With help from Jeremy B. White, Dustin Gardiner and Forest Hunt
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PRIORITY PROJECT: Homelessness may not be Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fault. But it is his problem — and likely will define his legacy.
It’s a reality that Newsom acknowledges as he turns his attention in the final years of his second term to the intertwined challenges of mental health treatment, drug abuse and emergency shelter.
Newsom sees himself as picking up where Ronald Reagan left off when he governed the state from 1967 to 1971 and dismantled a flawed system that incarcerated and institutionalized the mentally ill but failed to create an adequate replacement. The Newsom administration is now working to expand treatment capacity as part of a broad overhaul of mental health treatment.
The final piece of his reform package zipped through the Legislature this year over the objections of some mental health advocates. Now, the governor and his allies must persuade voters to approve changes to the state’s mental health laws and pass a $6.4 billion bond measure to help pay for the expansion of services.
Their sales pitch: treatment not tents. Money from the bond, along with a portion of tax revenue that previously went to county governments, would go to build new psychiatric and addiction treatment facilities. The ballot measure would also change the way counties spend their mental health budgets to focus more on housing and treating the state’s sickest residents.
It is not, as the governor and plan supporters are quick to point out, a program that is exclusively aimed at homelessness. But it could start alleviating some of the state’s most visible public health and political problems — a critical goal in a state home to half the country’s unsheltered population.
This isn’t the first time in recent years Californians have been asked to shell out billions to address homelessness. In 2018, the voters approved a $2 billion bond for the No Place Like Home program to build housing. The same year, the electorate approved a $4 billion bond to house veterans. Will voters go for another bond even indirectly related to homelessness? That remains to be seen. Newsom’s legacy may depend on it.
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TAX TUSSLE: A ruling today by the California Supreme Court keeps alive a challenge by Newsom and legislative leaders to a ballot initiative that would sharply restrict new taxes. The high court ordered California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and the ballot measure’s counsel to make their case for why the challenge should not proceed. That sets the stage for a broader ruling on the initiative’s validity. The initiative, sponsored by the California Business Roundtable, would require voter approval for legislatively passed taxes. It would also raise to two-thirds the vote threshold for some local taxes. The measure has qualified for the November ballot.
Business groups say it would conform California’s laws with an earlier tax-limiting measure, Proposition 13. But Democratic elected officials, labor unions and cities have argued the proposal would devastate local finances and strip key powers from elected officials.
Newsom, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas asked the state Supreme Court to invalidate the measure, arguing it is unconstitutional. The Legislature also placed a labor-backed constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot that would make the tax-limiting measure harder to approve.
The parties must file their arguments and counterarguments by February. Weber’s office must formally place measures on the November ballot by next June. — Jeremy B. White
MOD-ON-MOD FIGHT: San Francisco Mayor London Breed could soon face another moderate opponent in her reelection fight next year — a contest that’s become increasingly crowded with moderate-leaning Democrats.
Political insiders have been buzzing for weeks about an effort to draft former Mayor Mark Farrell to run. He served as interim mayor for about five months in 2018 after the death of Mayor Ed Lee, before Breed won a special election.
If Farrell decides to jump into the race, it would mean Breed — also a moderate by San Francisco standards — would face at least three centrist Democrat opponents in the November 2024 election, potentially splintering her vote. She already faces challenges from Daniel Lurie, a nonprofit executive and heir to the Levi Strauss fortune, and Supervisor Ahsha Safaí.
Farrell, a venture capitalist, hasn’t ruled it out. He told POLITICO that he’s thinking about it. “San Francisco cannot afford to continue down the path we have been on and we all deserve better from City Hall,” he said in a statement.
Breed’s campaign declined to comment. The mayor has taken an increasingly tough-on-crime approach to the city’s problems in recent months, perhaps hoping to blunt criticism from her challengers. — Dustin Gardiner
SHELTER FROM THE STORM: San Francisco will add 300 shelter beds this week, bringing the total beds added this year to nearly 1,500. West Coast cities have continued to struggle with a large number of people living on the street. In 2022, almost 60 percent of San Francisco’s homeless population was unsheltered, compared with a mere 3 percent in Boston or 16 percent in Philadelphia.
Some homeless advocates argue that funding should be directed to permanent housing solutions rather than to emergency shelter. Central to the decision to expand shelters is intense pressure to remove large encampments in the city. A 2019 court decision has hamstrung cities’ ability to disband encampments, but in her announcement, Breed highlighted a recent 9th Circuit decision that clarified that cities could eject people from encampments if they are first offered shelter.
The waiting list for a shelter bed was 503 people as of this afternoon. — Forest Hunt
FEINSTEIN SAGA: An eye-catching tidbit has emerged from court documents in the battle over the estate of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. It turns out former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one of two people who witnessed Feinstein sign a document granting her adult daughter, retired Judge Katherine Feinstein, limited power of attorney in her final months. Pelosi, as SFGate first reported, signed a statement attesting that the elder Feinstein was of sound mind at the time she witnessed her transfer legal authority to her daughter.
The revelation is notable because attorneys representing the estate of Richard Blum, the senator’s late husband, have questioned whether Katherine Feinstein had properly been granted authority over her ailing mother’s legal affairs. Katherine Feinstein is continuing to battle the Blum trustees over claims to a portion of her stepfather’s fortune, which was worth an estimated $1 billion. Pelosi’s spokesperson declined to comment. — Dustin Gardiner
POLICING SHORT-TERM RENTALS: Hosts of Airbnbs and other short-term rentals in Los Angeles will have to acquire a permit from the police department under a new law adopted unanimously by the City Council. The permits are expected to cost about $260 and are intended to help crack down on rowdy party houses and illicit activities. (Los Angeles Times)
NEW ARRIVALS: California is still the No. 1 destination in the U.S. for foreign nationals, with 125,715 arriving last year, according to an analysis by The Mercury News. No. 2 was Florida. (The Mercury News)
