California Governor Gavin Newsom is once again promising bold action on homelessness. On August 29, he announced the creation of a new statewide task force called the “SAFE Task Force.” The governor said the group will focus on clearing large encampments on public property in the state’s ten most populous cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, Anaheim, Bakersfield, and Fresno.
In his announcement, Newsom claimed, “No one should live in a dangerous or unsanitary encampment, and we will continue our ongoing work to ensure that everyone has a safe place to call home.” He added that the new task force will “pair urgency with dignity—restoring safe, usable public spaces while providing care for Californians living in dangerous encampments.”
The plan is supposed to coordinate state agencies ranging from the Office of Emergency Services to the California Highway Patrol. The governor’s office says it will clear encampments, prevent them from reappearing, and connect people with services funded through Proposition 1, which expanded spending on mental health and addiction treatment.
A Record of Spending Without Results
While Newsom is presenting this as a new solution, California has been down this road many times before. The state has spent enormous sums of money, but the problem has only grown worse. According to recent reports, California has spent at least $37 billion on homelessness programs since 2019. Yet homelessness has surged from 151,000 in 2019 to roughly 187,000 today, which represents a 24 percent increase during Newsom’s time in office and nearly a 60 percent increase since 2015.
The Wall Street Journal noted that California’s $17 billion investment in just the past four fiscal years “has not yielded the desired results.” At Oakland’s Wood Street encampment, for example, hundreds of individuals were living in dangerous conditions until a fire forced authorities to dismantle the site. The crisis revealed how both legal challenges and local government delays undermined attempts to move people into housing. Even those who received federal housing vouchers often could not find apartments because of California’s astronomical housing costs.
Audits have repeatedly confirmed what frustrated residents already know. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and other agencies have been unable to reconcile funds with actual services delivered. Millions of dollars in cash advances to contractors were untracked, money remained unspent, and agencies admitted they had no reliable data on how many people had been permanently housed. A federal audit even gave California the lowest possible score for failing to prevent fraud in homelessness funding.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office stated clearly, “No data have been provided to the Legislature on how many people living in an encampment have received permanent housing.”
Failed Experiments and “Progressive Insanity”
California’s efforts have not only been ineffective but at times absurd. During the pandemic, San Francisco placed homeless individuals in hotels and went so far as to purchase alcohol and drugs for them. The policy was defended as a way to prevent withdrawal, but critics argued it represented the government enabling destructive behavior. One commentator observed, “That strikes me like giving money to bank robbers so that they do not have to steal it.”
At the same time, the state embraced the “Housing First” model, which prioritizes permanent housing without requiring sobriety or treatment. Former federal homelessness coordinator Robert Marbut warned that this approach ignores addiction and mental illness, calling the results “a horrible increase” that proves the policy is failing. RAND Corporation also noted that California’s annual homeless counts are likely “a significant undercount,” meaning the crisis may be even worse than official figures admit.
Costs That Stun the Taxpayer
The spending has not only failed to solve the problem, but in many cases has defied common sense. A Los Angeles Times investigation reported that building units for the homeless in California often costs more than one million dollars per apartment. In Santa Monica, the city approved a 122-unit building at that staggering price per unit, located just blocks from some of the most expensive land in the nation.
Meanwhile, money from Governor Newsom’s Encampment Resolution Funding program has sat idle. Out of $856 million awarded, $598 million remained unspent as of this year. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has already recommended against approving more funding until the state can prove its programs work.
One editorial captured the frustration with California’s spending: “For the amount of money being spent, they could almost literally hire a police officer to follow around each homeless person and make sure they don’t do drugs.”
A Political Move, Not a Real Solution
The timing and tone of Newsom’s latest announcement has led many to believe this is not about solving homelessness at all, but about promoting himself nationally as he eyes a possible presidential run. The governor has already made a show of clearing 18,000 encampments since 2021, yet there is little evidence that those efforts produced lasting solutions. Encampments simply reappear in new locations, leaving taxpayers to wonder where their money has gone.
Critics see this latest task force as just another press release. Despite years of promises, a mountain of taxpayer spending, and countless new programs, California’s homeless crisis has worsened. The streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland still tell the same story of tents, trash, addiction, and despair.
The bottom line is that Gavin Newsom has had years, billions of dollars, and endless opportunities to show results. Instead, homelessness is worse, taxpayers are angry, and his latest task force looks more like propaganda than policy.
