California accused of wasting $27 million on homeless

 DC Daily Journal:

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“Gavin Newsom literally lost track of the $27 billion he spent on the homeless crisis,” Jones said, citing the report. “Today’s HUD report makes it clear that instead of solving the problem, Newsom’s endless spending ‘solution’ has only made it worse.”

In response, Newsom’s office emphasized that the state has distributed $24 billion to local governments through various homelessness programs and rejected claims that the funds were mismanaged or unaccounted for.

“All that money is accounted for,” Newsom’s office stated, addressing Jones’s accusations. “The audit showed that previously not all state programs required locals to report how those dollars improved homelessness… That’s been fixed. This administration has added strong accountability and reporting requirements for local governments that receive state funding.”

The administration also pointed to broader national trends, noting that California’s homelessness increase was 3% in 2024, compared to a 21% national surge the previous year.

The governor’s office framed this as evidence of progress, highlighting that unsheltered homelessness in California grew more slowly under Newsom’s tenure than during former Governor Jerry Brown’s administration.

“The number of unsheltered homeless increased by 13.83% during the Newsom Administration (2019-2023), compared to an increase of 51.79% in the five years prior,” Newsom’s office stated on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Despite these assertions, Republican leaders remain unswayed. The California Assembly Republican caucus, led by Assemblyman James Gallagher, accused Newsom of “gaslighting” the public.

“Since the governor is committed to gaslighting on this issue, we’ll state the obvious: an increase of 20% is not progress,” the caucus wrote in a statement.
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One of the reasons for the California housing crisis is that housing is much more expensive there than in other states like Texas.  I suspect that one of the reasons for the high cost of housing is the tendency to over-regulate building and construction.  Land is also much more expensive in parts of California.  That is particularly the case in major cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles.