After criticizing local officials for not adequately addressing California’s pernicious problem of homelessness, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that the state is on track to reduce the number of unfenced people by an ambitious 15% in two years and pledged to provide 1,200 tiny homes to help meet that goal.

The announcement kicked off Newsom’s atypical State of the State tour of California, which replaces a speech outlining his political agenda that governors traditionally deliver annually before state legislatures at the U.S. Capitol.

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Newsom, who hates being read from teleprompters because of his dyslexia, is taking his speech out this year instead and plans to make policy announcements over the weekend at stops in Sacramento, the Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Diego.

Column: Newsom rejects every local homeless plan and demands more ambition

Three years ago and weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a state of emergency, Newsom devoted his entire speech to homelessness and his commitment to ending it. Newsom called the crisis an embarrassment to California and said it was his “calling” to alleviate that human misery.

Since then, the numbers have only increased.

California is now home to more than 171,000 homeless people, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a 6.2% increase since 2020. About 67%, or more than 115,000 people, are unprotected, meaning they are outside to live. That’s despite Newsom’s attention to the problem, the roughly $15 billion he’s spent on the issue since the start of the pandemic, and new housing programs that have helped thousands of Californians.

During his first tour stop in Sacramento, Newsom acknowledged how angry we as Californians are about what is happening in the streets and sidewalks in our state. But he said the state has made progress on ambitions to meet its biggest challenge, starting with the goal of reducing the most visible homeless population by 15%. It’s a new day, he said. New energy calls for new expectations, new results.

In the fall, Newsom cracked down on what he called a lack of accountability by local governments

to tackle the problem aggressively and called for more urgency on homelessness.

For starters, he symbolically threw out plans that cities and counties had submitted to receive funding from the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) Grant Program, which funnels hundreds of millions of dollars each year to local jurisdictions.

Plans vary by community, depending on homeless populations and what resources are needed in the area. But taken together, those blueprints had predicted a 2% reduction in unsheltered homelessness statewide, a number Newsom had dismissed as inadequate.

Newsom cut off state funding, convened local officials in Sacramento and asked them to sign a pledge pledging more audacious goals for this year’s funding round. The revised plans envision a 15% reduction in unsheltered homelessness by 2025. While it’s a bolder goal than last year, it means tens of thousands of Californians will still be homeless.

The state has allocated nearly $3 billion to HHAP to date,

and Newsom has proposed an additional $1 billion in next year’s budget for a fifth round of funding. Incipient rise found in homeless deaths in Orange County. Medications are the main cause

Newsom’s also said it will provide 1,200 tiny homes to jurisdictions across the state, including 500 in Los Angeles, 150 in San Diego County, 200 in San Jose and 350 in Sacramento, to be used as temporary housing for people immediately evacuating the street. to leave. He has called in the National Guard to free the units.

The tiny houses will join a roster of other housing initiatives Newsom has rolled out during his tenure, including his signature Homekey program, born out of the pandemic’s urgency to provide quick shelter to the homeless and vulnerable in hotels and motels.

Homekey has evolved into a major program for the state to acquire and convert these sites into more permanent and temporary housing options for the homeless. The program has created 12,774 new homes to date with $2.7 billion in funding, according to the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.

A similar initiative, Project Roomkey, was created as a temporary shelter option during the pandemic and has since helped more than 61,000 people, according to the California Department of Social Services.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, a strong supporter of Newsom, said the tiny houses would be a welcome addition to shelter options for those currently living on the streets.

Steinberg said he wants to put Sacramento’s share of tiny houses on surplus land at Cal Expo, where the state fair is held each year and where Newsom kicked off his tour and made his announcement against a backdrop of tiny houses in a row of large exhibit space.

The model tiny houses are furnished with some of the comforts of home, including small desks and bunk beds made up with blankets and teddy bears.

“It’s another very important contribution and investment,” Steinberg said.

Referring to criticism that 1,200 tiny homes will do little to solve a crisis that has gotten out of hand, Newsom said the state “needed to provide more options.” The urgency of the moment demands that one of the tools, in terms of our strategy, is to immediately address the fear of actually getting someone off the street and have a place to go, he said. Newsom feels pressure to show results for California in second term Still,

others argued that more investment was needed

were needed to provide

permanent housing options and substance use and mental health programs.

“I think housing should be part of the solution. But 1,200 tiny houses, if we have 115,000 homeless people in our state, I think it probably won’t make a big dent,” said Assemblyman Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) . “I think this is another splashy announcement that I’m skeptical will deliver actual results.”

Citing the lack of a comprehensive homelessness plan with clear lines of responsibility and accountability, California counties this week unveiled a proposal to work with the state and cities to develop a blueprint for reducing homelessness.

Every level of government is doing everything it can to make progress on homelessness, said Graham Knaus, CEO of the California State Assn. of provinces. But it’s also true that we don’t have a real system for tackling homelessness in California and until we do, our progress will always be much more limited than it should be.

The proposal calls for legislative and regulatory changes that would define the role of cities and counties with regard to shelters, supportive housing and encampments, and in turn create more accountability. The association is also seeking ongoing funding to maintain programs, among other policy changes.

In every major policy area that is a state priority, except homelessness, there is clarity about who does what and how accountability relates to it, Knaus said. It’s just not true about homelessness.

Chione Flegal, executive director of Housing California, also called for “mutual responsibility” in solving homelessness.

The Flegal organization is working on legislation this year

introduced by Councilor Luz Rivas (D-Arleta)

to strengthen the HHAP program and ensure that funding is linked to tangible results.

“We certainly share the perspective that everyone needs to take this seriously and step up what they’re doing,” Flegal said, “and the state is not exempt from that.”

Sacramento Bureau Chief Laurel Rosenhall contributed to this report.