California Assemblymen Introduce a Legitimate Bill to Solve Homelessness
End ‘Liberal Olympics’: Pray that the State Capitol media gives it the attention it needs, and that all of California deserves
By Katy Grimes, February 16, 2024 2:55 am
Two California Assemblymen have introduced a bill to address life beyond homelessness.
Assemblymen Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) and Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin) announced Assembly Bill 2417 “to expand and improve California’s response to our state’s homelessness crisis. This legislation increases funding flexibility for treatment and service oriented programs by repealing the state’s existing one-size-fits-all ‘Housing First’ approach to homelessness.”
What? This doesn’t sound interesting, controversial or sexy? Yawn.
That’s the problem with today’s Liberal Olympics. Only the craziest, most ridiculous bills seem to get any media attention. The actually necessary, corrective policy-fix bills are ignored by the mainstream media while the stupid, excessive, exaggerated bills make the media’s click-bait cut.
This bill is important… So what does the “Beyond Housing” bill do?
According to the bill’s authors:
It “eliminates the state’s one-size-fits-all approach to homelessness by allowing treatment as a potential option rather than the strict Housing First policy. This would allow state agencies and departments to distribute homeless funds to entities that require mental health and drug treatment for homeless individuals to remain in the program. Ultimately, this will reduce homelessness, crime, squalor, and pressure on local services, when billions in taxpayer money has already been squandered.”
This means that the failed “Housing First” policy this state has spent billions on is… well… a failure – except for the contractors refurbishing and building the “housing” for the homeless.
It is notable that several states with high housing costs have low homelessness – something which rankles “housing first” advocates who continue to insist the hundreds of thousands of drug addicts living on the streets, parks, beaches, rivers and golf courses in California would not be there if they could afford housing, even calling the drug-addicted homeless the “unhoused.”
The Globe has covered the homeless crisis extensively and note that focusing only on housing rather than what’s really at the root of homelessness – drug addiction and mental illness – is merely Democrats controlling the language rather than solving the homeless crisis.
As Assemblymen Hoover and Patterson explain in detail:
The federal government, California, and many other state and local governments favor Housing First policies. This approach emphasizes immediately placing those experiencing homelessness in “permanent” housing, with the idea that access to supportive services will follow. It also includes a harm reduction philosophy, but which still allows people to continue to abuse substances. In practice, however, services are either not provided to or utilized by residents. As a result, the underlying traumas and issues that led to residents’ homelessness remain unaddressed and many return to the streets.
People experience homelessness for many reasons and respond differently to various treatment approaches. While Housing First may work in some situations, it is certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution. Yet, that is the approach California has taken. In 2015, the state made it official policy to only fund Housing First programs with the passage of SB 1380 (Mitchell). As a result, successful programs that require Treatment First approaches go without state funding.
Perhaps worst of all:
To date, $20 billion in taxpayer money has been used to support a failed policy that has been largely ineffective. Housing First is in stark contrast to the transitional housing approach, under which temporary housing is provided and residents are expected to stay sober or employed and participate in certain support services until they are ready to obtain permanent housing. Today, programs that require residents to remain drug-free are ineligible for state grants and put at a competitive disadvantage, despite their proven effectiveness.
Their bill “repeals Housing First requirements to allow state programs that are funded, implemented, or administered by a California state agency or department to incorporate Treatment First policies. The state needs more flexibility in funding options to reduce homelessness, crime, and improve safety and commerce.”
California does not need any more gas stove bans, or plastic bag bans, or gas-powered car bans, or foes gras bans, or plastic cup bans, or plastic straw bans – those are frankly stupid and useless policies, and nothing more than Liberal Olympics – virtue signaling bills designed to gain headlines and special interest funding.
As the Globe has repeatedly reported, someone and some persons have been getting really well-paid for all of the tiny homes, renovated motel and hotel rooms, and converted apartments. Also notable is that Gov. Newsom has only grown the homeless population in California since his 2019 inauguration, while spending billions of hard-earned money belonging to the taxpayers.
This bill is real and will do something that everyone in California will benefit from, including those who are living on the streets, drug addicted, and in need of mental health and whole-person treatment.
Pray that the State Capitol media gives it the attention it needs, and that all of California deserves.
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It probably will shrivel up due to lack of attention.
The 20 billion wasted is someone else’s paycheck, so good luck with that. Secondly, each taxpaying person run out of California increases the tax burden on everyone else, plus the businesses and the jobs they provide are leaving, or not growing. (It’s hard to compete against an illegal workforce).
Oh, yes. About those homeless. The riff-raff keeps coming because of our “Amsterdam” of the west attitude, plus free everything.
We have to make California a terrible place to live if you are a criminal, a drug addict, a drug dealer, or you just prefer to live on the streets.
That should be step number one.
Looks like now just about all we can do IS hope and pray that such a bill gains a foothold in the seemingly endless California homeless/vagrant annals. At least as a first step toward a solution which would include deep-sixing Prop 47; one item on the long list. Heaven knows we can’t go on feeding the now-even-more-ravenous Homeless Industrial Complex which has been a years-long fixture that continues to suck up billions of dollars for who knows what —- slush funds of various sorts probably that help to further degrade our vote and other efforts as well as good old-fashioned pocket-stuffing. Ultimately that pinhead of a governor of ours Gavin Newsom (& Co) is to blame for the mess we are in. We’ve closely followed the grisly story all these years so we know better than anyone, don’t we.
The other day I heard an old audio clip of Gavin Gruesome as S.F. Mayor that revealed with crystal and convincing clarity that HE and HE ALONE was responsible for appointing George Gascon as SF D.A. at the last minute —- and he thought it was a brilliant idea, too. (In retrospect it looks like a pivotal and not-accidental point in the effort to destroy the state.) Then Marxist “I Heart Violent Criminals” Gascon fishily ends up as L.A. County D.A. and turns the place into an even more brutal hellhole of skyrocketing violent crime and blood running in the streets. This is 100% attributable to Gavin Newsom. And it has often been said (with regard to elections but applies here too) that if you have L.A. County you have California. But I digress…. ha
We owe Katy Grimes a huge debt of gratitude for her faithful years-long coverage of this issue, which I would think is the definitive coverage of it in California. In a sane environment with “earnest-enough” leadership we would have had a cleanup years and years ago because of it, and would have since moved on from it, but NOOOO. I thought we hit critical mass in 2019 and had it pretty much figured out then and yet here we are five years later still banging our heads against a wall. This is not the fault of the people who live here but is the fault of our corrupt and contemptible leadership. Praying for a sea change soon.
Should have added Edward Ring (The Homeless Industrial Complex, search for it here at The Globe) as another vital contributor to our deep understanding of this issue, for which we are grateful to have on the record. It’s an ugly story of corrupt leadership with their hands out but has to be told.
Because Assemblymen Josh Hoover and Joe Patterson are both Republicans, no doubt the criminal Democrat mafia that controls the legislature will vote against the bill and their propaganda media will not give the bill the attention that it deserves?
TJ, that’s the problem in a nutshell. A Republican-sponsored bill has about the same chance of passing in the legislature and the governor signing it as you or me winning Powerball.
The same is true for Assemblymember Kate Sanchez’s bill to double fines for protestors who block major thoroughfares in the state. She’s a Republican. Her bill is DOA. Sanity is DOA in California.
This won’t make it out of committee, and Ms. Grimes has already explained the reason in the article. Somebody, most likely several somebodies, is making a killing off of building and renovating all the tiny homes, motel and hotel rooms, and apartments the ‘residents’ usually trash or burn down. Follow the money, and it will very likely lead back to relatives and business associates of names we’d all recognize; Newsom, Pelosi, Wiener, etc.. The gravy train won’t end until voters make massive changes in Sacramento. Given the obscene levels of graft and fraud in our elections of late, that isn’t happening without a landslide turnout.
It is not difficult to find reasons for why a person is homeless or unsheltered but Democrats have agendas which preclude asking questions which do not elicit their desired outcomes.
Amtrak is now getting paid to transport the drug addicted homeless up to Portland Oregon.
I had a friend who over Martin Luther King 3 day weekend was on a train and the top half of their car were the homeless cordoned off from other passengers. The young travelers were warned to stay away from that train car. It was a hortible and dangerous situation for the passengers on a 22 hour ride. One of the homeless women broke away from the designated car and was making a scene and threatening people!
So I guess now one of the “solutions” is to use Amtrak and dump more homeless in Oregon!
The very same thing is happening here just as San Francisco complains the Midwest has shipped homeless to them. I guess instead of the Hollywood Shuffle we have the Homeless Shuffle! So much for the “compassion” they claim to have. I suppose when the unsuccessful 6 month Navigation Center stay is over they then are encouraged to hop on a train to Portland!
As long as the money keeps flowing into the counties the bad and ineffective solutions will continue.
Here is an opportunity for a culture change within the Republican party. Far too often (every time) a bill is introduced and we as Republicans/Conservatives moan and groan that it will not move along because of the external factors, and we give up on the idea because we talk ourselves out of it. We are so conditioned that liberal media doesn’t have to take us into consideration anymore. Conservatives need to stop being the political victims and start fighting to win. In this case I would encourage the authors of this bill to reintroduce this legislation every week and hold a press conference every week on it. I would fan this bill out on the conservative airwaves up and down the state for all likeminded people to hear about it. Target advertising of the bill in key markets to attract people from all political persuasion that are being inundated with homelessness to contact their local representatives. This can be TV, Tik Tok, Facebook and any other forms of media. I would also contact the groups that will be assisted by the passage of this bill and have them talk it up in their areas of influence. I guarantee you that with the first policy victory people will become hungry for commonsense solutions to other areas that are plaguing our state. WE can win if we change our posture and forget the past and charge forward.
I have to say Hal, I love your spirit. I hope they take your ideas and run with them. We need a pressure campaign for change! I am shocked how many of my friends and neighbors are ignorant of the reality that surrounds them.
Great note on the Homeless Train!
By the way, readers who don’t have a clue about the best judges to vote for might want to check out Craig Huey’s judicial voter guide, which also has recommendations about other candidates and ballot items. Huey uses an objective, standardized method of sorting out the best picks. He researches candidates, sends them questionnaires, and rates them with a star system based on the results. Voters have been relying on Huey’s guide for many years.
Scroll down and click on your county:
https://craighuey.com/california-voter-guide/
Santa Barbara County will soon be touting the success of their “tiny houses” program. But most likely will fail to mention they intensely screened up front, to only let “high functioning” vagrants apply for their program.
They turned their back on the 80% of the low-functioning vagrants who remain the streets who are mentally impaired and/or drug addicted. So when they claim “housing works”, even if is it one of their tool sheds with a lock on the door, know they are essentially lying to you if they do not reveal their high functioning entry requirements first.
Craig Huey site is a must, I will pass this around to my friends.
Thanks.
So glad to hear you will be sharing Huey’s very useful site, tomorrow. 🙂