By Samuel Strait – April 19, 2022 Over the past couple of years, Governor Gavin Newsom has invested $4.8 million in State funding for two projects which would enable Del Norte County to house, once the Klamath version of Project Home Key is up and running, about 60 of the County's total population of homeless of 400. The governor's ambitious plan to spend $14 Billion of the State's money to house the homeless is off to a rather expensive start. The question becomes, will $14 billion be enough? If Del Norte County's venture into Project Home Key is an example of government success, it seems it is hardly likely to be fruitful. At the local level in Del Norte County, Health and Human Services has spent $1.9 million on the purchase of the Coastal Inns and Suites, an elderly motel currently housing thirty seven homeless In a "temporary" fashion. The motel, now known as the "Legacy" is slated to become permanent housing with the installation of kitchens, a laundry, and storage facilities as a part of Project Home Key. Likely the entire $2.6 million will be exhausted at that point. The Yurok Housing Authority has recently been graced with another $2.2 million to purchase another motel in the Klamath Glen to offer further permanent housing for Klamath residents for a total of $4.8 million in Project Home Key grants. The funding for staffing at each location has not been revealed; however, it is likely that will become the problem for later County budgets. If this is a sample of sensible fiscal policy by both the State and local governments, one shudders to think what else the tax payer in California has to face in the future. By the numbers, Del Norte County will have spent $4,800,000 to house less than sixty of the County's homeless. This equates to $80,000.00 for each person removed from our streets. If the County, should it become possible, were to spend that kind of money on the roughly 340 remaining homeless in the County, the total would become a staggering $32,000,000. If Newsom, the empty suit he is, were to extend this logic to the entire homeless population in the State, 150,000 souls, the tab would reach $12,000,000,000, if, it was possible to extend the $80,000 per homeless in urban areas. This is clearly not the case, nor is it proving to be as simple as the governor wishes it to be. When it comes to the issue of "doing" something about the unhoused, throwing money at a tiny fraction of the problem seems to be Governor Hair Gel's answer for every thing, but does it solve the problem, or make it grow? The State is claiming the homeless population has shrunk (It actually has grown by over 20,000 between 2021 and 2022.) in the past year giving credit to Newsom's efforts at the problem. If we use the local numbers of 216 unhoused, it would appear to be the case. A one time count study in January of 216 for the County's homeless population, have those that are directly involved with those populations saying that isn't an accurate number. They claim the number is much higher at about 400. If this is a reflection of state wide estimates, the homeless population is more likely to be closer to a quarter of a million. In which case $14 billion, a very large number, would not be enough. In any event, the idea that the governor's spending on the homeless will "fix" the problem is unlikely to be realized. In fact, this spending is more likely to encourage those in other parts of the United States to relocate to sunnier shores. As with most of the left leaning politicians, Newsom's "fixes" will engender plenty of praise until it fails to solve the problem. Then there will be silence. Local governments will be left with the problem of a lot of money spent to start and no further state money to pay for what comes next, maintenance, management, and the cost of services to be provided. A future to look forward to and not without a sense of dread. Then there is the problem of where the remaining $27.2 million is to come from to "solve" the entire problem? Some what obvious when you think about it, Sacramento will be missing in action.