S1: Welcome in San Diego. I'm Andrew Bowen in for Jade Hindman. On today's show , California voters approved funding for mental health treatment in 2024. But spending that money is taking longer than expected. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Governor Gavin Newsom last week announced the allocation of more than $1 billion for mental health treatment projects and shelter beds. It's the latest distribution of funds from proposition one. That measure was approved by voters in 2024. It sought to increase mental health care and substance abuse treatment across the state through a $6.4 billion bond. Newsom has touted the measure's success in transforming behavioral health treatment in the state , saying it's , quote , exceeding the goal in record time. But new reporting from Cal Matters found delays in many of prop ones initial projects. In fact , none of the ten projects that were slated to open in 2025 were able to do so. One project was canceled altogether. We'll hear with more is Marissa Kendall. She covers homelessness for Cal Matters and Marissa. Welcome back to Midday Edition.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: So proposition one was on the ballot in March 2024. Remind us what this measure was intended to do.
S2: Yeah , this was basically a $6.4 billion bond that was supposed to provide money to fund mental health treatment facilities throughout California , and it passed , you know , with a really narrow margin , like you said , in 2024.
S1: So altogether , 177 projects or receiving prop one funding. Can you give us some examples of these projects and what kinds of care or services they'll provide ? Yeah.
S2: So in San Diego County , for example , there were , according to the state's online dashboard , six projects funded in the first round. That includes the San Diego Recovery Campus , set to open in winter 2027 , and also in National City , a substance use recovery and treatment services center set to open this coming summer. So these are programs. They provide residential beds where people can stay for a longer period of time. They also provide out treatment , uh , outpatient treatment so people can can come and go and receive treatment.
S1: So Governor Newsom touted how quickly these funded these funds were awarded to specific projects. But your reporting found the timeline to get the projects built has been pushed back in some cases. So why the delays ? Exactly.
S2: So we saw a range of reasons for the delays. You know , one project in LA County is delayed about two years because they really realized they had to do some seismic retrofitting on the building. There was a project in Hollister that right when they were getting ready to get the funds and buy the building , suddenly the building got sold unexpectedly to someone else , so they had to scramble to find a new location. Other reasons were more vague. In Orange County , the organization who got the funds just said there were some delays with the bond. But , you know , most of the projects are moving forward. For example , there's one in San Rafael that's supposed to open this year , and it's allowing this organization , the Ritter Center , to buy a new building and just completely renovate it to create this state of the art facility to replace their old sort of aging facility that they used to have.
S1: So some open questions. It sounds like others , you know , at least plausible reasons for delays that seem outside the state's control. What have the governor and other state officials had to say about the shifting timeline. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. The governor , you know , while he touted that this is the fastest deployment of a bond in California history , he did acknowledge that some some of the projects are running into delays. He pointed the finger back at the Trump administration , blaming the tariffs for a lot of these delays. And then also , you know , the state has said it is normal to have shifting timelines for these projects , but I think it also just highlights , you know , how hard it is to scale up the really needed mental health treatment facilities and how hard it is to build anything here. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And your reporting also referenced labor shortage in California. Can you tell me about that and how that would play into these delays ? Yeah.
S2: You know , in addition to , um , you know , not having those , uh , you know , resources and things to build these , uh , these facilities , you know , if you don't have the labor to actually do the work , um , you know , that's that's also going to create problems.
S1: Well , here in San Diego , signs are pointing to some progress toward getting people off the streets and into housing. Last year's point in time count found a 7% decrease in the number of unhoused people in the region. This year's count numbers will be out later this spring , so we don't know what's changed since then.
S2: Um , the , uh , the federal government is supposed to release these state by state totals. They're supposed to do so back in December , and we're still waiting for that. So we don't have the official , really detailed breakdown yet. But just based on what the governor said , based on what you saw locally and what I've also seen locally in some other counties , it does seem like things might be looking up a little bit.
S1:
S2: You know , there there's definitely differences county by county. Um , one trend I have seen across the board is more of a shift toward , um , you know , more more of a criminalization aspect we are seeing in different counties and different cities more ordinances banning camping in certain places or even banning it citywide. And we have seen arrests and citations for camping related offenses going up in multiple counties across the state.
S1: In addition to providing funding for these mental health care facilities , proposition one also shifted around funding for existing mental health services and homelessness. Can you explain exactly how it did that ? Yeah.
S2: So that was the other half of , uh , of this ballot initiative , um , effective July 2026. Counties that were getting money from the so-called millionaire's tax to fund mental health services. They're going to have to shift where they put that funds. So the state no longer wants them to prioritize on certain preventative measures , things like that. It wants counties to focus more on housing and more on treating the most the people with the most serious severe mental illnesses. Um , so the problem with that is that means counties are going to have to pull back funding from programs that already exist in San Diego County , for example , the county has already said it's going to cancel contracts for at least 29 programs , and that includes things like suicide prevention initiatives for middle and high school , middle and high school students , and some phone lines for veterans as well. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. So those sound like pretty important services. I mean , why would the state want local , you know , cities or counties to be scaling back the funding for those things.
S2: The state wants to really focus the priority for these funds on the people who are the sickest. So as part of , you know , Newsom's overall approach to really focusing on the mental health crisis on our streets , getting , you know , the most vulnerable , the sickest people off the streets , indoors into treatment , kind of prioritizing the people who , you know , they say need the help most. At the same time , the state says that it's going to take on , you know , on its own level , um , some of those , uh , you know , prevention initiatives at the counties maybe are no longer going to fund. The other problem is , um , you know , I did hear also that , uh , part of the goal here was to backfill some of these programs with Medi-Cal funding. Um , but now the problem with that is that the Trump administration is cutting , um , Medicaid funds across the board. So , you know , we might not see counties be able to use those Medi-Cal funds to keep these programs going.
S1: And so this sort of fund or this plan to backfill funding with Medi-Cal was all made before Trump was actually elected. Right. And then once he was elected , the funding for Medi-Cal has been drying up.
S2: Yeah , exactly. This was this was all planned before we saw a lot of these cuts. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And so Governor Newsom is widely expected to be running for president , or at least having his eye on a campaign. How do you see proposition one and its implementation playing out in his presidential ambitions ? Yeah.
S2: You know , I do think it's really important. Proposition one is is a key part of Newsom's broader overarching strategy to try to get people off the streets and into housing. So , you know , getting treatment for people with severe mental illness who are on the streets , that's a big piece of it. He has programs like Care Corps that are trying to get more people into treatment. But you can't succeed with that unless you open up more beds and have more resources for people. So things like prop one were supposed to be a big piece of that and providing providing these facilities. And I think , you know , the whole country is really looking at California and looking to see how Newsom handles , you know , probably the biggest crisis in California right now , which is the homelessness crisis. I think how Newsom handles that will really play a role in how people view his chances of being the next president.
S1: Well , I've been speaking with Marisa Kendall. She covers homelessness for Cal Matters. Marisa , thanks for joining us.
S2: You're welcome.
S3: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
