Gov. Gavin Newsom is betting the house on ending homelessness in California.
Facing a recall, the first-term Democrat wants to spend roughly $74,500 on every homeless person in the state — $12 billion in all — to “functionally end family homelessness” within five years.
He announced the plan Tuesday morning in San Diego County.
There were an estimated 161,000 homeless residents in California before the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
Newsom’s proposal includes $8.75 billion to expand his project “Homekey,” which uses hotels and motels and other converted buildings to house homeless citizens.
For the vanishing few of you who still care about math:
$12 billion / 161,000 homeless in CA = $74,534 perhttps://t.co/m0KmVStmDu
— David Burge (@iowahawkblog) May 11, 2021
“Homekey” and the similar project “Roomkey” used federal funding last year to convert buildings into 6,000 housing units for 8,200 people, according to government officials.
The “Homekey” expansion will convert existing buildings into 46,000 housing units.
Homeless advocates say there’s not enough affordable housing for struggling residents.
Officials from the Newsom administration said it costs an average of $150,000 to convert housing units for the homeless, much cheaper than building new housing.
An additional $3.5 billion is proposed to prevent homelessness. That includes rental payment assistance to “functionally end family homelessness within five years,” the statement from Newsom’s administration said.
The spending spree is part of Newsom’s $100 billion pandemic recovery plan being unveiled this week.
The big bucks come from a reported $76 billion state budget surplus plus $27 billion from the federal government’s coronavirus spending bill.
Newsom’s bold proposal comes as the former San Francisco mayor battles a recall vote, staged by Republicans and others who criticized his handling of the pandemic and economy.
Getting busted breaking lockdown rules at a chic eatery late last year certainly fueled his detractors.
A February audit also found previous efforts were uneven in curtailing the number of unhoused residents sleeping in tents on public property.
It found nine different state agencies spending $13 billion on 41 programs without effective tracking on what worked.
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