Housing

Dr. Rishi Patel from the Akido street medicine team checks on an unhoused man living in a vineyard in Arvin on May 28, 2024. Street medicine teams throughout California are increasingly using long-acting injectable antipsychotic medication to stabilize the mental health of people living in homeless encampments. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local

Homelessness

How shots instead of pills could change California’s homeless crisis

Doctors on the front lines of California’s homelessness and mental health crises are using monthly injections to treat psychosis in their most vulnerable patients.

By Marisa Kendall • June 4, 2024

An encampment with tents covers a sidewalk near a freeway entrance in downtown San Diego.

Homelessness

Watch: Democrats kill California homeless camp ban, again

A bill to ban homeless encampments statewide near parks, schools and transit hubs failed to get out of the same legislative committee as last year.

By CalMatters Staff • May 29, 2024

Homelessness

Newsom promised 1,200 tiny homes for homeless Californians. A year later, none have opened

Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’d send tiny homes to San Jose, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Diego County. Why haven’t any materialized yet?

By Marisa Kendall • May 23, 2024

Two tents set up across from Roeding Park in a small homeless encampment in Fresno on Feb. 10, 2022. Photo by Larry Valenzuela for CalMatters

Politics

Potential tough-on-crime ballot measure promises less homelessness. Experts aren’t convinced

Backers of a tough-on-crime California ballot measure put homelessness at the forefront of their campaign to roll back Prop. 47. But would the measure actually help get people housed?

By Marisa Kendall and Yue Stella Yu • May 20, 2024

The Fullerton Navigation Center, a homeless shelter in Fullerton on March 11, 2022. Photo by David Swanson, Reuters

Housing

Should California be able to require sobriety in homeless housing?

Two new bills would allow state funding to support sober housing for homeless residents, a significant departure from California’s current ‘housing first’ law.

By Marisa Kendall • May 13, 2024

Volunteers Aleta Barthell surveys Vickie Traylor, a resident experiencing homelessness, for the annual point-in-time count in San Diego on Jan. 25, 2024. The voluntary survey is a federally mandated requirement to gather data on the region's homeless population. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters

Housing

Amid deficit, Newsom proposes California spend less to solve homelessness and create affordable housing

Faced with a multibillion dollar budget deficit, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May budget proposal includes hundreds of millions of dollars in additional cuts to housing and homelessness programs.

By Marisa Kendall and Ben Christopher • May 10, 2024

Power lines in Sacramento on Sept. 20, 2022. Photo by Rahul Lal, CalMatters

Housing

Californians will see lower electricity rates and a new fee that won’t vary with power use

California utilities will shift billing to a fixed fee starting in 2025. Most Californians won’t see much change, or will have a lower bill.

By Ben Christopher • May 9, 2024

Terry Harper (left) and Frank Scott deliver meals to the unhoused occupants at the Radisson Hotel on Edes Ave. in Oakland, which is currently occupied by unhoused individuals as part of Project Roomkey on Feb. 9, 2022. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

Homelessness

Did California’s massive COVID homeless shelter program work? A new evaluation probes the results

A new independent report says Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hallmark Project Roomkey was a success. But data is lacking. And after the program ended, many participants remained homeless.

By Marisa Kendall • May 7, 2024

The Secretary of State building in Sacramento on Nov. 7, 2022. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Housing

Who owns the apartment next door? California agency says it will take millions to find out

A legislative effort to force LLCs and corporations to publicly disclose their owners is facing a surprising obstacle: A massive cost estimate from the Secretary of State.

By Ben Christopher • May 6, 2024

Homelessness

Supreme Court weighs upending homeless protections

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard oral arguments in a case that could give cities in California and beyond greater authority to crack down on homeless encampments.

By Marisa Kendall • April 22, 2024