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California's homeless numbers drop in boost for Gavin Newsom
California’s homeless numbers drop in boost for Gavin Newsom
The governor on Thursday will tout this sign of progress on an issue that has long bedeviled California politicians.
By Jeremy B. White
Gavin Newsom will use his annual address Thursday to tout a dip in the state’s homeless population — for the first time since before Newsom took office in 2019 — as evidence that California is making progress on one of its most intractable problems.
The number of people estimated to be sleeping on California’s streets declined by nine percent between 2024 and 2025, according to the Newsom administration. The administration did not offer an estimate of the overall homelessness count, of which the unsheltered population is part.
Both the state’s overall homeless population and its ranks of unsheltered people had risen steadily throughout the governor’s tenure even as he overhauled California’s behavioral health laws, made it easier to compel people into treatment, and pushed local governments to do more to build shelter and move people off of sidewalks.
Still, the latest release marks a bright spot for Newsom on an issue where he had previously struggled to make concrete headway despite years of effort and billions of dollars spent on treatment, dwellings, and encampment clearing.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/08/newsom-homelessness-count-00706715
The governor on Thursday will tout this sign of progress on an issue that has long bedeviled California politicians.
By Jeremy B. White
Gavin Newsom will use his annual address Thursday to tout a dip in the state’s homeless population — for the first time since before Newsom took office in 2019 — as evidence that California is making progress on one of its most intractable problems.
The number of people estimated to be sleeping on California’s streets declined by nine percent between 2024 and 2025, according to the Newsom administration. The administration did not offer an estimate of the overall homelessness count, of which the unsheltered population is part.
Both the state’s overall homeless population and its ranks of unsheltered people had risen steadily throughout the governor’s tenure even as he overhauled California’s behavioral health laws, made it easier to compel people into treatment, and pushed local governments to do more to build shelter and move people off of sidewalks.
Still, the latest release marks a bright spot for Newsom on an issue where he had previously struggled to make concrete headway despite years of effort and billions of dollars spent on treatment, dwellings, and encampment clearing.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/08/newsom-homelessness-count-00706715