On September 25, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill seeking to improve accountability for homeless spending in California.
SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Josh Hoover (R-Folsom) expressed deep disappointment following Governor Gavin Newsom’s veto of Assembly Bill 2903.
The bill, which had garnered unanimous bipartisan support in the Legislature, would have required state-run homelessness programs to annually report cost and outcome data to the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH). It would have also required ICH to develop procedures for collecting the data and reporting it to the public.
“Governor Newsom had an opportunity to do what is right and hold his own agencies accountable for our state’s failed response to homelessness,” Assemblyman Hoover said. “Instead, he rejected the recommendations of the State Auditor and vetoed legislation that received unanimous support in the Legislature. Our state has spent billions of taxpayer dollars in recent years only to see homelessness get worse. We will not solve this crisis and get people the help they need until we get serious about accountability.”
AB 2903 sought to implement the recommendation of the California State Auditor following the results of a recent audit requested by Assemblyman Hoover. The audit revealed that the state has failed to systematically track homelessness spending and is not adequately positioned to collect data and assess outcomes.
According to the Auditor’s report, California has spent nearly $24 billion taxpayer dollars since 2018 to solve our homelessness crisis. During that same period the state’s overall homeless population increased by 32 percent and half of the nation’s unsheltered homeless now live in California.
“Californians deserve better,” Assemblyman Hoover added. “They deserve transparency and accountability in how their tax dollars are spent, especially on such a critical issue. I will continue to fight for meaningful reforms to address our state’s homelessness crisis.”
Josh Hoover represents Assembly District 7, which includes the cities of Citrus Heights, Folsom, and Rancho Cordova and the unincorporated communities of Carmichael, Fair Oaks, Foothill Farms, Gold River, Mather, McClellan Park, North Highlands, Orangevale, and Rosemont.
Veto Message (Click here)
SEP 2 5 2024
To the Members of the California State Assembly:
I am returning Assembly Bill 2903 without my signature.
This bill would require state agencies and departments administering homelessness programs to report cost and outcome data annually to the California lnteragency Council on Homelessness (Cal \CH) using standardized procedures, beginning September 1, 2025. It would also require Cal \CH to compile and publicly release this data each year starting April 1, 2026.
While I fully support efforts to increase accountability and the effectiveness of our state homelessness programs, similar measures are already in place. Legislation enacted as part of the 2024 Budget Act (Assembly Bill 166, Chapter 48) includes enhanced reporting requirements for two of the state’s largest homelessness programs. Specifically, Assembly Bill 166 mandates monthly reporting of outcomes for all rounds of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, and annual outcome reporting for the Encampment
Resolution Grants Program. These reports will be made publicly available by Cal ICH. Additionally, I recently signed Assembly Bill 799, which addresses the same objectives as this bill in a more targeted and cost-effective manner. For these reasons , I cannot sign this bill.
Sincerely,
Gavin Newsom
Previous Stories on Homelessness spending
- May 10 – Gust Editorial: Without More Transparency, We Won’t See Real Accountability on Homelessness
- April 18 – Legislation Seeks to Increase Transparency Over Homelessness Spending
1 comment
AB 2903 must have sealed up the leaky buckets of money being handed out to the “Homeless Industrial Complex “ too well. Newsom says he “supports efforts to increase accountability and effectiveness”, which going from zero where it’s been up a little bit is technically an increase, he chooses his wording very well in his statement. Why would he not stand by a demand of complete accountability and effectiveness? Tax payer’s are throwing a big party for some of these groups and he doesn’t want to let it get shut down. The real tragedy of this is a large portion of people that this is supposed to help get darn near nothing out of all the tax payers money. We should all get to know where $24,000,000,000.00 went, but I’m afraid that will never happen. AB 2903 had “unanimous bipartisan support “ and he still would not let it pass. We’ve got to think about that.
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