California is swimming in tax revenue. Sacramento mayor wants to use more for homelessness.

Two years ago, Owen Newman Jr. was sleeping outdoors and bouncing around North Highlands, Del Paso Heights, and south Sacramento.

Today he attends American River College, is receiving mental health services, and lives in a new studio apartment in south Sacramento. The apartment is located in a converted motel where formerly unhoused individuals are living under the state’s Project Homekey program.

“I’m very grateful to be in this program,” said Newman Jr., 39, who grew up in Rancho Cordova. “I got blessed.”

[OCS: Lead the story with the exception -- an individual that appears to be profiting from the “system” rather than the depressing truth that most homeless individuals suffer from addiction or severe mental health issues. These are the people who would prefer to live on the streets where they can fund their habits and have easy access to drugs rather than live in controlled substance-free environments. As for the mentally ill, few laws can force these poor souls into custody and mandatory treatment with mind-altering drugs with unpleasant side effects.

And, heaven forbid, you point out the poverty-pimps, drug-promoters who push drug decriminalization and free drug paraphernalia, and, of course, the special interest real estate crowd, developers and landlords, who profit greatly from excessive rents, fees, and support services.  And, let us not forget the unionized government bureaucracy needed to research, fund, manage, and document the homeless “problem.”]

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg wants to open more Homekey motels and other shelters to address the city’s growing homeless crisis, but he said the city needs state funding to do so. He is joining with other mayors across the state in urging Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators to approve additional funding to help cities address homelessness.

“Our message is this: Please extend homeless assistance programs and direct allocations to cities,” Steinberg said Thursday during a press conference at the converted motel on La Mancha Way in the Parkway neighborhood. “Not just for another year but as many years as possible.”

Steinberg made his appeal a few weeks before Newsom is expected to release his May budget revisions. The state Finance Department on Thursday reported tax revenue is coming $17.4 billion above the projections the Newsom administration released in January, when the governor announced that he anticipated a $45.7 billion surplus.

[OCS: I call bullshit! Considering California’s budget is a political fiction made possible by creative accounting, outlandish assumptions, and defective-by-design accounting systems, we cannot possibly have a surplus when spending exceeds revenue. And, if such a surplus exists, why it would not be used to reduce California’s massive current debt and unfunded liabilities rather than increasing spending? What we need is to reduce spending, starting with profligate union contracts, the misplaced priority of funding a failing educational system, and prioritizing funding by public safety and infrastructure needs.]

Newsom has prioritized homelessness throughout his administration, including allocating some $12 billion toward homelessness and affordable housing. The mayors are looking for an ongoing commitment extending past a single budget year.

[OCS: $12 BILLION! Because our accounting and audit systems are defective by design, it is nearly impossible to pinpoint systemic waste, fraud, and abuse and name the profiteers – most of whom are politically connected and engaged in producing votes during elections.]

Sacramento has roughly 1,100 existing homeless shelter beds and spaces, which cost roughly $33 million a year.

[OCS: Do the math: 33 million divided by 1,100 and explain how one space costs $30,000 annually, even with allocated overhead.]

According to a report by the city administrative officer, the new East Hollywood campground costs approximately $2,663 per participant per month. That’s higher than what a typical one-bedroom apartment rents for in the city, according to the website RentCafe. While the per-tent cost covers services, meals, sanitation, and staffing, some are concerned that the city is investing too much in short-term Band-Aids over long-term solutions. <Source>

A homeless encampment run by San Francisco costs the city $60,000 per year, per tent, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The city’s six “safe sleeping villages,” provide homeless people tents, three meals per day, security, and washrooms. The program currently costs $18.2 million for about 260 tents. Unlike the city’s homeless hotel program, the tent villages are not eligible for federal reimbursement. Some of the sites have been run by nonprofits Urban Alchemy, Dolores Street Community Services, and Larkin Street Youth Services. <Source>

One might ask, who is auditing these so-called non-profit service providers?]

The city has identified enough state funding to keep its existing shelters running at least through fall 2024, said Mary Lynne Vellinga, Steinberg’s spokeswoman.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimburses Sacramento for its expenses in leasing motels for homeless families. If FEMA does not extend that program, the city will need to find another funding source to keep the motels running beyond June 2023. <Source>