California’s cities — big and small — have a huge homeless crisis. The problems go far beyond San Diego and its recent deadly hepatitis A outbreak.
Nevertheless, there are two strong reasons for Gov. Jerry Brown to reject out of hand a bipartisan bill that calls for the state to provide $1.5 billion of its budget surplus to 11 cities, including San Diego, that would be required to match the funds to address homelessness, a situation that now affects more than 134,000 Californians by the 2017 federal count.
One reason is the urgent need to pump up the state’s rainy-day fund as much as possible. If the Legislative Analyst’s Office forecast is correct, the state can expect $7.5 billion in additional revenue this fiscal year. But as Brown has repeatedly said, state revenue goes up and down like a roller coaster because of the state’s overdependence on income and capital-gains taxes. The last downturn in 2008-09, revenue fell 19 percent, from $103 billion to $83 billion, leading to huge cuts in public schools and many services. That painful memory is why the Legislature heeded Brown’s push to boost the rainy-day fund — and why his sagacity will be missed.
The second reason is the possibility that a lot of the $1.5 billion would be wasted. There is little evidence that cities have adopted “best practices” to deal with homelessness, building on successes seen in Houston and Utah. No matter how big a problem it is, state lawmakers should be loath to throw money at the issue unless they have confidence public funds would be well-spent. The bill speaks vaguely of “innovative” solutions. Let’s see them first.
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