Commentary: Newsom makes big political wager
http://www.elkgrovenews.net/2020/02/commentary-newsom-makes-big-political.html
By Dan Walters |
CalMatters Columnist |
Gavin
Newsom is rushing in where angels — and more cautious politicians — fear to
tread by devoting virtually all of his second State of the State address to
California’s seemingly intractable housing and homelessness crises.
Newsom is
staking his governorship, and perhaps his hopes of climbing further up the
political pecking order, on jump-starting housing construction and moving tens
of thousands of men, women and children off the streets.
While
beginning his 40-plus-minute address to the Legislature with boilerplate paeans
to the state’s vibrant economy and patting himself and lawmakers on the back
for last year’s accomplishments, he quickly segued into the issue that polls
say is uppermost in Californians’ minds.
“No amount
of progress can camouflage the most pernicious crisis in our midst, the
ultimate manifestation of poverty, homelessness,” Newsom declared. “That’s why
I’m devoting today’s remarks to this crisis. Let’s call it what it is, a
disgrace, that the richest state in the richest nation — succeeding across so
many sectors — is falling so far behind, to properly house, heal and humanely
treat so many of its own people.”
So what
would Newsom do?
He said he
wants “a coordinated, crisis-level response” involving multiple state agencies
and local governments to not only create more shelters and permanent housing,
but to deal with the homeless population’s issues with drugs and physical and
mental health.
Newsom
embraced, at least conceptually, laws to compel the severely mentally ill to
receive care via conservatorships, and drug addiction programs because “we need
to stop tolerating open drug use on our streets.”
While
pledging hundreds of millions of new state dollars for a comprehensive approach
to homelessness, he also hinted that he might propose new taxes as well, saying
“We need significant sustainable revenue.”
Turning to
the larger housing shortage, Newsom told legislators, “When we don’t build
housing for people at all income levels, as a consequence we worsen the
homeless crisis.”
During his
campaign for governor in 2018, Newsom more or less pledged to build 3.5 million
new housing units by 2025. He’s since backed off and didn’t give any new goals
last week while saying he wanted “to massively increase housing production.”
Newsom
didn’t overtly support legislation, Senate Bill 50,
that would have overridden local land use controls for some kind of housing,
and saw it fail in the Senate due to opposition from local governments. But he
said he wants something along those lines.
“Look, I
get it, cities need to meet their housing goals in a way that matches their
community,” he said, “but doing nothing is no longer an option. As a former
mayor, I respect local control, but not at the cost of creating a two-class
California.”
Newsom
deserves credit, certainly, for taking political ownership of these two serious
crises, but they are very tough nuts to crack — textbook examples of why a
state as large and complex as California, with so many often disparate
interests is inherently very difficult to govern.
Newsom
inherited them because previous governors, Jerry Brown particularly, saw them
as virtually impossible to conquer and were unwilling to spend political capital
on them. Newsom is willing, even eager to try and if he pulls it off — if
housing construction doubles, as the state says it should, and the makeshift
camps of the homeless vanish — he rightfully will claim victory.
If,
however, Newsom hasn’t moved the needle on them three years hence, he’ll be
pilloried as being all talk and no performance. It’s a big political gamble.
CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to
explaining how California’s state Capitol works and why it matters. For more
stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary
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