Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that he is seeking $750,000 in a fund that includes taxpayer money to pay rent for the homeless.
The Associated Press reported that Newsom planned to create the fund via executive order on Wednesday, two days before he introduces his second annual budget proposal to the California state legislature.
The fund would be comprised of state taxpayer money, along with philanthropic donations and money brought in from the private sector.
The money collected in the fund would pay for rent, affordable housing units, or for care homes.
Newsom said the state would measure local governments’ success in getting the homeless off the streets as a barometer for doling out state assistance.
“Californians are demanding that all levels of government— federal, state and local— do more to get people off the streets and into services— whether that’s emergency housing, mental health services, substance abuse treatment or all of the above,” Newsom said in a statement.
California has gone through an affordable housing crisis and has had problems with skyrocketing homelessness rates. A 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found that 68.9 percent of people in the state were homeless, making it the highest in the nation.
The worsening crisis has prompted criticism from President Donald Trump. Trump said in a Christmas tweet that Newsom was doing a “really bad job of taking care of the homeless population in California.”