Governor Gavin Newsom is concluding a four-day tour of homelessness outreach operations across the state with a stop near the Oakland Coliseum. The governor is expected to showcase a new state-local partnership program to provide triage-type medical services and temporary shelter for the homeless, via travel trailers.
ABC 7 caught images of some "staged" RVs on a vacant lot near the Coliseum on Wednesday, and learned that these are part of the governor's planned event. As he explained in an interview last week, "We're going to bring out quite literally FEMA trailers, trailers for emergencies, to temporarily house people but triage them through medical tents and medical units." Newsom reportedly plans to deploy 100 of these trailers statewide.
8 days ago, @GavinNewsom signed an EO to address the homelessness crisis & rapidly increase housing & shelter options.
— Office of the Governor of California (@CAgovernor) January 16, 2020
Yesterday, @CaltransHQ transported trailers to a vacant city-owned lot in Oakland where they will provide services & shelter to those in need. #CaliforniaForAll pic.twitter.com/zNl6uEc8I7
Newsom kicked off the week in Grass Valley, discussing the homelessness issue there and talking up his 2020 plan to tackle the issue statewide. As we learned last week, Newsom has dedicated $1 billion of the state budget this year to homelessness, including a $750 million housing and services fund to encourage the construction of shelters on vacant public land and transitional and affordable housing projects. On Tuesday he was in Riverside, touring a homeless shelter there, followed by a board-and-care facility in downtown Los Angeles. On Wednesday he made it to Fresno, where he visited a recovery facility.
"Enough is enough," Newsom said at the Wednesday event. "This issue is a crisis. It's a state of emergency. People are dying on the streets and sidewalk. There's no compassion."
Thursday's event in Oakland is expected to be attended by Mayor Libby Schaaf, Assemblymember Rob Bonta, and various other local leaders, agency secretaries and departments directors, per KPIX. As the Mercury News reports, the event kicks off at 1:30 p.m., and it will be streamed live on Facebook.
Previously: Newsom Creates $750M Homeless Housing Fund, Directs Cities To Build Shelters On Vacant Land