Now that Vice President and selected Democrat nominee Kamala Harris and her Vice Presidential pick Tim Walz are riding off into the sunset of what they hope is election glory, it is apparent California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has no clue what to do with himself. Despite his prostrations and attempts at kissing the ring, it is pretty evident the Harris campaign has frozen him out, so he has to go back to actually doing his job. Suffice to say it hasn’t gone well.
After 145 years headquartered in the state of California, Chevron has given Newsom the middle finger, pulled an Elon Musk, and is moving its operations to Texas. California already has the highest unemployment rate in the nation and is bleeding businesses faster than Tim Walz dodged Iraq. So, all those millions of jobs and infrastructure going away is not good news for the state; and it happened on this governor’s watch.
The people of California cannot insure their homes anymore because this critical industry can no longer afford to cover policies in the state. Along with the high price of fast food, this is what homelessness, crime, and sanctuary state policies get you, all compliments of two-term governor Gavin Newsom.
Speaking of homelessness, when Newsom thought he still had a chance as a VP candidate, he signed a sweeping executive order demanding cities and counties clean up their homeless encampments.
Sure, Hair Gel. Los Angeles County has already let him know they’ll take their sweet time and do what they think is best for the homeless and their bottom line, i.e., the Homeless Industrial Complex of organizations that are awash in money supposedly to address this very problem.
WATCH:
That doesn’t even begin to address the 24 billion that, as of May 2024, is still unaccounted for. Newsom had no idea where that money went.
Despite the big budget announcements and slashes on spending, one reporter at the conference did not allow the governor to skim over the topic of homelessness in the state.
In a state audit, released in early April, it was revealed that California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the past five years, yet did not consistently track how exactly the huge sum of money helped the homeless crisis.
Angela Hart, of KFF Health News, asked two questions: whether he felt his administration did enough to determine if the money was well spent and if he was worried whether public opinion over spending so much on the homelessness program has soured given the lack of progress from all the billions of dollars spent.
Mr Newsom replied with a lengthy answer about localism, and how it is “difficult at state level” to deal with these issues when local governments have different strategies, but touched on how they have incorporated “accountability plans” into their Housing Assistance Program (HAP).
He added that the audit did not “surprise” him and said that he acknowledged they needed to do more “not just in the homeless bucket but also the mental health/homelessness bucket”.
Yet, when state legislators made efforts in July to tighten that accountability and bake yearly audits into the homelessness funding cake, Newsom vetoed the legislation. So on brand.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Monday that would have required his administration to do a yearly review of the money it sends to cities and counties to address homelessness.
In his veto message, the governor said the review would have been redundant of efforts his administration already has underway to hold cities and counties accountable for how the money is used.
Just In: Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes AB 2570, which would have required his administration to do a yearly evaluation of money the state provides to cities and counties to address homeless.
He says the bill would create an unnecessary ongoing workload… pic.twitter.com/dv3KhRUreD
— Ashley Zavala (@ZavalaA) July 15, 2024
“Unnecessary workload.” Because his office works so very hard. It must be really difficult playing “Where’s Gavin?” every month. Now that his 2024 presidential aspirations have been dashed, perhaps he can actually focus.
Nah, probably not.
Redundancy is exactly what is needed since the present efforts have not worked. Really, how is it possible to lose track of $24 billion?! But California continues to lead the way—but not in the way that Newsom had in mind. Exhibit A of this “leadership”: Here is Newsom’s senior advisor on homelessness doing a song and dance to explain why money allotted to build tiny homes for the homeless has not produced the construction of one home.
If one wonders how a state can blow through $24 billion on homelessness with no results or explanation as to where the money went…
Look no further than Newsom’s Senior Advisor on Homelessness explain how we spent $750 million on “tiny homes” and not one home to show for it. pic.twitter.com/JOUpuhUUMN
— CA_Underground (@CAUndergound) May 25, 2024
Now Newsom’s stunning failure on his 20-plus-year signature initiative is getting greater scrutiny: Those hundreds of millions of dollars poured into homelessness management and mitigation are in danger of being siphoned away by the criminal element—that is, the ones outside of California’s government.
An absurd attempt to deflect blame.
Since he became Mayor of SF in 2004, Newsom has been behind every policy failure that created the homelessness crisis.
The unbelievable spending has only made things worse. California now has over half the nation’s unsheltered homeless. https://t.co/jTTQUv9YLt
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) August 29, 2023
Just like the COVID unemployment funds fraud of 2021, when Newsom and then-California Labor Secretary Julie Su allowed sloppy safeguards, which resulted in the loss of 36 billion taxpayer dollars, it appears the same “fraud is easy” could happen with homelessness funding.
This is my shocked face.
California put hundreds of millions of homelessness dollars at risk because of its “disorganized” and “chaotic” anti-fraud policies, according to a critical federal audit released today.
Note that this is a federal audit. As noted above, Newsom has tacitly refused to hold himself accountable.
The audit analyzed California’s Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees the state’s homelessness programs. It gave the California agency its lowest possible ranking, finding that it lacked adequate policies to prevent, detect and respond to fraud. As a result, the audit found, the state agency failed to properly protect $319.5 million in federal homelessness funds, which were distributed during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the possibility of misuse.
Ahh, COVID again. Newsom gladly took in billions of dollars in federal funding. Now he has to pay the piper.
The audit did not uncover any new instances of fraud.
Doesn’t mean there is none. If California doesn’t see a homeless tiny village produced by the Fall 2024 deadline given, someone needs to start asking more questions.
“Fraud poses a significant risk to the integrity of federal programs and erodes public trust in government,” Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis, with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said in a news release. “Enhancing its robust antifraud program will help the California Department of Housing and Community Development ensure that its pandemic grant funds, and future homelessness assistance funds, are safeguarded from fraud.”
With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the federal government poured $4 billion into its Emergency Solutions Grant program, which was intended to help people struggling with homelessness. California’s share of that pot was $319.5 million — a 2,505% increase from its typical annual allotment. With that huge influx of money also came an increased risk that bad actors would attempt to use those funds for nefarious purposes. But California failed to adequately step up its anti-fraud measures, according to the federal housing department.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development claimed it would take steps to implement the federal recommendations in order to improve its anti-fraud measures. This is the same department that visualized Project Roomkey, where hotels were commandeered to house the homeless during COVID. Two years later, the state had to pay for damages to hotels because of income lost and property destroyed.
Because of Newsom’s $73 billion (with a “B”) budget deficit, expect the California taxpayer and the rest of America to pay for Newsom’s malfeasance and fraudulent handling of his homelessness crisis for decades to come. While we still have to fight California’s failures in the looming possibility of a President Kamala Harris, this federal hand slap is further proof that Gavin Newsom was never ready for prime time and should not be anywhere near elected office.
