Voters across California will decide March 5 if they want to approve a roughly $6.4 billion bond – and redirect mental health money – that Gov. Gavin Newsom and proponents tout will create more homes and treatment centers for people with mental health illnesses and addiction.
But critics worry it will leave Californians in billions of debt, slash funding to mental health programs and potentially cut those programs for not much housing in return.
The bond is part of the only statewide measure for Californians on the March ballot – dubbed State Proposition 1 – and comes as Orange County and local officials throughout the state grapple with two growing major issues: homelessness and the housing unaffordability crisis.
Proponents, including veteran groups and several law enforcement associations, argue the proposition will expand mental health services, help homeless vets and create more permanent supportive housing.
Nick Berardino, president of the Veterans Alliance of Orange County, spoke in favor of the proposition at last week’s OC Board of Supervisors meeting and said the money is necessary to support veterans – many who struggle with homelessness and are at risk of suicide.
“We cannot send people to war and think they’re going to come home and be okay,” he told Supervisors on Tuesday.
“I would hope that as you are briefed on this issue, that you pay particular attention to what’s happening to the veteran community, in terms of homelessness, and we’re in a struggle and it’s a struggle that we need to have that help.”
Critics say the bond will allow state officials in Sacramento to take more mental health tax dollars split by California and county governments and force local leaders to spend more of those dollars on housing as opposed to mental health programs.
“Prop. 1 builds very little housing, despite being offered as a solution to homelessness. There are better solutions that do not require excessive borrowing or cutting local programs that work,” reads the website for Californians Against Prop. 1, a committee against the measure.
A majority of the bond – about $4.4 billion – would go towards mental health and addiction treatment centers.
The bond would cost the state $310 million a year to pay back over a 30 year period. It comes as California grapples with an estimated $68 billion deficit, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Addressing Homelessness
The proposition is headed toward voters as state officials roll out CARE Court – a new, controversial court program aimed at getting people off the streets and into mental health or drug treatment facilities.
Orange County leaders have questioned just how effective CARE court will be in actually addressing homelessness.
[Read: Orange County Leaders Question CARE Court Promises]
Disability Rights California, a nonprofit advocacy group for homeless people and mental health issues, opposes the proposition arguing that – like CARE court – Newsom failed to engage with people struggling with mental health issues.
“What we see with Proposition 1 is an alarming expenditure of taxpayer dollars combined with an overhaul of a successful community treatment program, leading to reductions in services,’’ reads the group’s website.
California’s Legislative Analyst Office says counties would see a reduction from 95% of the Mental Health Services Act funding to 90%, while the state would get 10%. It would also force counties to redirect a third of the mental health money into housing.
Homeless advocates like David Duran, a founding member of the People’s Homeless Task Force Orange County, have mixed feelings about the proposition.
Duran said he is concerned about the proposition cutting mental health funding for counties, which could mean incarcerating more people struggling with mental health issues.
He also said it’s good that money will help create housing, but it’s not enough.
“Nothing’s perfect. I think it has some flaws. I think ultimately, it may do more good than harm but at what cost?” he said.
According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the bond would fund 6,800 mental illness and addiction beds as well as 4,350 homes – more than half for veterans.
Over 180,000 in California were homeless last year – more than any other state in the country – and close to 10,600 are veterans , according to a 2023 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report.
The state’s homeless population makes up 28% of the homeless population in the U.S.
Project Homekey: Turning Rundown Motels Into Homes
Part of the bond, if approved, would allocate $2 billion dollars to Project Homekey — a state-funded program for cities and counties to buy motels and turn them into homes for homeless people with onsite support like mental health and medical services.
Earlier this month, Newsom came to Orange County to highlight the progress of Homekey at a Motel 6 in Costa Mesa that’s being converted into housing where he was joined by local officials and nonprofit representatives for a news conference.
He called for voters to approve the housing bond this March to help make a dent on addressing homelessness as over $3 billion in current Homekey funding reaches its end.
“You have a chance to replicate success to allow us to continue to scale this success and to move with the urgency that’s needed at the moment,” he said at a Jan. 19 news conference. “This is the kind of momentum and scale that is required to address this crisis.”
Half the homes built with that money from the bond if approved would be allocated to veterans.
Officials across the county have utilized Homekey funding to convert rundown, seedy motels into homes for homeless people and veterans with mental health services on site.
These conversions are taking place in Stanton, Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.
View Project Homekey sites in OC here.
At the news conference, Newsom said the state has funded over 15,000 homes through Homekey over the past three and half years, with over 9,000 hotel rooms already converted into homes.
“On the streets, it’s visible and real,” he said. “163,000 people – that’s the number of people on the basis of what we’ve already experienced that will benefit from the Homekey program.”
Mental Health Funding
Beyond the $6.4 billion bond, the proposition would also force counties to spend more of their current mental health funding from the state on housing and supportive services.
In 2004, Californians passed the Mental Health Services Act that taxes people with incomes over $1 million a year and the money is used for mental health programs.
The tax covers about a third of the over $10-$13 billion in funding counties receive a year to address mental health and addiction – with the rest coming from other state taxes and federal taxes.
If approved, $140 million a year would be shifted from the counties to the state, according to the Legislative Analyst’s office.
The Orange County Register’s Editorial Board has lambasted the proposition, calling it a “costly bureaucratic power grab” that will deprive counties of their mental health funding.
“Not only would counties lose a significant portion of the funding for mental health services they are currently providing, they would incur new costs to operate the ‘places’ for treatment that the state chooses to build,” reads a Jan. 19 editorial.
Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.
