Proposition 1, the sole statewide ballot measure facing California voters on March 5, aims to improve access to behavioral health services. It is just one part of what will need to be a multifaceted approach to homelessness. The seriously mentally ill are only a portion of the homeless in California, but solutions for this hardest-to-help group are unique.
The proposition would amend the Mental Health Services Act – a 20-year-old law fraught with mission creep – and authorize a $6.4 billion state bond, two-thirds of which would build treatment and residential facilities, which are essential to moving people with serious mental illness off the streets into appropriate care.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Orange County Register (paywall)
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Carolyn Gorman is an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Photo by Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
