Gavin Newsom hires adviser forced out by Donald Trump in latest dustup over homelessness
Amid an escalating fight between California and the federal government over homelessness, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday announced he’s hiring a former Trump administration official as a homelessness adviser and expediting funding to build shelters.
The announcement comes as Newsom’s office accuses the federal government of withholding data on homelessness populations that the state uses to allocate aid money.
Local governments survey their own homeless populations once every two years to determine how many homeless people live in their area. Sacramento County announced the results of its survey in June, which found a significant increase from 2017.
Sacramento County and other local governments submitted their data to the Trump administration earlier this year, but federal regulators have not yet released the official point in time numbers for 2019. That’s a problem for California officials, who allocated $650 million for homeless aid though the state budget, but tied that funding to 2019 federal homeless data.
Newsom announced Wednesday that local governments could use their preliminary data to apply for the funding as a workaround while waiting for the official federal numbers.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said Newsom’s announcement today will expedite funds for some of the 500 shelter beds the City Council plans to open next year.
Steinberg also praised Newsom for hiring Matthew Doherty, who served as the top federal homelessness official until he resigned at President Donald Trump’s request last month. The Washington Post reported Doherty was forced out as the Trump administration prepares to launch a new homelessness policy targeting California cities.
“The governor did a good thing by engaging Matt Doherty, who appears as the victim of the president’s desire to politicize this issue,” Steinberg said Wednesday. “Matt’s got a great reputation as a down the middle guy who really knows what he’s doing.”
Newsom spokesman Nathan Click said the governor hired Doherty to fight back against the Trump administration’s targeting of California over its homeless population. Trump has repeatedly criticized California for failing to address its homelessness crisis and threatened federal action against the state over the problem.
After a September visit to California, Trump blasted California officials for high rates of homelessness in major cities, the Associated Press reported.
“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” Trump told reporters in September. “The people of San Francisco are fed up and the people of Los Angeles are fed up, and we’re looking at it and we will be doing something about it at the appropriate time.”
The Washington Post reported that Doherty was forced out because White House officials believed he would not cooperate with the Trump administration’s homelessness strategy.
He’s the latest official Newsom has tapped to address the state’s homeless problems after promising during his campaign to appoint a cabinet-level homelessness adviser.
Since taking office, he’s tapped Steinberg and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas as homeless advisers. He characterized the two men as his “de facto” czars in August, but then in November said Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly was effectively his homelessness czar.
Doherty will advise Newsom and Ghaly part-time after Trump forced him out as the federal government’s top homeless adviser last month. Doherty previously also served as the top homeless official under the Obama administration.
In a written statement Wednesday, he called for more federal homeless assistance.
“Cities and states acting alone are not going to be able to fund the solutions that are required to meet this challenge,” Doherty said. “Much more federal investment is needed to make meaningful progress and solve this crisis.”
Newsom also called once again called for more federal homeless funding.
“California is doing more than ever before to tackle the homelessness crisis,” Newsom said in a written statement. “But every level of government, including the federal government, must step up and put real skin in the game.”
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Gavin Newsom hires adviser forced out by Donald Trump in latest dustup over homelessness."