Governor Gavin Newsom has asked legislators for $1.4 billion to allocate for housing and health care for the state’s homeless, and has signed an executive order to create a $750 million fund for service providers to use to help people pay rent or help cities fund affordable housing.
In many cases, however, municipalities are also responding with law enforcement and encampment removal. The city of Redding, California, made headlines late last year when its then-mayor proposed legislation to force people to enter a shelter facility and only allow them to leave on certain conditions, like sobriety.
Independent journalist Evelyn Nieves has covered homelessness extensively and has been reporting in depth on Redding’s response to homelessness, and how it parallels trends around the region and the state.
“This population has always existed, what hasn’t existed was the kind of street homelessness we see now. Why is that? Money…Stories about homelessness never bring up the fact that federal funding has dropped.”
A segment from our radio show, “Civic.” Listen daily at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on 102.5 FM in San Francisco.