Democrats and Republicans find middle ground in California’s Prop. 1 to fund mental health care
California politics, mental health, 2024 elections
Taryn LunaJanuary 31, 2024
Gov. Gavin Newsom has an unusual ally on his Proposition 1 ballot initiative
campaign
to boost mental health funding: an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and Kern County lawmaker who co-chaired the committee that led the failed 2021 recall
attempt
against the governor.
Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) voted in September to place Newsom’s plan on the March 5 primary ballot. She recently wrote an op-ed advocating for his proposal to address the state’s mental health crisis and supported the California Republican Party’s decision to remain neutral on Proposition 1.
“It’s not often that I agree with the governor, I mean, let’s be honest,” Grove said. “But I think this is something that we really need to do because the bottom line is that there are people on the streets who really need this help.”
Grove’s support for Proposition 1 is emblematic of one
greater phenomenon shift
in California politics: To solve a serious homelessness and mental health crisis, Republicans and Democrats are leaving their ideological corners and stepping into an unfamiliar, bipartisan middle ground. In a deeply divided nation, the measure offers a rare glimpse of compromise on a policy led by one of the most politically polarizing figures in America.
Proposition 1 asks voters to modernize California’s aging mental health system to increase care for drug addiction
,
and provide more than 10,000 new treatment beds
statewide
through a $6.4 billion bond. Newsom describes the measure as part of a “larger constellation” of his efforts to tackle the most vexing problem of his governorship.
The bills that put
the
measure before voters received sweeping bipartisan support in the Legislature;
And
one passed unanimously in the Senate.
A Public Policy Institute of California poll in December showed that two-thirds of likely voters support the measure. The ‘Yes on Prop. 1’ campaign of the governor has received more than $10 million in contributions from a mixed bag of political players, including Native American tribes, hospitals, firefighters, correctional officers, construction unions and Uber.
Newsom said bipartisanship is rare
in a
response to ‘universal frustration’.
When it comes to the issue of mental and behavioral health, broadly defined as substance abuse, it affects everyone in a very personal, profound and consequential way.”
heNewsom
said in a recent interview. “It’s not just the blight on the streets and sidewalks and the frustration we have there. It’s in your house. It’s your children. It’s your mom and dad. It’s the person in the mirror when you brush your teeth. It’s a unity agenda if there ever was one.
Statement 1 is the linchpin of Newsom’s response to a complex homelessness crisis
that witch
is intertwined with mental health
problems.problems
and substance abuse.
in a state where
More than eight in 10 homeless Californians have experienced a serious mental illness, and nearly two-thirds have
regularly
uses illegal drugs
on regular basis
according to research by UC San Francisco
.
The Governor’s solutions aim to increase mental health facilities and treatment beds, provide more funding for substance abuse health care, and make it easier for families and authorities to ask courts to mandate treatment for people with serious mental illness to set. Increasing the availability of housing, in the form of temporary and permanently affordable housing
unit housing
and greater state oversight of local government plans are also crucial parts of his solution.
“My frustration is palpable,” Newsom said. “We’re giving cities and counties the tools. I want them to use them, and it’s time to move.”
Newsom’s impatience stems from the fact that he has since spent more than $28 billion on reforming the state’s mental health system.
take, he is taken
office, and the
states
the homeless population has only grown.
Fox News repeatedly denounces the governor
California belongs to the state
homelessness crisis, and, during a primetime debate in November, Florida’s Republican governor. Ron DeSantis taunted Newsom with a card of
Everything
the public places in San Francisco where human feces had been reported.
Newsom has repeatedly criticized local governments for not taking a more aggressive stance in addressing the problems
housing and mental health care
needs in their community as he does
accepts
progressives in his own party
hiring
a more moderate approach to the problem then
on
any other policy problem.
Last year,
he signed Senate Bill 43,
last year that something
expanded the criteria for the detention, treatment and protection of people with serious mental illness, against the wishes of human rights and disability activists on his party’s left flank. CARE Court, a system that could mandate treatment for drug addiction, has faced similar criticism
in 2022
of the American Civil Liberties Union,
which who
concerned that it might be possible to allow families, doctors and authorities to petition the court to demand treatment
rights
.
Newsom also urged the Supreme Court to take up a case
until and
decide whether people have a constitutional right to camp on public land if they have no other place to sleep.
This month h
e called
earlier this month
for the Supreme Court to correct course and end the costly delays caused by lawsuits that have plagued our efforts to clear camps and provide services to those in need.
It’s an unusual move by the Democratic governor, who routinely criticizes the court’s conservative majority for its stance on abortion and guns.
Statement 1 is another example of the governor resisting pressure from the left.
Progressive
Advocates took issue with a last-minute change that would allow Proposition 1 funding to be used
Certainly
mental health institutions
that patients cannot leave voluntarily
.
Rachel Bhagwat, a legislative advocate for the ACLU California Action, said the organization shares the governor’s concerns about the need for additional services for people with serious problems.
and life-threatening
mental health and behavioral health needs. The ACLU, which has not
yet
taken a position
yet
on Proposition 1 is also concerned about the approach the state is taking.
Our California ACLUs believe that these involuntary and coercive methods, all involuntary and coercive methods, should be used only in the most limited circumstances, Bhagwat said.
Without
an extension of extension
voluntary treatment services, community care and supportive housing, she said:
there is a state in charge
There is a risk that people end up in forced treatment simply because they were allowed to deteriorate without previously receiving support.
Formal opposition
Statement 1st measure largely
comes
largely
from a group of mental health advocates and some Republican lawmakers who have opposed the bills in the Legislature and have struggled to raise money for their campaign against the measure.
Taking a more centrist position with Proposition 1 could give Newsom broader appeal as he expands his profile beyond the Golden State. Although the governor is not a candidate for the 2024 presidential election
ishes
As he travels the country as a surrogate for the Biden-Harris campaign, he is repeatedly mentioned as a potential 2028 candidate.
“I think so many Americans are really hungry for some sign of a functional political system where the parties make compromises,” Kim said
Nalder,
a professor of political science at Sacramento State.
University.
“And if he can be seen as providing a bipartisan solution to a major problem, then so be it
that is it
a huge victory for him.”
Newsom said his desire to solve the homelessness crisis transcends politics and is about his pride in California. According to his senior staff, he regularly sends photos of encampments
to them
from his travels around the state as a reminder that they can all do better.
Sen. Brian Dahle (R-Bieber), Newsom’s opponent in his 2022 re-election bid, voted for SB 326, which reconfigured California’s 20-year-old Mental Health Services Act.
in the Senate
and declined to vote on AB 531, the bond component of the measure. He said homelessness and mental health
being is one
concern
S
through California and into his
own
rural northern district, where
unhoused
Residents live on the sidewalks of
the small town
Burney Falls
who has with
a population of 3,000.
It’s not really a partisan issue, Dahle said. We don’t have the power in our party to go ahead and just reduce regulations and reduce the cost of housing, but we do have the ability to come across the aisle and say, Hey, we’re going to work together, and I think we need more of that rather than less. I would like to see many more of them come our way.
Newsom is ramping up his campaign on Proposition 1, releasing a new 30-second ad on Tuesday with a bipartisan message that focuses solely on benefits for veterans. The measure divides
more than over
$1 billion in grants and loans for housing for veterans.
Grove said she is the first female veteran to serve in the California Legislature.
‘He wasted a lot of money’
sheGrove
said
from Newsom
in an interview. “But if this allows us to create 10,000 beds to house these chronically ill individuals, including U.S. military veterans who have protected and served this country, we must do what we can do and hold him accountable to ensure the money gets to where it is going. spent correctly.”
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.