The poll - which runs dozens of questions long - describes Mahan as a Democrat with a working-class background and tech credentials, according to screenshots obtained by San José Spotlight. It adds Mahan jumped into politics and "challenged" California's status quo on homelessness by taking affordable housing funds and using them for temporary shelter. The poll said that as governor, Mahan would stand for Democratic values but still be a fiscal hawk.
The Cicero Institute, created by tech investor Joe Lonsdale, has spent the past few years promoting aggressive policies targeting encampments for the unhoused and pushing cities to move away from Housing First, the U.S.'s primary model for responding to chronic homelessness. Over the summer, HUD quietly adopted several of Cicero's key recommendations. And the result was widespread panic among the local agencies responsible for keeping people housed.
GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY! It's the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the Mercury churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being "the last to know," then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to your email's in-box... and then... YOUR HEAD.)
The city of Los Angeles violated the state's open meeting law when council members took up a plan to clear 9,800 homeless encampments behind closed doors, a judge ruled this week. In a 10-page decision, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Curtis Kin said the City Council ran afoul of the Ralph M. Brown Act by approving the encampment strategy during a Jan. 31, 2024, closed session.
The Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and the Secretary of Transportation shall take immediate steps to assess their discretionary grant programs and determine whether priority for those grants may be given to grantees in States and municipalities that actively meet the below criteria, to the maximum extent permitted by law:
Newsom said Assembly Bill 255, which would have allowed cities to use up to 10% of their state funds to pay for "recovery housing," was unnecessary. That's because using state funds for sober housing is already allowed, the governor said. He said "recent guidance" makes that clear. That was a big surprise to Assemblymember Matt Haney, who had spent the past two years working on the bill Newsom was now saying had been moot all along.
