What Mayors in California Say About Trump’s Effort to Fix Homelessness
California Today
Wednesday: Where there is, and isn’t, common ground on homelessness between California officials and the Trump administration. Also: A landmark bill to remake the gig economy passes.
Thomas Fuller
The news that Trump administration officials are on a fact-finding mission in California to explore solutions to homelessness was greeted with skepticism, to put it mildly, by mayors of several of the state’s biggest cities.
A spokesman for the president, Judd Deere, said Tuesday that President Trump had “taken notice of the homelessness crisis, particularly in cities and states where the liberal policies of overregulation, excessive taxation and poor public service delivery are combining to dramatically increase poverty and public health risks.”
Three mayors — Libby Schaaf of Oakland, Sam Liccardo of San Jose and Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento — said they saw the administration’s foray into the state’s homelessness crisis as 2020 presidential politics.
“Homelessness is not a partisan issue and we shouldn’t make it one,” Mr. Liccardo said. “Both Democrats and Republicans are dying on our streets.”
But the ballooning crisis in the state — the number of homeless people in San Jose, for example, is up by 42 percent from two years ago — has happened on the Democrats’ watch and Mr. Trump appears to see political vulnerability for them in the issue.
Ms. Schaaf, who clashed with the administration last year over raids by immigration enforcement officials, said the president’s interest in homelessness was “infuriating” given his proposal last year to cut $8.8 billion from the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
“From my vantage point, the federal government has been causing homelessness, not helping it,” Ms. Schaaf said. “Year after year, we’ve seen tremendous reductions in housing programs.”
Mr. Steinberg, who is the head of a homelessness task force recently established by Gov. Gavin Newsom, said he wasn’t sure what to make of the president’s initiative. But he offered an idea: The federal government could help by offering facilities such as military bases or National Guard armories to house people.
“We could use the constructive help of the federal government,” Mr. Steinberg said.
At an event hosted by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening, Mayor Eric Garcetti echoed that.
He emphasized the idea of “sweeping people up” was not only bad, but most likely illegal. Still, he said he welcomed federal investment to address a difficult issue.
“Any day the commander in chief is talking about homelessness — that’s a good thing,” he said.
Here’s what else we’re following
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Assembly Bill 5, which aims to give more rights to gig economy workers, . It could change the future of work not just in California but across the country. [The New York Times]
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A landmark rent cap and eviction protection measure, . The bill has been negotiated at length and landlords have opposed it fiercely. [The New York Times]
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— which is already underway — of a homeless center in San Francisco’s Embarcadero. Neighbors had sued, hoping to stop the project. [Curbed San Francisco]
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California’s top insurance regulator has apologized for taking campaign donations from the industry after he said he wouldn’t. He said his campaign had set up meetings. But newly released records show [The Sacramento Bee]
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Here are more highlights of Tuesday’s Apple event. [The New York Times]
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in product and engineering this week as the company continues to struggle to make money. [The New York Times]
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— that are not being watched closely enough to predict eruptions. And while some say putting in monitoring equipment is an unnecessary intrusion on wild lands, scientists believe the consequences could be dire. [The New York Times]
For your consideration
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It’s Sept. 11. And for almost two decades there have been discussions about whether [The New York Times]
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as a morning show co-anchor navigating a #MeToo story. She said she wouldn’t have been ready to take on the role earlier in her career, but the now-longtime Southern Californian is digging into new things. [The New York Times]
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that California isn’t the only state where you can get great tacos. to keep tabs on the scene in the Lone Star State. “Context makes things tastier,” he said. [The New York Times]
And Finally …
This week, we’re adding one more song to our California Soundtrack that came up during my conversations with readers and my colleague Jon Pareles, our chief popular music critic.
It’s a song that was everywhere in the Bay Area when I first moved to Berkeley for college. And, frankly, I can no longer abide its absence from the playlist.
The song is “Tell Me When to Go,” a hyphy classic by E-40, featuring Keak Da Sneak.
Even today, it’s physically impossible for me to hear that beat without closing my eyes and nodding my head.
But I’m no hyphy expert, and I’m certainly no authority on Bay Area hip-hop. If you are either of those things, send us your song recommendations at CAtoday@nytimes.com.
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