California voters have passed a measure to spend billions of dollars on the state’s spiraling homeless crisis despite the state's finances being in the red.
A ballot measure that would require California to spend billions of dollars on the state’s spiraling homeless crisis was passed by a razor-thin majority Wednesday, two weeks after residents cast their votes. Proposition 1 requires strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment programs for homeless people, as well as allowing the state to raise a $6.4 billion bond to tackle the issue.
Counties will also be required to spend about two-thirds of funds raised from a 2004-enacted wealth tax on mental health services on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems. The state needs some 8,000 more beds to treat mental health and addiction issues. Between $2 billion and $3 billion a year is raised from the tax, and it provides about one-third of the state’s total mental health budget.
Proposition 1 collected more than $15.7 million, with a donor list that included a Bay Area tribe, labor unions, builders, health care providers, Uber and the California Chamber of Commerce, The New York Times reported. The only organized opposition collected a mere $1,000. Opponents, including social service providers and county officials, said the change will threaten programs that are not solely focused on housing or drug treatment but keep people from becoming homeless in the first place.
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California voters pass proposition requiring counties to spend on programs to tackle homelessnessSACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California voters have passed a measure that will impose strict requirements on counties to spend on housing and drug treatment
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California voters pass proposition requiring counties to spend on programs to tackle homelessnessCalifornia voters have approved a measure that Gov. Gavin Newson says he needs to tackle the state’s homelessness crisis. Proposition 1 authorizes the state to borrow $6.4 billion to build housing and treatment beds. It also restricts how counties use money from a 2004 tax on millionaires meant to fund mental health services.
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