California Governor Candidates Face Pressure to Address State’s Homelessness Crisis
Why It Matters
California’s homelessness crisis remains one of the most pressing policy challenges facing the state, and whoever wins the 2026 gubernatorial race will be expected to act quickly. California accounts for nearly a quarter of the entire U.S. homeless population despite representing only 11% of the country’s overall residents — a disparity that has fueled growing public frustration over persistent street encampments.
Compounding the problem are significant gaps in mental health and addiction services. More than a third of homeless Californians regularly use drugs, and more than a quarter have been hospitalized for a mental illness, according to research frequently cited in policy debates. With the state facing funding pressures on homeless programs, the next governor’s approach could either build on recent initiatives or dismantle them.
What Happened
With California’s primary election approaching, the state’s major candidates for governor are being pressed to lay out detailed plans for addressing homelessness and its related mental health and addiction challenges. The field includes candidates with sharply different diagnoses of the problem and, accordingly, very different proposed remedies.
Outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom has pointed to a reported 9% drop in the number of people sleeping outside last year as evidence that his administration’s programs — including a new mental health court system — have made progress. But with Newsom term-limited out of office and funding cuts looming over homelessness programs statewide, the durability of those gains is uncertain.
Among the candidates who agreed to discuss their positions in detail, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, has staked out the most aggressive posture. Bianco argues that homelessness is fundamentally a substance abuse problem, not a housing problem, and that current policy frameworks misdiagnose the crisis. Other candidates in the race have also sought to differentiate themselves on the issue as polling consolidates ahead of the primary.
The Bianco Approach
Bianco has been direct in rejecting the conventional framing of homelessness as primarily a housing shortage issue. “This is not about homes,” he said in public remarks. “Stop calling it homeless.” He argues the term creates false sympathy that obscures what he sees as the true driver of street homelessness: drug and alcohol addiction.
While a widely cited University of California, San Francisco study found that roughly one-third of homeless Californians regularly use drugs and that loss of income was the most common trigger for homelessness, Bianco disputes that research, asserting that the addiction rate among people on the street is far higher — closer to 95%, a figure he attributes broadly to law enforcement experience without citing a specific study.
His proposed solution centers on mandatory treatment. Bianco has called for legislation enabling authorities to compel individuals into mental health and addiction treatment without their consent, arguing that someone in a mental health crisis is incapable of voluntarily seeking help.
By the Numbers
- ~25% — share of all U.S. homeless residents living in California
- 11% — California’s share of the total U.S. population
- 9% — reported decline in the number of people sleeping outside in California last year, per Gov. Newsom
- 1 in 3+ — proportion of homeless Californians who regularly use drugs, per research
- More than 1 in 4 — proportion of homeless Californians who have been hospitalized for a mental illness
Zoom Out
California’s homelessness challenge is not unique in its existence, but it is exceptional in its scale. States across the country have grappled with rising street homelessness in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with debates over the role of housing costs, mental health infrastructure, and drug policy playing out in legislatures from Oregon to New York. Locally, policy choices around housing — including how affordable development is financed — have come under scrutiny as California struggles to close its gap between housing supply and demand.
The debate over involuntary treatment, which Bianco supports, has intensified nationally as cities have pursued encampment clearances and courts have addressed the limits of local authority to compel individuals off public property.
What’s Next
California’s primary election is scheduled for next month, and voters will narrow the field of gubernatorial candidates before the November general election. The eventual winner will inherit a state homelessness infrastructure built largely around Newsom-era programs — and will face immediate decisions about whether to continue, reshape, or replace them amid constrained state finances.