(Image source from: California Lawmakers offer $2 Billion Plan for Homeless})
Under a scheme proposed by state senators on Monday, the state of California will spend around $2 billion on building houses, which will provide permanent shelter to homeless people. The state has the largest homeless population of the country.
According to the Senate President, Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, the amount will be sufficient to support the local government to build nearly 10,000 housing units initially, for the mentally challenged.
Senate Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, said in a news conference from Los Angeles' Skid Row, "It is despicable that, in the richest state, that is in the state of California, that just last night, thousands of Californians laid their tired bodies on a sidewalk or on a cardboard."
The 2015 Annual Homeless Assessment Report by the The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recorded that, there is around 116,000 homeless people in the state. It is more than a fifth of the complete homeless population of the Country. The report also reveals that, nearly 29,000 people are chronically homeless in the state.
Homeless population in Los Angeles has enlarged by more than 10 percent during past two years. The city council of Los Angeles, has stated the ‘homelessness crisis’ in the city and proposed to modify the city’s regulations and ask people to allow homeless people to live temporally in their cars. Also, let them sleep on the sidewalks. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared a "shelter crisis" in the October in the wake of the heavy winter.
The policy, lawmakers projected that the amount will be refunded by Proposition 63, the 2004 ballot measure. It applies a 1 percent tax on incomes, that are more than $1 million for the treatment of mental health. The proposed scheme will especially focus on the mentally challenged chronically homeless people. Every year, more than 90 percent of the total amount of Proposition 63 will continue to give to the existing programs.
Nandini
