Friends —
This month, Californians statewide voted on a once-in-a-generation reform to help people with serious mental illness and substance abuse problems get out of the shadows and out of encampments, and into the housing and treatment facilities they need to get better.
The results are in: Proposition 1 passed, and I could not be more excited.
This is the biggest change in decades in how California tackles homelessness, and a victory for doing things radically different. Proposition 1’s passage means we can begin repairing the damage caused by decades of broken promises and political neglect to those suffering from severe mental illness.
This is the most exciting piece of work I have ever been a part of, and that is no BS.
If you want a short, 30-second reminder on what Proposition 1 promises to do — please watch this video:
There’s not a human being reading this message that can’t lay claim to this issue.
People want to see people off the streets and they want to know that when their loved one is in crisis that they are going to get the quality care they deserve.
The plan will save people’s lives. It will give peace of mind to their families. It will make our communities safer.
Some of us more intimately than others.
This issue is solvable.
And in California, we will prove it.
Gavin Newsom
