California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) promised in 2023 to deliver 1,200 “tiny homes” to help shelter the homeless in several California cities — but none has opened yet, according to a report in CalMatters.
CalMatters.org reported Thursday:
In March 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood before a crowd in Sacramento’s Cal Expo event center and made a promise: He’d send 1,200 tiny homes to shelter homeless residents in the capital city and three other places throughout the state.
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There have been multiple delays and about-faces, over everything from the way the state is funding the units to the ability of local cities and counties to find places to put them. The state has suggested the delays are the fault of local governments. But tiny homes have failed to materialize even when local leaders moved quickly to approve a project site.
In Sacramento, at least, construction for the tiny homes has begun. In San Diego, testing of a proposed site is still under way. In San Jose, a grant from the state took months to arrive; the project will only be completed next summer. And in Los Angeles, there is no approved site yet.
In 2021, Newsom boasted that California had become a model for dealing with homelessness, after the Biden administration adopted his state’s policy of paying for hotel and motel rooms for homeless people, or even buying hotels.
Homelessness continues to be a problem in the Golden State. The homeless population has hit a ten-year low in San Francisco, but was still rising in Los Angeles, as of last year.
The Wall Street Journal reported last year that California spends billions of dollars on homelessness, with little to show for the effort.
