California Governor Gavin Newsom’s $236 million program to help those with severe mental illness who bounce between homelessness and jail has helped a measly 22 people since the its launch in 2022, a new report reveals.
Newsom’s CARE Court was billed as a “completely new paradigm” to get the mentally ill off the streets and into treatment, with up to 12,000 people expected to benefit, the Daily Mail reported.
But only 22 people have been sent to treatment over the past four years, after a state analysis found that up to 50,000 could be eligible for the program.
The 22 court-ordered cases were among roughly 3,000 petitions filed statewide as of October. Of those, only 706 were approved, including 684 voluntary agreements that never intended the meet program’s goal, according to the Daily Mail.
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Critics say it has become a costly bureaucratic maze that leaves families frustrated and desperate.
Ronda Deplazes, 62, of Concord, believed CARE Court would finally force life-saving treatment on her schizophrenic son after decades of repeated arrests and near-starvation on the streets.
Instead, a judge rejected her petition, leaving the family feeling “devastated” and “completely out of hope,” she told the Daily Mail.
Kevin Dalton, a former candidate for the LA County Board of Supervisors, slammed the program as a “gigantic missed opportunity.”
“The people who are supposed to be helping are in fact profiting from the situation,’ Dalton told the Daily Mail. “It’s like a diet company not really wanting you to lose weight. It’s the same business model.”
