#Homeless encampments are sprawling across sidewalks and neighborhoods, causing tension with residents in cities like LA and San Francisco.

In 2019, former Democrat California Assemblyman Mike Gatto made a proposal to push more homeless people with mental illness and addiction into treatment, but it didn't qualify as Gatto received pushback from the liberal wing of his own party. Governor Newsom's proposed plan in 2022 uses this same approach, and he is pushing it. Newsom wants to create a new constellation of civil mental health courts that still carry the clout of obligation. Counties would be required to provide services via this new court arm. Judges could order people brought before a “Care Court” to either a) participate in treatment programs or b) go through the criminal process (if they’ve been charged with a crime) or face involuntary hospitalization or conservatorship. Newsom and allies said this is about avoiding the criminal justice system by giving people a route to treatment — with some consequences behind that choice. 

Many mental health practitioners who have studied these issues say that forced treatments, whether for mental illness or for substance abuse, don’t typically result in people stabilizing in the long term. It’s also interesting to note that there are not enough treatment facilities that, even those who are desperate to submit themselves to treatment, can’t get one. If they are able to successfully submit these offenders to treatment, there remains a question of where they will be brought after completing the treatment.  

The need for more housing is evident in the current homeless population in the State of California. There is even a strong debate among Republican and Democratic Assembly men on Governor Newsom’s law on exempting LA’s shelters and supportive housing from strict environmental review rules. He says “We need more housing, not more delays.” Many people curse Los Angeles leaders for failing to stem the city’s homeless epidemic. Federal government will have to intervene if Los Angeles does not clean it up fast.

The lack of sufficient housing, treatment programs and facilities, and the ineffective approach in improving the mental health of the homeless population, all paint a great fiasco. What is clear, they are doing more good than harm in the way they are handling this crisis.