Prop 1 results: Early support for mental health ballot measure

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $6.4 billion ballot measure to add thousands of mental health beds for homeless people and other vulnerable residents was leading by a few percentage points in early returns on Tuesday night, in a test of voters’ appetite for new strategies to combat a homelessness crisis they see worsening statewide.

A decisive victory for Proposition 1 would mean voters are “so desperate to solve this problem that they’re willing to do anything to try and fix it,” said Dan Schnur, a political science professor at the University of Southern California and UC Berkeley, adding that if the measure comes up short, “it suggests they’ve lost support in government’s ability to take on challenges like this.”

A final vote tally wasn’t expected for at least a few more days as mail-in ballots still need to be counted.

Proposition 1 — which needs a simple majority to pass — would authorize the state to issue bonds to fund an estimated 6,800 treatment beds for people struggling with mental health and addiction, as well as around 4,350 supportive housing units for homeless people, with about 2,350 set aside for homeless veterans.

The two-part measure would also use money already in the mental health system to expand intensive care programs and build supportive housing, potentially leaving fewer funds for early intervention or other services.

It would do both without raising taxes. The measure, if passed, is expected to phase in fully over a few years.

Proposition 1 backers acknowledge it would help only a fraction of California’s estimated 181,000 unhoused residents. But they say the measure largely targets mentally ill homeless people with the highest needs – the ones voters are most likely to see wandering into traffic or shouting at no one.

While disability rights advocates and some local officials raised concerns about the prospect of more involuntary detentions and changes to mental health funding, Proposition 1 has broad support from both Republican and Democrat state lawmakers, who sent the measure to voters amid increasing public pressure to get a handle on homelessness.

They’ve described Proposition 1 as the linchpin of an ongoing overhaul of the state’s mental health system aimed at compelling more homeless people with severe psychiatric disorders into treatment.

“We’ve created more flexibility, more tools, more accountability, more resources,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said last month. “Now, we need more beds.”

Money from the measure would help local counties build or expand a range of treatment centers, from long-term residential care facilities for those in more stable condition to locked-door clinics for those in crisis. The new homeless housing projects would have on-site services to connect residents with mental health care or drug counseling.

Although the added mental health beds would not be specifically for homeless people, the overarching goal is to help those with the most serious disorders and disabilities, who often end up on the street.

According to a UC San Francisco survey of homeless people across the state last year, more than two-thirds said they were experiencing mental health symptoms. Still, experts say people with severe conditions make up a minority of the unhoused population, arguing the state must also continue investing in housing if it hopes to end homelessness.

Proposition 1 would also require counties to spend 30% of the cash they receive from the voter-approved Mental Health Services Act – a state tax on millionaires – on rental assistance and supportive housing construction, including for homeless people. The mental health tax raises roughly $3 billion each year.

Additionally, counties would have to spend 35% of those funds on people with the most critical needs. For some counties, that could mean shifting money away from existing programs to help those with milder symptoms, which some officials worry could force cuts to programs and staff. The measure would also redirect about $140 million each year away from counties to bolster state mental health programs.

In Santa Clara County, some officials worry less money for programs to treat residents’ mental health disorders before they become serious could hamper the county’s effort to prevent homelessness. County Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg said the changes would require the county to give up $9 million to support state-run programs.

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The first is CARE Court, a new program allowing health care professionals, family members and others to petition judges to order some vulnerable homeless people into mental health programs. CARE Court is now up and running in eight pilot counties — including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Francisco — and is expected to be statewide by the end of the year.

The second is a state law that went into effect earlier this year, changing conservatorship rules to force more homeless people unable to provide for their basic needs into involuntary care. Most counties are still in the process of adopting the new rules.

Check back for updates. 

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