Boiling Point: Politico Reports California Voters Are FED UP With State's Homeless Problem

Amy Curtis | 9:00 PM on April 18, 2025

Back in December, California Governor Gavin Newsom tried to pull a fast one on voters by saying homelessness was down.

It wasn't -- his words were 'slowed and reduced the growth' of homelessness -- which means it's still going up, but just not as fast.

It's not a good thing. And voters are finally getting frustrated and fed up.

California’s frustration with homelessness is boiling over, poll finds https://t.co/bDOQb1RFuv
— POLITICO (@politico) April 18, 2025

Here's more from Politico:

California voters have grown so frustrated with the blue state’s failure to reduce homelessness that well over a third of the electorate now supports local laws that allow police to arrest people camping outside if they refuse shelter.
About 37 percent of voters support arresting homeless people if they refuse to accept shelter, according to a poll from POLITICO and UC Berkeley’s Citrin Center that surveyed registered voters as well as political and policy professionals for the first time about the contentious approach to the homelessness crisis. Another 24 percent of voters surveyed “somewhat” agree with that approach, and 38 percent oppose the idea.
'If I were a policymaker, I would read this as people expressing frustration that homelessness hasn’t decreased in absolute terms,' said Jason Elliott, a veteran Democratic consultant and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s former deputy chief of staff. 'Californians are right to be frustrated.'
The poll also found that addressing housing and homelessness was far and away the biggest shortcoming of state government — and the most pressing issue facing California, which has the nation’s largest homeless population and notoriously high housing costs. The finding on encampments comes as a handful of cities pursue more aggressive policies, including a proposal by San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, a moderate Democrat, that would allow the Bay Area city to arrest people who repeatedly decline shelter.