Newsom Vetoes Bill to Give Annual Report On Homeless Program

A bill to require the state to give an annual report on the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) program was vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday, stating that the bill was now redundant following previous oversight changes.

Assembly Bill 2570, authored by Assemblyman Joe Patterson (R-Rocklin), would have required that the annual Department of Housing and Community Development report to the Governor and both houses of the Legislature, which covers the operations and accomplishments during the previous fiscal year of the housing programs administered by the department, also include an evaluation of the HHAP program.

Patterson wrote the bill to further look into accountability and where the funding goes to through the HHAP program. AB 2570 started off slow but quickly gained traction following Newsom’s ill-fated May venture where lawmakers went after him for not showing the effectiveness of homeless spending through the HHAP program.

AB 2570 managed to pass unanimously in both the Assembly and Senate. While some lawmakers did decide to wind up simply not voting, the effort did little to stop the bill from passing. The final Senate vote last month, for example, passed 36-0, with 4 Senators choosing to not vote.

However, on Monday, Governor Newsom issued a veto against AB 2570. According to his veto, the reasoning was that the bill was “redundant” to his previous homelessness effort and that it would only create more work for the Department.

“I support increasing transparency and accountability for cities and counties’ use of state funding to address homelessness,” said Newsom in his veto. “Earlier this year, I directed California’s Housing Accountability Unit to increase its oversight and enforcement of existing housing laws to address homelessness. Additionally, the recently adopted 2024 Budget includes statutory language that requires more frequent reporting by HHAP grantees on their expenditures, corrective action plans for grantees not meeting specified performance measures, and maintenance of compliant Housing Elements prior to receiving additional HHAP funding.

“This bill is redundant to these efforts and creates an unnecessary ongoing workload for the Department without providing additional accountability or transparency to taxpayers. For these reasons, I cannot sign this bill.”

Supporters of the bill, who widely expected it to pass, expressed dismay later on Monday after finding that it did not pass.

“This was a bipartisan bill with no opposition,” said Assemblyman Patterson on Monday. “Clearly the Legislature agreed on the need to rein in Newsom’s wasteful spending on ineffective homelessness programs. I’m glad we were able to get some safeguards written into the budget, but the state can’t keep cutting corners on accountability when dishing out billions of taxpayer dollars and seeing the problem get worse.”

Others watching the bill questioned Newsom’s reasonings behind vetoing it.

“An unnecessary ongoing workload? Really? For more transparency?,” questioned Maria Columbo, a homeless program advisor to the Globe on Monday. “We need laws like this to make sure every dollar is being spent right, and not just thrown into programs that don’t help. Based on what he has done, it’s not redundant either. This is only going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.”

Other homeless funding related bills are currently awaiting subcommittee meetings in both the Assembly and Senate.