SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Standing under Highway 160 in north Sacramento on Tuesday, amid discarded clothes, boxes and other random litter, gubernatorial hopeful Kevin Faulconer gave his pitch for fixing homelessness in California.
"I feel very, very strongly that we have to change what we are doing as a state," said the former San Diego mayor, steps away from the tents of homeless people who milled about as he addressed a small crowd of reporters.
"The failure of leadership from this governor Gavin Newsom continues to manifest itself in tent cities and tent encampments up and down California. And this encampment that you see right behind us here underneath this freeway overpass is no different."
"We have to fundamentally change our approach," he added.
Of all the complaints Republicans have about Democratic leadership in California, homelessness is perhaps one of the biggest. A pervasive and nuanced problem, the state is home to more than 161,000 unhoused people, representing 28% of all homeless Americans, according to the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
In fact this week, candidate John Cox said he wants to focus on mandated treatment, while Faulconer, standing under the overpass, said he wants to mandate shelter, or else force removal of homeless from public spaces.
During his campaign for governor, Newsom promised to fix the homeless crisis, vowing to build 3.5 million housing units by 2025. In February 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the state, Newsom devoted his entire State of the State address to homelessness, calling it "the most pernicious crisis in our midst." Since taking office, the governor has made significant investments in homelessness, including his signature Project Roomkey, which was created in response to the pandemic.
On Monday, Newsom signed a budget that will spend $12 billion on new homeless aid efforts over the next two years, including adding funding to the governor's signature housing program, Project Homekey, a more permanent version of '"roomkey."
But his opponents say it's not enough.
"I fundamentally believe that every human being in California has a right to shelter," Faulconer said Tuesday. "I also believe that when we provide it, they have an obligation to use it."
Cox, who earlier this year campaigned with a live bear, went on tour this week with an eight-foot tall ball of trash to emphasize his plan, which he says will "cut homelessness in half over the next ten years."
Cox, who visited Sacramento with his trash ball on Thursday, said he wants to focus on treatment before housing, increasing compliance with camping laws, "steering money to solutions" and lowering the cost of housing in California.
Instead of focusing on more beds, he wants to focus on treatment.
"Politicians have treated homelessness as a housing problem, but as almost any regular Californian can tell you it's a mental health and addiction problem first," he argues in his plan.
Under Cox's plan, California would use conservatorship to keep residents off the streets, if necessary.
"Britney Spears doesn't need a conservator, thousands of Californians living on the streets are the ones that need conservatorships," he said. "And we have to force people to do it, if need be. That should be the last resort."
According to a 2019 estimate from the Hub for Urban Initiatives, California has about 137,000 temporary and permanent beds for homeless persons.
Faulconer, in contrast, wants to set up state-owned homeless shelters and focus on cleaning up encampments on state property. He vowed to sign an executive order to establish a network of state-led shelters, that would also provide addiction and mental health services.
Faulconer also wants make it easier to enforce laws against unsafe and unsanitary tent encampments, he said.
"I think we're gonna take away all the excuses," he added.
Cox similarly proposed steps to enforcing public camping, drug consumption and fighting laws.
Cox and Faulconer say the state is hemorrhaging cash without much to show for resolutions. Cox wants to direct money from "housing first" programs to "treatment first" programs.
Newsom's Project Roomkey, the temporary housing program started in March 2020, costs $4,000 per person, per month.
Faulconer would take a different approach: auditing the state's current programs. A Faulconer administration would audit "all state funds used for mental health, drug and alcohol substance abuse programs and homeless services," according to a news release.
Cox and Faulconer aren't the only Republican candidates taking aim at homelessness.
Former GOP Rep. Doug Ose also notes this importance of treatment in his solutions, and said he supports being able to compel treatment "when necessary."
Celebrity Caitlyn Jenner has, on multiple occasions, brought up the scourge of tent communities on California cities. In an interview with Fox LA, she complained about the homeless tents in Beverly Hills.
Jenner and others have also cited the need to reform the state's landmark environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, which critics say make it more difficult to build the housing Californians need.
Newsom has also recently announced a $1.5 billion effort to clean up garbage along the state's highways, saying "the state's too damn dirty." The governor's plan calls for the removal of more than 1 million cubic yards — 17,000 tons — of litter.
But Republicans continue to slam the Democratic governor for failing to live up to lofty goals set during his campaign, and say it's time for more assertive action from the state. Newsom, speaking about homelessness last week, indicated the problem is rooted in problems that existed well before his time in office.
"I've only been in office 29 months," he said. "I can't make up for the past 29 years."
