California’s homeless crisis is getting worse as the state has spent $17.5 billion in an attempt to decrease the state’s homeless population over the past four years, as the state’s homeless population has grown.
Federal data from 2018 to 2022 shows the increase of Americans living outside on the streets in California, which has one of the highest rates of homelessness, more than any other state, with about 170,000 unhoused people living there.
“The problem would be so much worse, absent these interventions,” Jason Elliott, senior adviser on homelessness to Gov. Gavin Newsom, told CNN. “And that’s not what people want to hear. I get it; we get it.”
