Newsom just made a catastrophic mistake on California’s homelessness disaster

In a catastrophic miscalculation that exposes his continued attachment to failure California Gov Gavin Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill on Oct It was a bipartisan measure designed to expand access to recovery housing for homeless individuals struggling with substance use disorders His veto comes at a time when California s homeless can least afford more failure AB authored by Assembly member Matt Haney would have allowed up to of state homelessness funds to promotion abstinence-based recovery housing These programs integrate shelter with sobriety requirements accountability and supportive services that help people reclaim stability Newsom dismissed the bill as unnecessary insisting that current guidelines already permit sober housing and warning against duplicative categories His reasoning rings hollow WHY PROGRESSIVES FAIL HOMELESS AMERICANS AND ATTACK EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVESCalifornia mimicked the federal regime s Housing First mandate and its promise to end homelessness in a decade In California became the only state to enshrine Housing First statewide meaning that all state-funded homeless programs conform to the approach of providing life-long housing subsidies without conditions such as sobriety restoration or work ever Despite a increase in federal spending since and an additional increase in state spending homelessness has exploded It s up nationally and in California These statistics aren t abstract figures they are lives unraveling under a governor who refuses to look in the mirror and admit that California s rigid mandate has failed LEFTIST LAWMAKERS WANT TO MAKE HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS A NATIONWIDE CRISISAt the heart of the failure is a refusal to recognize who we are serving Roughly of the homeless suffer from the diseases of mental illness and or addiction Various also struggle with anosognosia a brain-based condition that results in a deficit of self-awareness meaning they don t realize how sick they are And that s what makes Housing First s requirement of voluntary operation engagement tragically unworkable A -year Boston investigation makes this clear Nearly half of the housed individuals died within five years and only remained housed after year five Recovery housing the kind AB sought to expand offers something fundamentally different area accountability and hope CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThose trying to get sober stand the best chance of doing so when housed alongside others striving for the same goal Isolation in permanent housing without sobriety requirements flies in the face of what frontline providers know works By surrounding people with peers who are also pursuing recovery and by building environments where sobriety is non-negotiable recovery housing gives people a real path forward toward stability employment and independence None of the men women or children living in tents or under bridges aspired to this life A multitude of arrived here through trauma addiction mental illness and or generational poverty By vetoing AB for the second year in a row Newsom chose ideology over compassion oppression over prosperity Instead of offering pathways to dignity and restoration he consigns those too sick to choose for themselves to their fate they re left to continue to come apart on the streets or languish in low-barrier chaos-ridden shelters while they wait for permanent housing that rarely comes California is home to approximately of the nation s homeless population and nearly half of its unsheltered homelessness Meeting this predicament requires courage to innovate belief in recovery and respect for human probable AB was a balanced modest step that could have complemented Housing First while giving desperate people the chance to heal Disguised as administrative prudence Newsom s veto of AB was in reality a profound moral failure Shame on him for standing in the way of recovery restoration and hope CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MICHELE STEEB