By Vanguard Staff
Advocacy journalist Patrick Range McDonald criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s record on housing affordability and homelessness, arguing that the governor has failed to address rising rents and the state’s growing unhoused population during his time in office.
McDonald, an advocacy journalist for Housing Is A Human Right, the housing division of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, wrote that many voters expected Newsom to take urgent action after he was elected governor in 2018 as housing costs and homelessness continued to affect poor, middle- and working-class tenants across California.
“When Gavin Newsom was first elected governor of California in 2018, voters expected him to be a progressive leader who would urgently address the intertwined crises of housing affordability and homelessness that were slamming poor and middle- and working-class tenants,” McDonald wrote. “Instead, over the past eight years, he turned into another Corporate Democrat who simply did the bidding of Big Real Estate — with disastrous results.”
According to McDonald, multiple reports have linked rising rents to homelessness, including a wide-ranging study by the University of California, San Francisco, that was requested by the Newsom administration and released in 2023.
“People are homeless because their rent is too high,” Dr. Margot Kushel, the study’s lead investigator, told the Associated Press.
McDonald wrote that Newsom campaigned against Proposition 33 in 2024, a ballot measure that would have ended statewide restrictions on rent control and allowed cities greater authority to regulate rents.
“What did Newsom do? In 2024, he campaigned for corporate landlords and their front group, the California Apartment Association, to kill Proposition 33,” McDonald wrote.
He added that several individuals connected to Newsom’s administration and political operation — including former Chief of Staff Jim DeBoo, former Communications Director Nathan Click and campaign strategist Ace Smith — worked as consultants for the “No on Prop 33” campaign that was funded by corporate landlords and the California Apartment Association.
McDonald also pointed to Newsom’s opposition to Proposition 21 in 2020, a ballot measure that sought to reform statewide rent control restrictions.
“It wasn’t the first time Newsom helped out Big Real Estate,” McDonald wrote.
According to the article, large corporate landlords including Equity Residential, Essex Property Trust and AvalonBay Communities supported efforts to defeat the measures.
“So rather than standing on the side of hard-working Californians, Newsom teamed up with many of the largest corporate landlords in the country,” McDonald wrote.
McDonald also referenced the ongoing RealPage controversy involving allegations that corporate landlords used software to coordinate rent increases.
“In real ways, Newsom betrayed the poor and middle and working class, who’ve been hit hardest by the housing affordability and homelessness crises,” McDonald wrote.
He also noted that longtime progressive leaders including U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, Sen. Bernie Sanders and labor activist Dolores Huerta endorsed Proposition 21 and Proposition 33, while Newsom declined to join them.
“As rents continued to skyrocket, the homelessness crisis only worsened, turning California’s housing affordability crisis into a life-threatening emergency,” McDonald wrote.
McDonald cited research from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, which found in 2023 that unaffordable rents are associated with higher mortality rates.
He also referenced a 2023 report from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health that found deaths among unhoused people in the Los Angeles area increased each year between 2018 and 2021.
According to McDonald, the governor has focused more on clearing unhoused people from public spaces rather than expanding permanent housing solutions.
“He’s focused on sweeping the unhoused off the streets rather than building permanent homeless housing, which would have saved lives,” McDonald wrote.
The article also states that California spent $24 billion on homelessness programs, but that the results were poorly tracked and it was difficult to determine whether programs actually helped people experiencing homelessness.
McDonald further noted that Newsom pledged in 2018 to create a single-payer health care system in California but said the proposal did not move forward after the governor took office.
According to McDonald, Newsom received $411,600 from corporate landlords through the California Apartment Association between 2018 and 2024.
“Newsom’s housing affordability and homeless record is abysmal in California — and poor and middle- and working-class Californians have paid a heavy price in more ways than one,” McDonald wrote.
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