Tipsheet

Gavin Newsom Is Lying About His Record on Homelessness Again

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 09, 2026 10:00 AM

Gavin Newsom has been fighting homelessness in California for two decades, and homelessness is winning. Despite wasting tens of billions of dollars, vowing to solve the problem, homelessness is still on the rise. But that doesn't deter Newsom from lying through his teeth about the issue.

This is simply not true, for a variety of reasons. For starters, it only looks at a handful of communities; it is not a statewide tally of homelessness. 

The Center Square, on the other hand, reported real numbers back on March 9. Looking at all the data, Center Square says homelessness was up to 187,000, a 60 percent increase from 2015 and a 24 percent increase from 2019.

Here's more:

Data published by the Hoover Institution last March puts California’s homeless population as 187,000, up 60% from the state’s 2015 numbers and a 24% increase in 2019, when the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program was launched. The program makes state-funded grants available to cities and counties throughout the state to help reduce homelessness in their communities, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

In an emailed response to The Center Square, officials with the California Department of Housing & Community Development said a Homekey program resulted in the construction of 16,000 new homes, all part of 250 different housing projects in the state. The creation of new homes is expected to help more than 172,000 people, the department said.

“Our commitment to overcoming bureaucratic hurdles has led to an astonishing 59% increase in residential construction, slashing approval timelines by up to 62%,” Alicia Murillo, a communications specialist with the department, wrote in an email to The Center Square. “California is not just tackling homelessness; we are redefining what success looks like.”

And what does "unsheltered homeless" mean? Isn't that redundant? Or is Newsom playing some semantic game where these people are still homeless but a different kind of homeless so he can fudge the numbers?

He absolutely has. That's easier than actually solving homelessness.

What an image.

For the sake of argument, let's just pretend that Newsom is correct about the nine percent drop. It took $24 billion for such a terrible result? That's nothing to brag about.

They're the smart ones.

And here's a stark reminder of where California was before Newsom took office, and how he's driven the state into the ground.

"101 months of consecutive job growth," Newsom said in 2018. By 2025, the state was leading the nation in unemployment.

"We're not debating deficits anymore, we now are debating the sizes of surpluses," said 2018 Newsom. Now? California has a projected $12 billion deficit.

"There's 134,000 human beings out on the streets and sidewalks," Newsom noted eight years ago. Today, that number has grown to 187,000.

Bang up job, there Gavin. We see why he wasted $19 million of taxpayer dollars to hire a consulting firm to "polish" California's image. It needs all the help it can get.