Throughout Gavin Newsom’s governorship, he and local government officials have been squabbling over financial support and accountability for programs to reduce California’s largest-in-the-nation homelessness crisis.
Simply put, Newsom has blamed local officials for not clearing their streets of squalid encampments, while they have complained that piecemeal state appropriations make it impossible to create effective ongoing programs.
With Newsom and state legislators in the final throes of fashioning a new state budget, and facing chronic gaps between income and outgo, the verbal exchanges between the governor and local officialdom have become sharper and the differences between county and city officials have become more obvious…