We think it’s great California is devoting so much money to help this cause, with over 160,000 homeless residents in the state of California something needs to be done. If you were to just give that money to the homeless it would equate to $75,000 a person, which would probably be the most efficient use of the money but would that solve homelessness in the state? It might, it definitely would get a large amount of homeless off the street. Would a portion of them use it on drugs, yes. Does a portion of them need mental health services, yes.
I realize California is pursuing a long term solution to the homeless crisis but giving a portion of money to a portion of the homeless, would help a lot. With many landlords requiring you to make 4-6x the rent, it’s hard for people with jobs to find housing. I purpose CA gives $15,000 to 100,000 homeless which equates to 1.5b, $15,000 will change someones life, and get them off the streets. Now it would be smart to set up a transition course to help them get housing, a bank account, and a job, that would probably cost 500million. That’s 2b spent and 100,000 people would be off the street. The other 60,000 will need help with drugs and mental health.
CA doesn’t really want to solve homelessness though, they want to line there pockets while they halfheartedly approach the problem. If California really wanted to end homelessness they also would explore what makes someone homeless. You have to get to the root of the problem then get ahead of it in-order to fully solve it.
The 12billion they are spending is going to this “There are over 160,000 homeless residents in the state of California. The 2021‑22 state budget provides $10.7 billion ($5 billion General Fund) to 50 housing and homelessness-related programs across 15 state entities. Some of the major uses of housing and homelessness funding in the state budget support the Homekey Program’s acquisition of properties for use as permanent housing, provide flexible aid to local governments to address homelessness in their communities, provide funding to address the backlog in affordable housing development, and help local governments plan to meet their housing production goals. The budget also provides funding in other areas of the budget that could be used to address homelessness and/or housing affordability, including, the health, human services, veteran services, courts, transportation, higher education, and labor areas of the state budget”.
This will 100% help homelessness, which is great, but it is such an inefficient use of 12 billion dollars. That money, if used efficiently could end the homeless crisis in America, where 500,000+ people experience homelessness every night.
Based on an articles by LAO, PolicyAdvice, and CalMatters