Mayors blast proposed overseers of homeless funding
Bigcity mayors and several Assembly members got their first good look Thursday at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to create a system of regional administrators to oversee $750 million in new homeless funding, and they didn’t like it.
Newsom’s plan is largely unformed and being introduced far in advance of the midJune deadline for the state to pass its budget. But the mere mention of regional administrators — an idea lambasted as inefficient this week by the state Legislative Analyst’s Office — raised hackles at an informational hearing in San Francisco of a California Assembly budget subcommittee.
All the mayors and almost all of the subcommittee members said they appreciate the new homeless program money Newsom proposed for the coming year’s budget, which would be at least $100 million more than last year, but not the extra buffer between state coffers and local programs.
Currently, homeless funding from the state is handed out to cities and counties, which then use it in governmental and nonprofit programs, and there is a growing call among elected leaders and managers around California to cooperate more regionally on homelessness. But this concept doesn’t seem to be helpful, most of those at the hearing said.
“Layering more bureaucracy and bypassing cities and counties is counterproductive,” San Francisco Mayor London Breed told the committee.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said designating regional administrators would be “disruptive,” and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said it would be impractical because “cities are most accountable to the residents for homelessness, not regional administrators.” Representatives of Los Angeles’ city and county homeless programs concurred with the mayors.
The only person in state or local government at the hearing who liked the plan for administrators was Jennifer Troia, a deputy director at the state Department of Social Services — which would appoint the administrators of the $750 million.
She noted that Newsom’s plan is still in such early stages that the exact regions haven’t been delineated, and the administrators who would oversee and hand out the state funding to cities and counties have not been picked. The administrators would probably be chosen from governmental or nonprofit programs, she said, and would have to be familiar with homelessaid dynamics.
“We believe the regional approach will maximize the resources,” she said, noting that homelessness is a statewide problem that transcends county and city borders. She said the intention would be to cooperate with cities and counties, capitalizing on their knowledge of the local problems.
“In some ways, we are not creating something new (with the administrators) so much as adding another configuration,” she told the subcommittee.
The latest onenight tallies indicate California has more than 151,000 people experiencing homelessness, the most of any state, and a 16% increase over 2018.
Newsom has made regional cooperation a focus of his approach to homelessness in the state. After the subcommittee hearing Thursday, his press secretary, Jesse Melgar, reacted with a statement saying, “Simply repeating the same responses of the past will only produce the same results – and that’s unacceptable.
“The Governor has given the Legislature a comprehensive proposal that provides a record commitment of state resources to support more stable housing,” Melgar wrote. “It calls for linking these resources with a range of services that can significantly help people out of homelessness or keep them from becoming homeless. And, importantly, it calls for greater coordination between all levels of government.
“We look forward to working with the Legislature to advance this new strategy and achieve much greater progress on this critical issue.”
Three of the four subcommittee members said they don’t like the regional administrators idea, and the fourth — Assemblyman Vince Fong, RBakersfield — didn’t express a preference.
“Having unnamed regional bureaucrats be in charge of homeless funding doesn’t sound like a good idea to me,” said Assemblyman Phil Ting, DSan Francisco, chairman of the subcommittee. “But that having been said, I think we had a really robust discussion. We’ll see where it leads.”