SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For every day Governor Gavin Newsom withholds the next round of homeless funding for cities, the League of California Cities said it’s another night a family in California is going to be on the street. The governor said the cities need to come up with better plans to address the crisis.
Newsom said the plans submitted by cities would only reduce homelessness by 2% by 2024.
"We can't let perfect interfere with good," League of California Cities CEO Carolyn Coleman said. "If we wait for the perfect plan, then we'll never never get to work doing what we need to do to prevent homelessness.”
This is the third round of homeless funding that’s supposed to be distributed, and she said the delay will have an impact.
“It's not like you have leftover funds from round one that can now fund the activities you're trying to do in round three, because in round one there wasn't enough," she said, "and our communities are relying on these installments.”
UC San Diego Political Science Professor noticed a shift in the governor’s communication.
“I think Gavin Newsom’s messaging, frankly, is a bit jarring," he said. "When he debated with Brian Dahle in the gubernatorial debate that no one watched, he was all in as a salesman for california and where California was going in the future. He said he couldn't be more proud of everything in the state. What he's asking now, is highlighting a big problem with California that the many voters are focused on.”
Despite the shift, Kousser said it still fits in with a trend.
“Gavin Newsom just called out cities all across California, and many of them, many of these Democratic mayors are his political allies and political allies he's going to need going forward," Kousser said. "I think this fits a pattern we've seen with Gavin Newsom. This spring, or this summer, he attacked Joe Biden and national Democrats for not doing enough on abortion. That didn't go down well, and now what we're seeing in the reaction from a lot of these mayors is, 'hey, wait a minute, we're all on the same side'."
Republican Senator Brian Dahle, who is running against Newsom, believes this is a campaign stunt that will only hurt cities.
“We know that he's spent all this money and has gotten no results," Dahle said. "So now he's going to come out and he's blaming somebody else besides his own failed policies.”
Kousser said timing does play a roll, but not for his re-election.
“This is all aimed at his future presidential ambitions," Kousser said. "He wants to say that he's doing something about it, that he's pushing as hard as he can, and he's using the the attention that this issue in this election are drawing to set himself up for the future.”
Something Carolyn Coleman, however annoyed at the actual decision she is, does not see an issue with.
“I appreciate and respect that the governor uses his bully pulpit to shine a light and raise the visibility on an issue that is important across the state," Coleman said. "The city leaders that I work with every day, use their bully pulpit, to do the same thing."
Daniel Lopez, a spokesperson for the governor, replied to Dahle's criticism saying "Governor Newsom has proposed solutions. He’s happy to work with people that bring real ideas to the table and not just rhetoric."
How long will the money be withheld?
"This is a significant sum of money and future homeless emergency aid funds will be driven by the progress toward these goals," Lopez said. "We need to get this right and are willing to hold plans that lack the ambition to address this crisis. Our expectation is that jurisdictions will revisit their plans in a timely manner and resubmit them with more ambitious goals .
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