About time he does this, I am tired of hearing people complain nothing gets done after the state has spent billions to help get homeless off the street. People seem to forget that the work has to be done at the local level not the state.
Following California’s first statewide drop in unsheltered homelessness in more than 15 years — a 9% decline — Governor Gavin Newsom today announced new accountability measures to speed up the adoption of CARE Court and awarded $291 million to expand supportive housing and behavioral health services statewide. T
As part of today’s announcement, the Governor is designating ten communities that are leading the state in successful implementation of the CARE Act as “CARE Champions” and providing targeted state support for ten underperforming counties being placed on an “improvement” list to strengthen implementation and ensure communities see results to get chronically mentally ill individuals off California’s streets and into support and housing.
“Care and accountability go hand in hand — full stop. Through CARE Court, we have seen inspirational stories of recovery and resilience, but many counties continue to lag behind their peers. Local leaders have a moral and legal obligation to deliver this transformational tool for those who need it most. We will not accept failure and excuses when lives are on the line.”
Governor Gavin Newsom
CARE is a first of it’s kind setup to help people with untreated mental illness find help and stability :
Through CARE, individuals are connected with a team of providers and support, under the guidance of a civil court judge, to ensure those who need voluntary treatment do not have to go through the process on their own. While CARE Court is overseen by a civil court judge, it is not punitive, but instead structured for the participant’s success. The process begins with a petition to determine eligibility, which can be submitted by the individual, a family member, first responder, or mental health professional.
There are a lot of counties who are taking full advantage of it and others that aren’t and Newsom is working to get those slacker counties on board. Homelessness has always been something that people use to say California sucks and Newsom (whose book I am reading currently) has a deep love for California and a large dislike for people not living up to what they say they’re going to do after taking state money.
CARE Court programs began in eight participating counties in 2023 and were fully implemented in all 58 counties by December 2024. Since that time, more than 3,800 petitions have been submitted to courts. In addition, counties have reported more than 4,000 CARE diversions: cases where individuals considered for CARE have been reached and connected to services without need to engage the court. More than 1,851 people have continued through the CARE Court process.
In the article you will also see how Newsom is building more houses for homeless and starting to repair the massive shortfall in mental health facilities available space along with working to clean up encampments and connecting people with the help that they need.
Now this is where the accountability part kicks in: (different article that goes more into what he’s planning..
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday he was prepared to claw back state funds from 10 counties he said had not made sufficient progress to treat people struggling with their mental health, homelessness, and substance use disorder. Newsom labeled San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Kern, Riverside, Yolo, Monterey, Fresno, and Santa Clara counties “underperforming” when it came to implementing CARE Court, his 2023 initiative expanding a state mental health program.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article314896926.html#storylink=cpy
Newsom has blamed CARE Court’s sluggish pace on local officials, who he said were inadequately supportive, hostile to implementing it, or reticent to challenge residents who were opposed to expanding housing and services. He also touted a 9% drop in unsheltered homelessness, a dubious statistic that is partially based on old federal data from 2024 and numbers pulled from local governments. “I’m just not interested in funding failure now. So you know, they may overrule me,” he said, referring to past court challenges from local governments. “There’s a lot of power in LA County, Riverside County, Santa Clara County, some of the counties we’re calling out to overrule. But you know, with respect, I’m happy to sweep every damn dollar and redirect it to those, you know, folks up in Humboldt, folks over here in Alameda. Pay for performance, period. It’s common sense.”
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article314896926.html#storylink=cpy
This is a video from the press conference he just held about this if you want to see the whole thing.
Of course the counties that he called out are saying that they are doing the work but I think it’s fantastic that he’s publicly drawing attention to transparency on this and communicating what is and isn’t being done. We keep demanding more of this kind of behavior from our politicians and Newsom seems to have no problem delivering it.
And a summary article of all side from Cal Matters .
The administration also updated its public accountability website to include that metric for each county.
But that data doesn’t take other important measures into account, such as the number of CARE agreements reached in each county, the number of petitions that are dismissed without someone getting treatment, or the number of people who have graduated from CARE Court. San Diego County, for instance, didn’t make the “CARE champion” list, even though, as of last summer, it had the most graduations of any county in the state, with 10. Riverside, which was a close second with seven graduations, was on the governor’s “CARE ICU” list.
Newsom promised that counties on his “CARE ICU” list would get extra help through the state’s CARE Improvement and Coordination Unit. He didn’t specify what that help would look like, but said the state already is working with some communities to provide technical support and training.
San Francisco, which landed on Newsom’s “CARE ICU” list, welcomes support from the state to strengthen its CARE Court program, Charles Lutvak, a spokesman for Mayor Daniel Lurie, said in an email to CalMatters.
