‘Gimme Shelter’: Newsom falls far short on his big housing promises
Gov. Jerry Brown’s housing push would have doubled the size of San Francisco’s homeless system a plan so ambitious it would have raised rent prices for all tenants.
Instead, Brown has ordered a series of temporary measures to clear the way for more permanent fixes. They include more temporary camping sites, temporary housing, a new system for emergency housing and more housing for the homeless.
Newsom will likely have to make good on his campaign talk of building a $250 million system for the homeless more a figure meant to inspire than to actually achieve anything.
But the temporary approaches will not bring back every homeless person, just some of those who have moved on without a permanent way to stay.
Newsom has said repeatedly that no housing system has as much promise as the one he seeks. But for the past year, he has had to put his big housing-for-the-elderly campaign into the hands of another governor for political reasons.
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California gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom has been at it for a year, trying to convince voters he has the skills and the tools to lead the state as an outsider.
San Francisco has seen many elected officials come and go in the past year, leaving the city to deal with problems it should have gotten under control years ago. Voters would be well served to remember that the homeless crisis is the result of decades of poor policy decisions dating back to the establishment of the Golden Gate Bridge.
In that light, Newsom has little chance of being elected governor or any other office where he is the head of the party. His challenge should be to show he is a change-maker, too, a leader who can make new contributions while trying to build upon the reforms he got from former Gov. Jerry Brown.
At the same time, Newsom doesn’t have to make dramatic changes, even if he is given a chance to
