Will Governor's $12 Billion Dollar Plan Solve Homelessness?

It is a huge amount of money to address one of the biggest problems in San Diego and in many other cities in California.

Governor Newsom’s 12-billion-dollar plan announced at the press conference in San Diego Tuesday to create affordable housing, increase mental health services and provide money to other programs to reduce homelessness.

The governor ‘s plan has to approved by the Democrat controlled state legislature and so there’s a good chance it will be, especially with the state’s $75 billion dollar budget surplus. It would be the most money ever spent by any state to combat what has been the most difficult problem to solve for almost every city. The governor says the goal is to end family homelessness within five years. And homeless advocates are praising the plan.

But the question now is, will it work? Will it solve the problem that has frustrated elected officials, business owners and residents in California for decades?

The rising cost of housing in the state shows no signs of slowing down. Home prices have even gone up despite the pandemic and during one of the worst economic slumps in history that was caused by it. The recent news about California losing population with more and more people moving to other, cheaper states, is proof of the problem.

And the homeless problem brings with it other problems that include impacts on the health care system, on public safety and on the tourism economy. Making significant progress in the massive problem of homelessness in five years, even with a record number of billions of dollars, is not going to be easy.

But seriously addressing the problem of homelessness is long overdue.

(Photo Getty Images)