OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

December 5, 20l 9

The Honorable Donald J. Trump
PresidenT of The UniTed STaTes
The WhiTe House

T600 Avenue, NW
WashingTon, DC. 20500

Dear PresidenT Trump,

More Than Two monThs ago, lwroTe you To offer The sTaTe?s parTnership and
requesT your immediaTe assisTance in addressing California?s homelessness
emergency. Since Then, your AdminisTraTion has only rebuffed our efforTs To
parTner and has shown no willingness To provide more resources for homeless
houdng.

The of California is doing more Than ever To confronT homelessness and HS
causes. I dedicaTed $l billion in emergency did for homelessness in This year?s
budgeT. And I recenle signed a package of bills To assisT ciTy and counTy
governmenTs by removing regulaTory barriers To building homeless housing and
shelTer, as well as To expand our conservaTorship programs To assisT Those wiTh
The mosT inTensive menTal healTh issues.

California cannoT solve This naTional emergency alone. All levels of
governmenT local, sTaTe, and federal need To puT skin in The game. IT is
criTical ThaT you provide The emergency housing did necessary To confronT This
crisis.

As you conTemplaTe Taking execuTive acTion on homelessness as has been
reporTed urge you To consider one key, inescapable facT: we cannoT solve
homelessness wiThouT addressing housing.

GOVERNOR GAVIN NEWSOM - SACRAMENTO, CA 95814 . (916) 445?2841

Any credible solution to this issue must include long-term mental health and
housing supports for individuols. What we redlly need is 0 deep, sustoined
federol commitment to Housing First and providing sofe pldces for people to
live. Any other opprooch is holf?medsure.

With or single stroke of your pen, you con moke mojor, positive impoct on
homelessness right away.

You con immediotely order your Department of Housing and Urban
Development to house 50,000 homeless Colifornions with federal housing
vouchers this, combined with critically important increoses in fair mdrket rents,
con stobly house 0 significont portion of our street homeless populotion foster
olmost any other action you could possibly toke.

Mony of these homeless Colitornidns ore veterans of the United States Military. I
pledge to work with you to prioritize homeless veterans with these new vouchers
that you could provide.

Second, you could holt cuts to public housing and critical programs like the
Community Development Block Gront and mental health services. Your recent
proposol to slash food stomps could harm the health and well-being of
hundreds of thousands of Colifornidns, mony of whom may be put at risk for
homelessness. When the Federol government reduces economic ossistonce to
the most vulnerable, it exocerbotes homelessness and the deep poverty that
drives it. You hove the power to stop these reductions.

These dctions ore exomples of California?s constructive proposals for portnership.
As on example of how we con work together, we hove been grateful for the
partnership and reol Federol investments your Administrotion hos provided to
address the opioid crisis that is pldguing Colifornid ond our notion. Moving
forword, we can build on these portnerships to reform the behoviordl hedlth
system break the cycle of incorcerdtion, instedd focusing on healing the
most vulnerable omong us. And we con provide housing beyond interim
shelter comps ond octuolly address the economic and health conditions that
trop people in omelessness. But this tokes cooperotion.

Colifornid es to do its port. hope and expect you to do yours.

.3

Sinc rely,

 

ovin News. 
overnor of 0 fornid

I