Gavin Newsom's 10-year plan to end San Francisco homelessness turns 20 years old as the crisis grows statewide

California Governor Gavin Newsom has spent $20 billion in the last five years on the homeless population despite his claims that he could end homelessness in San Francisco when he was mayor in 2003.

Newsom mapped out a 10-year plan to end the problem with "tens of millions" of federal dollars and 550 housing units, according to Fox News, saying that he didn't want to "over-promise" nor "under-deliver." He wanted to "hit the ground running."

Then-Mayor Newsom said the situation in San Francisco was a "national disgrace" and that he would welcome "being judged by how he approached the homelessness crisis" after four years. He ended up winning re-election in the city in 2011 with a massive 73.66% of the vote.

In 2017, Newsom promised another 3.5 million housing units by 2025 and stated that the "solutions must be as bold as the problem is big."

Newsom has been re-elected, climbed the political ladder, and even survived a recall attempt as governor in 2021. All while homelessness has boomed in the Golden State.

A Public Policy Institute of California study found that 30% of the country's homeless Americans live in California, including "half of all unsheltered people," approximately 115,000 of the country's nearly 234,000.

Since 2020, there was also an increase of 17% in the homeless but sheltered population in California, with a 2% increase in unsheltered. At the same time, "California’s overall homeless population has increased about 6%, compared to just 0.4% in the rest of the country."

As well, the study stated that "homeless populations are rising" in most city centers. Interestingly enough, with Newsom as governor, San Francisco has seen a decrease in homelessness from 2020 to 2022, while cities like Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, and San Diego all saw an increase.

However, San Francisco still has the second-most unaccompanied homeless youth and the fifth-most unsheltered, homeless veterans in the country.

Also under Newsom's watch, 67% of the state's homeless are unsheltered, according to a Housing and Urban Development report.

After 20 years of Newsom's reign both locally and at the state level, it is clear that California as a whole has become worse in terms of homelessness. A reported 44 out of every 10,000 people in the state are homeless, the highest in the country.

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