Democratic governor Gavin Newsom has admitted that California’s homelessness crisis is ‘a disgrace’ – but tried to blame Republicans for creating the situation.
The Golden State is facing an opioid-fueled vagrancy epidemic, with cities like San Francisco and San Diego besieged with encampments and businesses shutting up shop.
Newsom was grilled on the subject by Fox News host Sean Hannity after the latest blow to San Francisco’s downtown as Westfield stopped making mortgage payments on its massive mall due to crime and tanking sales.
Homelessness figures have risen 13 percent in California during Newsom’s time as governor, with government statistics showing a 6.8 per cent increase between 2019 and 2020, and a further 6 percent increase between 2020 and 2022, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
Newsom told Hannity: ‘This state has not made progress in the last two decades as it relates to homelessness because housing costs are too high, our regulatory thickets are too problematic, localism has been too impactful – meaning people locally are pushing back against new housing starts and construction.’