Republican leaders in California appeared to scoff Gov. Gavin Newsom Naray responded to critical analysis of his handling of the homelessness crisis in the Golden State, saying any increase in homelessness is unimpressive.
State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones criticized Newsom, calling the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development a year-end Homelessness assessment report An indictment of his abilities
“Gavin Newsom has literally lost the $27 billion he spent on the homeless crisis,” Jones said, citing the report as listing California as No. 1 in homelessness, with a 3% increase 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 things worse,” said Jones, the San Diego Republican.
However, the report also noted that Illinois, Wyoming, Hawaii and Colorado were states where family homelessness doubled or worse.
A statement from the California Assembly Republican Caucus regarding Newsom's latest sweeping defense against And an editorial The CalMatters outlet made similar criticism.
“In case you missed it, Governor Newsom’s office threw a tantrum over a column that … trashed his history of failure on homelessness,” the caucus, led by Rep. James Gallagher of Yuba City, wrote collectively.
A CalMatters editorial claimed that Newsom's handling of the homelessness crisis would be a major point of attack for his potential rivals in the 2028 Democratic presidential primary if he chose to seek higher office then.
The article quoted Newsom as saying that “what happens in the streets should be a top priority,” and stated that he had expressed a willingness to hold local officials accountable as well.
“People need to see and feel progress and change…,” Newsom said, according to the article.
The Gallagher rally then cited Newsom's response to the column, which consisted of a series of pointed posts.
“Given California’s enormous population size, talking about homelessness without any broader context or how this administration’s efforts compare to those before is a disservice to Californians, plain and simple,” Newsom’s office account on X wrote.
“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 achieve faster results. It's also a long-term strategic effort — by implementing Proposition 1 , CARE Court, guardianship reform, and the just-approved BH-Connect waiver, all of which aim to address the systemic issues of homelessness but have yet to fully deliver.”
Newsom's office also posted that unsheltered homelessness grew four times faster during the final years of Gov. Edmund “Jerry” Brown's administration than it did during his watch.
“The number of unsheltered homeless people increased by 13.83% during the Newsom administration (2019-2023), compared to an increase of 51.79% in the previous five-year period of the administration (2015-2019),” the post said.
California's 14% increase in homelessness is also down from the 21% national increase, the governor's office added.
Assembly Republicans responded to Newsom's comments.
“Because the governor is committed to highlighting this issue, we will state the obvious: a 20% increase is not progress,” their statement read.
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San Francisco city workers clear a homeless encampment in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco, August 1. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Jones, the Senate Minority Leader, noted Friday that he has co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to change California's homelessness policies and focus on “compassionate enforcement” of encampment abuses.
One of his proposals from last term, which did not reach Newsom's desk, focused on existing state law that considers “staying” in a public or private place without permission to be disorderly conduct.
The bill would have delayed any indictment on the matter for 72 hours after the first notification and imposed a “state-mandated local program” for homeless individuals in those situations.
Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom for further response to the criticism but had not received a response by press time.
