Standing on an Oakland street flanked by legislative allies, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a sweeping promise in 2021: California would eliminate family homelessness within five years. Backed by an unprecedented $75 billion budget surplus and $27 billion in federal stimulus, his administration committed $12 billion to the crisis, including $3.5 billion for housing units and rental subsidies.
His strategy? Double down on Housing First—a one-size-fits-all policy California adopted in 2016 after the federal government’s 2013 embrace of it.
Housing First promises permanent, taxpayer-funded housing with no expectations—no sobriety, no treatment, no work, ever.
Somehow, the governor missed the glaring reality that under Housing First, homelessness in California exploded by 34%, and unsheltered homelessness by 47% between 2017-2021.
Fast forward to 2025, and the devastation is even clearer. Family homelessness has surged 22%, and the number of homeless students has jumped 9% in just the last year.
Far from improving, the crisis facing California’s homeless families is spiraling further out of control.
In 2021, I warned the Newsom Administration that its plan to end family homelessness was deeply flawed. Having spent 13 years leading Saint John’s Program for Real Change—Northern California’s largest residential program for homeless women and children—I knew firsthand that housing alone does not heal trauma, break addiction, or rebuild lives.
Housing First’s failure as a one-size-fits-all approach to homelessness is undeniable. Yet Newsom continues to ignore the overwhelming evidence of failure, dismisses calls for reform, and deflects blame onto local governments while the crisis that has metastasized at his helm threatens an entire generation.
Meanwhile, the bleak numbers behind Housing First tell only part of the story. The real devastation is written in broken lives and stolen futures.
At Saint John’s, 78% of the women we served battled addiction, 70% endured domestic violence or mental illness, and half never completed high school. Nearly all carried deep, unhealed childhood trauma, reflected in staggering Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) scores. Many also struggled with anosognosia—a profound lack of self-awareness—leaving them unable to recognize the depth of their own struggles.
Yet, under Governor Newsom’s Housing First mandate, these moms are handed nothing but a set of keys. Services to treat their addiction, trauma, and mental illness are optional, if available at all.
It’s the policy equivalent of tossing a drowning person a life preserver riddled with holes, then walking away as they slip beneath the surface.
The result is a heartbreaking surge in homeless families and children whose safety, education, and futures are sacrificed to protect a failed political ideology instead of advancing real solutions.
Newsom’s homelessness legacy has long roots and wide consequences. As San Francisco mayor, his “Care Not Cash” program spent $1.5 billion with no lasting reduction in homelessness. A 2021 state audit slammed California’s homelessness response as “uncoordinated,” and a 2024 report revealed the state spent $24 billion over five years with no consistent tracking of outcomes.
This is not leadership. It is negligence.
Homeless families deserve a real chance at stability. Taxpayers deserve accountability.
California must stop clinging to a failed Housing First ideology and embrace a Human First approach that addresses the three core deficits driving and entrenching homelessness: lack of a support network, lack of income, and unaddressed trauma and addiction.
For the vast majority struggling with homelessness, lasting change requires more than a roof. It demands active engagement—job training, mental health care, addiction recovery, financial literacy, and the rebuilding of positive community connections.
True stability comes from participation, not passivity; from helping people heal and grow, not simply handing them keys and hoping for the best.
Because in the end, the goal must be to help people thrive, not just survive.
The soaring 22% increase in family homelessness is more than a policy failure. It is a moral failure.
Every child left unsheltered, every student forced to do homework from the back seat of a car, represents not only a personal tragedy, but a deepening wound in California’s future.
Protecting and prioritizing these children—ensuring they have safety, stability, and the tools to succeed—is not just a political choice. It is a moral imperative. If California fails to act, today’s crisis will grow into tomorrow’s catastrophe, one that will cost the state far more than any investment in prevention ever would.
With its vast wealth and culture of innovation, California should be leading this charge. But under Gov. Newsom’s leadership, it is falling further behind— sacrificing families on the altar of failed ideology and political expediency.
Michele Steeb is the founder of Free Up Foundation and author of “Answers Behind the RED DOOR: Battling the Homeless Epidemic,” based on her 13 years as CEO of Northern California’s largest program for homeless women and children. She is a Visiting Fellow with the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative. Follow them on Twitter: @DiscoveryCWP and @SteebMichele.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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