.4 billion would go to sharply increasing the availability of substance abuse treatment, while the rest would build permanent supportive housing for unhoused folks. Half of that would go to housing for veterans with mental illness or addiction.
With 85 percent of the vote counted, the “yes” vote leads “no” by just a bit more than 4,200 votes, a far closer tally than Newsom had predicted. That’s mostly due to record-low turnout for the primary, but also higher than usual Republican turnout, and as everyone knows Republicans say after every school shooting that we need more mental healthcare, as long as nobody has to pay for it.
Even with the vote count so close, the organizers of the “Californians Against Prop 1” campaign conceded Tuesday that the measure was likely to pass, since most of the remaining uncounted votes were from Democrat-heavy Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Opposition to Prop 1 came from two different directions: Republicans, who argued that spending money to address homelessness is bad because can’t you just criminalize being homeless and burn all the camps, or at least build tent cities in the desert like Donald Trump wants? On a more concerning note, the LA Times explains that the measure was opposed by civil rights and disability advocacy groups because of
a last-minute change to Proposition 1 that allows counties to use the bond money for “locked facilities,” where patients cannot voluntarily leave.
American Civil Liberties Unions in California and League of Women Voters of California urged voters to reject the measure, arguing that community mental health services are more effective than institutionalization.
Supporters of Prop 1 say the bulk of the bond funds would still go to outpatient treatment, and argue that adding more than 11,000 treatment beds to the state’s resources would get treatment to people in need so they won’t end up in jail for various homelessness-related crimes.
Newsom argued that Prop 1 was worthwhile because it would get more people off the streets and into treatment.
The measure, he argued in an interview with The Times, addressed the most important issues to voters — crime, homelessness, substance abuse and mental health — and “90% of the boxes that unite the vast overwhelming majority of Californians.”
Early polling showed wide support for Prop 1, but as the election grew closer its support dropped. The disproportionate Republican turnout last week didn’t help the measure’s prospects either, although it’s still looking likely to squeak by.
So when will there be a final tally? By law, the totals have to be in by April 5, and assuming that it does pass, that should mean a significant boost in treatment help and housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness. San Francisco Mayor London Breed said in her recent “State of the City” speech that if Prop 1 passes and the “state opens the pipeline for new beds, San Francisco is ready and first in line” to add “hundreds more” treatment beds.
Of course, even if California is able to significantly reduce homelessness through expanded treatment and housing, you can rest assured that Fox News will continue to insist that both Los Angeles and San Francisco are several inches deep in discarded heroin needles and poop. You don’t just drop a popular idea that stirs up the deplorables.
[LAT / NYT / Politico / Photo: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons License 2.0
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"Prop 1 would fund a $6.4 billion bond, of which $4.4 billion would go to sharply increasing the availability of substance abuse treatment,"
So more than two thirds of it isn't tackling homelessness at all.
"a last-minute change to Proposition 1 that allows counties to use the bond money for “locked facilities,” where patients cannot voluntarily leave."
And the rest can be used to build technically-not-prisons for locking up undesirables. So that's fun. /Fe
It takes funds from existing budgets and mandates how they have to be spent. In my county we already have enough trouble funding things and this would only make it harder to get some of those things funded. I am socialist asf and believe we absolutely need mental health, housing, substance abuse treatment, etc. but this wasn't the best way to do it.
Right sentiments, wrong execution. I voted against and hated that I was in the position of voting with people who are supporting garbage positions like pulling oneself up by one's nonexistent bootstraps... but that's the way it shook out.