California’s Governor Gavin Newsom was probed about spending the entirety of the Golden State’s $24 spending budget to manage homelessness in a recent press conference. Newsom has been under fire for poor budget management as California reaches soaring state deficits.
In the press conference held on Friday, May 10, he asserted that California’s state deficit had reached $45 billion and proposed cuts to manage the glaring deficit. He recommended spending cuts that would impact jobs, education programs, and health services.
In addition, he proposed cutting spending on homelessness by $1.2 billion. However, one reporter questioned his decision to cut homelessness spending since the state audit in April revealed California had spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness in the past few years.
A reporter for KFF Health News refused to allow Newsom to skate over questions about the homeless issue in California. She asked if he felt he and his administration did a sufficient job managing the budget for the homelessness program.
She also questioned whether he was was concerned about public opinion on the matter. It is no secret that he has been under fire from the public as a result of the billions of dollars spent on the program with lack of progress.
Governor Newsom tried to skate around the questions by speaking to the complexity of the homelessness issue in California and how difficult it can be to get local governments to cooperate in these large issues.
The reporter pressed him by simply stating, “I’m sorry governor, I didn’t hear a response to either of those questions”. Newsom replied, “Well, forgive me if I appear to repeat the first response”.
He went on to explain the “housing accountability unit” which aims to include more accountability for how state funding is allocated to programs. He also claimed that he was not at all surprised by the state audit as California had undergone unprecedented investments in the past few years.
Newsom also went into some details as to how the state has worked to tackle homelessness and how he will be ensuring there is “more transparency and state oversight” over how and where local governments are spending their budgets.
In the court of public opinion, it seems very few are happy with the progress made in the homelessness programs set forth by Newsom and his administration. And many questions are being raised as to how the $24 billion spent towards the problem made little to no impact at all.
