California Governor Calls For 2024 Ballot Initiative To Fund Housing & Treatment To Address Homelessness Crisis

On March 19, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a 2024 ballot initiative to improve how the state responds to homelessness and to update the 2004 Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). The proposed ballot initiative that would allow the state to issue a bond that could reach a value of $5 billion to build state-of-the-art residential mental health treatment facilities in the community to house Californians with mental illness and addiction disorders, as well as homeless veterans. The MHSA would be amended to require that at least $1 billion of the funds collected be used for behavioral . . .