Opinion: Given Housing First dogma, don't expect Prop 1 to change anything
Image by BBC Science Focus
While City staff continues to ignore the scathing critique of SJ's homelessness programs, the WSJ opines that without a change in strategy, the Housing First failure will just continue despite new programs with an even higher price tag.
California has spent $24 billion to combat homelessness over the last five years—and what did it get for its money? More homelessness, according to a new state audit that should embarrass Sacramento and infuriate taxpayers.
The agency in charge “has not consistently tracked and evaluated the State’s efforts to prevent and end homelessness,” he adds. Translation: California has been wasting billions of dollars to no good effect.
According to the audit, 181,399 people were homeless at some point in 2023, up from 118,552 in 2013 and 151,278 in 2019. “To address this ongoing crisis, nine state agencies have collectively spent billions of dollars in state funding over the past five years administering at least 30 programs dedicated to preventing and ending homelessness,” Mr. Parks writes..
But getting the mentally ill and drug-addicted homeless into treatment and jobs is surely the most cost-effective solution. Progressives oppose the tough love required of both. They prefer pushing more money into housing that doesn’t address the dysfunction of the homeless.
Progressives always measure success by how much they spend, never by results. Don’t expect Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $6.4 billion bond for homelessness {Prop. 1} that voters barely approved last month to change anything.
Read the whole thing at: www.wsj.com (behind paywall)
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