Governor Newson’s executive order today is going to have a severely negative impact on people experiencing homelessness. Living in a camp is already a stressful circumstance. Now imagine getting a notice that you have 48 hours to pack up all of your belongings and go. Where are they supposed to go? Governor Newsom doesn't provide an answer. California only has around 71,000 transitional housing beds available, and there are currently over 180,000 homeless people in the state. California has more homeless population than any other state, with over 25% of the nation's total population affected by homelessness residing there.
This order doesn’t acknowledge the primary driver of becoming homeless: a lack of affordable housing. With more institutional buyers purchasing single-family homes to rent out, this problem is only going to get worse. Before 2011 no single investor owned more than 1,000 single-family homes. Now as of 2022 according to a Government Accountability Office Report 32 institutional investors collectively owned 450,000 single-family homes, and according to GAO, the five largest investors owned nearly 300,000 homes.
Everyone deserves a roof over their heads and a place to call home. I founded Cherry Willow Apparel to advocate for and empower people impacted by homelessness. Cherry Willow needs to be a business for the people, and we will work to ensure that we get as many homeless people into homes and off the street as possible.
We will do this by highlighting stories of people impacted by homelessness to shed light on the realities that many people seek to avoid in this country. I conducted my first interview with a courageous individual willing to share his story with me, which I will be releasing in podcast form soon!
Citations
https://nlihc.org/resource/gao-releases-report-institutional-investments-single-family-rental-housing#:~:text=By%202022%2C%2032%20institutional%20investors,investors%20owned%20nearly%20300%2C000%20homes
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article290419919.html
