President Trump took daring motion to sort out America’s homelessness disaster together with his July 24, 2025, executive order, “Ending Crime and Dysfunction on America’s Streets.”
By prioritizing federal funding for states and cities that implement bans on public tenting and redirect sources to remedy for habit and psychological sickness, Trump is exhibiting the sort of management California desperately wants.
In the meantime, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is on a progress tour, touting what he claims are enhancements within the state’s homelessness disaster.
As somebody who has spent years working immediately with the homeless — veterans deserted on Skid Row, downtown San Diego and numerous different streets — I see Newsom’s marketing campaign for what it’s. It’s a shallow public relations stunt designed to gloss over his failures whereas our heroes are left to die.
Newsom isn’t fixing the disaster — he’s sweeping it underneath the rug, simply as he did earlier than Chinese language President Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco. He didn’t clear up homelessness for Californians; he did it for a overseas rival. Now, with cameras rolling and better political ambitions in thoughts, he’s pretending the issue didn’t fester underneath his watch.
However the numbers inform the reality: California accounts for 28 percent of the nation’s homeless inhabitants, with over 187,000 people on our streets, 66 percent of them unsheltered. Veterans, who served our nation with honor, are among the many hardest hit, discarded by a state that prioritizes picture ops over folks.
I’ve seen the human price of this neglect up shut. In Los Angeles, I met Military veterans sitting silently on a curb exterior a housing facility constructed for them. They have been denied entry due to previous jail time — usually for offenses tied to untreated psychological well being points from their service.
One veteran advised me, “It seems like we don’t matter. Like our service by no means occurred.”
In San Diego’s “swamp,” a feminine Navy veteran broke down after I hugged her, saying, “I assumed everybody gave up on me.” She wasn’t asking for a handout—only a second of dignity.
After which there’s Mike Dolbow, a veteran residing on the streets for over a decade with no outreach, no assist, no recognition. He mentioned, “Veterans are only a device politicians use to get elected. They faux to care when the cameras are on, then vanish.”
Buzzwords equivalent to “curb to rental,” “reasonably priced housing” and “resilience hubs” sound polished in press releases, however they’ve did not ship.
Since 2019, Newsom has poured greater than $24 billion into homelessness applications, but the disaster persists. This contains one veterans’ housing venture that the California American Legion says has an anticipated whole price exceeding $1.4 billion for at the very least 1,200 models. That averages to roughly $833,000 per unit.
This isn’t progress — it’s a betrayal of those that served.
President Trump, in distinction, has a file of motion. In Could, he ordered the Veteran’s Administration to reclaim the West Los Angeles Veterans’ Affairs land to construct housing for veterans — slicing by means of paperwork with pace and focus.
The manager order additionally empowers native governments to clear encampments and fund remedy applications, making certain folks aren’t simply moved however helped.
As White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, by “eradicating vagrant criminals from our streets and redirecting sources towards substance abuse applications,” the administration will “be sure that Individuals really feel secure of their communities and that people affected by habit or psychological well being struggles get the assistance they want.”
What California wants isn’t extra of Newsom’s over-funded picture ops — it’s base camps: infrastructure-based transitional communities modeled after the army.
These disciplined, supportive environments, as I’ve advocated in my work with veterans, would supply not simply shelter however a pathway to stability, providing veterans meals, psychological well being providers, habit restoration, VA advantages help, and job coaching underneath one roof, with self-discipline and dignity.
Not shelters. Not stopgaps. Actual options.
Newsom’s “progress tour” is nothing however an audition for his subsequent job. Californians, particularly our veterans, know the reality: years of inaction, empty guarantees and neglect.
Veterans don’t want extra phrases — they want motion. President Trump’s govt order is a step towards delivering it, exhibiting what management seems to be like when it’s pushed by outcomes, not headlines.
Kate Monroe is a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, CEO of Vetcomm and founding father of Border Vets.