Newsom takes ownership of yet another California crisis, in addition to addressing the homeless problem

I was taken aback when I heard California Gov. Gavin Newsom take responsibility for the homelessness problem in the state during an interview with Sean Hannity. He described it as “disgraceful.” It was unexpected, to say the least.

Newsom acknowledged that housing costs were too high and regulatory obstacles were problematic. He also recognized the significant disparity between the number of homeless in California compared to states like Florida, which enjoy similar good weather. He boldly declared, “I own it.”

However, there was one crucial issue that Newsom failed to acknowledge, the associated mental health crisis. During an interview on Doctor Radio Reports on SiriusXM, Dr. Maria Raven, the chief of Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, emphasized that mentally ill individuals often have nowhere to go after a brief hold in the emergency room, forcing them back to the streets.

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California lacks the necessary long-term beds and housing to address this problem. Dr. Raven believes that investing in housing upfront would ultimately lead to significant savings in healthcare costs down the line.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom interviewed by host Sean Hannity.

“The severe lack of affordable and supportive housing, high rates of mental illness among people experiencing homelessness, and a scarcity of community-based mental health services result in many homeless individuals ending up in the emergency department,” Dr. Raven also told me.

California has been struggling with a dysfunctional approach to mental health for decades, and the situation is only worsening. While de-institutionalization of those with severe mental health problems may sound humane in theory, it lacks the necessary community-based services and housing support.

Currently, there are only five mental health hospitals in California with limited capacity for 7,000 patients, many of whom have been convicted or accused of crimes. Unlike Rhode Island, California’s prisons are not focused on treatment but on releasing inmates, resulting in an increase in the number of mentally ill individuals on the streets.

Shockingly, more than a third of the close to 95,000 inmates in California prisons suffer from a diagnosed mental illness.

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A study conducted by San Jose State found that nearly 14,000 out of the approximately 19,000 seriously mentally ill individuals in prison in 2015 were there because of state hospital closures.

California’s homeless population is already disproportionately affected by mental illness, including chronic conditions and reactive depression. Unfortunately, only a few receive the necessary treatment. It is evident that living in a homeless encampment on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, or San Diego is not an appropriate solution for treating mental illness.

California’s dysfunctional approach towards mental health goes back decades and is only getting worse. There has been a long focus on de-institutionalizing those with severe mental health problems, which sounds humane in theory, but not without the community-based services or housing to support it.

I have no doubt that San Francisco residents’ plan to block encampments using planters will prove ineffective. The government’s monetary investments are merely cosmetic, failing to address the pervasive issues of human waste and sewage.

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Although far from perfect and also plagued by crime and mental illness, the shelter system in New York City represents an improvement compared to California, where the majority of the homeless population remains without shelter.

Newsom mentioned a $15.3 billion plan to combat homelessness in California during his interview with Hannity. However, solving this problem requires more than just throwing money at it. It necessitates a cultural shift, the creation of adequate housing, expanded treatment options for depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and psychosis, and providing hospital beds or homes instead of prison cells for those in need.

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