California Gov. Newsom launches homeless accountability website
SACRAMENTO -- Governor Gavin Newsom launched a new state website Monday offering Californians a way to track county progress on the homeless crisis.
The website provides county-by-county snapshots of spending on behavioral health, homelessness, and housing. The website provides information on spending in all 58 counties across the state.
"We'll continue to update this tool and we want to make sure this is a dynamic tool and it actually adds value, gives people meaning, gives them a little more sense of confidence that good things are happening at the local level, but not everywhere," Newsom said during a virtual press conference to launch the website.
The California State Association of Counties shared a statement shortly after the announcement, calling the website a "spin without substance to back it up."
"Counties aren't the bottleneck to addressing housing and homelessness. The real barriers to progress are the state-mandated bureaucratic hurdles that slow local governments down, forcing them to navigate a maze to get resources on the ground." the California State Association of Counties said.
The announcement also came with Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funding to support local homelessness efforts, tied to performance benchmarks and the ability for the state to withhold funding allocations if local communities do not make progress.
