When even Obama calls your homeless situation an ‘atrocity,’ it’s time for new solutions
In one of the wealthiest places on Earth, thousands are living in tent cities on the streets of Los Angeles, an "atrocity" that even former Democrat President Barack Obama recently acknowledged on a podcast. He slammed the moral failure of allowing people to languish without real help while noting that encampments downtown are a "losing political strategy." He demanded policies that "recognize their full humanity" and provide genuine resources for success.
But this is not simply a moral failure, it is a structural one.
Though Obama didn’t name Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom directly, the critique lands squarely on his doorstep — after all, Newsom has been at the helm as California’s homelessness ballooned to record highs, even after more than $24 billion was funneled into solving the problem since 2019. Newsom’s team claims agreement with Obama, touting mental health reforms and encampment cleanups, but the reality on the ground tells a different story.
As a California native who has spent years working directly on the streets helping move homeless veterans into treatment and off encampments, I’ve seen firsthand that this crisis is not simply about housing, it’s about untreated trauma, addiction and lack of structured support.
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Newsom is crowing about a minor drop in unsheltered homelessness for 2025, calling it the largest decline in 15 years. And while it’s a very small step in the right direction, let’s not break out the champagne. This "progress" comes after record-breaking homelessness under Newsom’s watch, despite historic levels of spending that created an entire ecosystem built to manage the crisis rather than resolve it. This isn’t a victory lap; this is pre-campaign damage control for a system that has grown financially dependent on the existence of the problem.
As I detail in my book, "The Race to Save California," the heart of the homelessness issue isn’t a lack of funding or awareness. After all, with $24 billion spent and almost every sidewalk occupied, California has both in spades and is still a disaster. The problem is not scarcity, it is misaligned incentives created by how the money is used and deployed.
Politicians like Newsom obsess over housing shortages because that’s a simpler and more straightforward ‘fix’ that makes for easy soundbites to virtue signal accomplishment, even if they don’t really fix anything. Housing became the preferred "solution" not because it worked, but because it justified enormous spending pipelines.
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Because why deal with the important, messy stuff — like addiction recovery, mental health treatment, life skills training and social reintegration — when they could channel billions into construction-heavy programs that sustain funding flows long after ribbon cuttings?
This mindset mirrors the now-failing "Housing First" model, which turned homelessness into a housing initiative, and with it, a vehicle for sustained government spending.
That approach is now beginning to shift. Under President Donald Trump, HUD Secretary Scott Turner has recognized that homelessness cannot be treated as a housing issue alone. The crisis isn’t simply about shelter, it’s about stability. You can’t build your way out of a fentanyl addiction, untreated schizophrenia, or PTSD. Many need treatment, structure and accountability, not handouts and disingenuous ‘compassion’ that feeds the cycle.
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The homeless veteran population is a prime example of what’s really needed. There are over 35,000 homeless veterans nationwide on any given night. It’s a travesty: heroes who once led under fire now sleep in tents because bureaucracy and profits trump substantive solutions.
These vets don’t need pity and handouts. They need purpose — leadership opportunities, job training, treatment and a place in a community that both supports and depends on each other. Instead, veterans are warehoused in misery, their potential wasted and the crisis dragging on while politicians brag about the number of housing units constructed.
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To be frank, the crisis persists because the funding structure rewards continuation over resolution. When problems worsen, emergency funds flow with minimal oversight, expanding the budgets of politically connected nonprofits, consultants and agencies that are sustained by managing — not ending — homelessness. They know that the money slows if the problem shrinks, while failure often results in larger future appropriations.
The real solution? Cost-effective hybrid camps offering community, structure and transformation at a fraction of the luxury housing costs, while tying funding to measurable reductions in homelessness. Picture cafeterias, chapels, laundry, life-skills classes and work opportunities where residents grow through contribution to the community and their future, moving onward and upward. Because transition without transformation is futile.
Obama’s right — this is an atrocity, and Newsom’s spin on a modest drop doesn’t erase years of a spending-first approach that prioritized funding flows over functional outcomes. Californians deserve streets free of chaos and our homeless neighbors deserve real support from a system that solves problems, not sustains them.
We know the fixes: Treatment-focused intervention, enforcement of existing laws, outcome-based funding. Let’s demand them before another "progress" report can be spun as campaign propaganda at the expense of human lives. Our nation is worth at least that much.