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PREVIOUSLY:

• Doing Justice: An Interview With Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe (Part 1)
• Life and the Law: An Interview With Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe (Part 2)
• On the Yurok Tribe: An Interview With Abby Abinanti, Chief Judge of the Yurok Tribe (Part 3)

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Press release from the office of Sen. Mike McGuire:

Judge Abby Abinanti, a dynamic and effective leader for equal access to the justice system and expanded resources and programs for Native American residents across California, has been selected by Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire as the 2023 North Coast Woman of the Year.

Abinanti, known as “Judge Abby,” joined Senator McGuire for a ceremony this week on the Senate floor in recognition of the 42 “California Women Making Herstory” honorees.

Abinanti is trailblazer. She was the first tribal woman to pass the state bar and become a judge in California. Judge Abby has served as a Yurok Tribal Court Judge since 1997 and she has proudly held the title as Chief Tribal Court Judge since 2007.

A member of the Yurok Tribe, Abinanti is an alumnae of Cal Poly Humboldt and holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Abinanti served as a Commissioner for the San Francisco Superior Court for over 17 years, assigned to the Unified Family Court and Dependency, a position she held in conjunction with her Superior Court assignment until 2015.

During her successful tenure as Chief Tribal Court Judge, Abinanti has been laser-focused in the Murdered & Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) crisis, which has disproportionately impacted women in the Yurok Tribe. She has led the way to significantly expand services and programs available to combat the MMIP crisis along with creating Yurok culturally-centered court services including Child Support Court, Wellness/Diversion/

“Judge Abby’s commitment to fighting for families, women, and tribal justice is second to none,” said Senator McGuire. “She built the Yurok Tribal Court, which is nationally recognized and respected as one of the best in America, from the ground up. Known for her innovative and holistic approaches to criminal justice and her relentless pursuit to combat the MMIP crisis, Judge Abby has helped countless individuals and families access justice and rebuild their lives. She’s an inspiration to all Californians.”

During her career, Judge Abby has taught in law schools including UC Berkeley and Stanford University. In 2020, Abinanti was recognized with the Lawrence R. Baca Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Law Section of the Federal Bar Association for dedicating her career to integrating Native values in the justice system.

“I’m deeply humbled to Senator McGuire for this special recognition and for highlighting the amazing work of the Yurok Tribe and our Council,” said Abinanti. “It’s an honor to share the Senate floor with this group of change-making women. I also know there is much more work ahead of us to ensure that our court systems reflect the values we hold important, including individual and community-based responsibility for those who err. As to the MMIP crisis, it is gift to know that Senator McGuire will not rest until we secure justice for all victims and their families and hold offenders accountable.”

The Senate Floor Ceremony can be viewed live at www.senate.ca.gov. Senator McGuire will celebrate with Judge Abby at a lunch on the North Coast in the coming months.

In this economy, who has enough money for a down payment on a house?

Despite a projected $25 billion budget deficit, the state of California does. At least for now.

The California Housing Finance Agency is poised to launch a scaled-down version of its new shared equity home loan program on March 27. With the Dream for All program, the state plans to provide $300 million worth of down payments for an estimated 2,300 first-time homebuyers.

The complicated program involves the state paying some or all of the upfront costs for buying a home — the down payment, for instance — in exchange for a share in the home’s value when it is sold, refinanced or transferred.

If the home appreciates in value, those gains to the state would then be used to fund the next borrowers — a little for the seller; a little for the next aspiring buyer.

Everybody wins — as long as prices go up.

The trouble is that home prices have been declining in the state for months, even as higher mortgage interest rates have made monthly mortgage payments more expensive.

A potential economic downturn looms as well, as the Federal Reserve weighs raising borrowing costs even further as soon as today.

And California’s tech industry is taking a beating and laying off workers, contributing to a decline in personal incomes. Income taxes are the state’s biggest revenue source.

Given the uncertainty, Gov. Gavin Newsom in January proposed a significantly smaller version of the 10-year, $10 billion program originally envisioned by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, a Democrat from San Diego. In his January budget, Newsom proposed spending an initial $300 million on the program, a cut from the $500 million compromise signed last year.

Optimism and expectations

The size and scope of the Dream for All program will likely be a subject of negotiations between Newsom and the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature this year. The governor is expected to offer a revised state spending plan and a new financial forecast in May. Lawmakers must pass a balanced budget by June 15 in order to get paid.

The proposed cut “will not impact the Administration’s commitment or timeline for implementing the program,” Newsom’s Department of Finance said in January.

In a Feb. 13 email to CalMatters, Christopher Woods, budget director for Atkins, said her office will seek more funding for the program.

“The Governor ‘proposing’ to pull back some funds has very little to do with what will actually happen,” Woods wrote to CalMatters, in response to earlier coverage of the program. “No one should expect the program to be cut, and we should all fully expect additional funds – perhaps as much as $1 billion – to be allocated in the 2023-24 Budget Act.”

“With interest rates rising, the program is needed more than ever … and there are several innovative ways to fund the program,” Woods wrote.

Woods declined to answer follow-up questions for this story.

Atkins, who championed the equity sharing program last year, has said the Dream for All program is a priority. She said in a recent statement she isn’t giving up on getting more money for it.

“Our state is about to launch a program that will help change people’s lives for the better, and make the dream of homeownership a reality,” she said. “While existing funding for the California Dream for All is a great first step, we are working to allocate additional funding in the upcoming state budget — with the ultimate goal of providing $1 billion per year — to help even more families set the foundation for building generational wealth.”

Falling equity

The uncertainty in the economy and housing market has been a subject of discussion at CalHFA for months, as officials and political appointees seek to launch a program meant to take advantage of rising home prices at the very moment home equity is falling.

State officials said buyers positioned to hold onto a property for the long-term are those best suited for the program when home prices are falling.

In a presentation to its board of directors in January, CalHFA officials also said the agency is planning for a program with a potentially “very short life cycle.”

“Having lived the dream of buying a house in Los Angeles in 1989, when the market peaked, and then selling it at a loss almost a decade later, I can appreciate that the market doesn’t always go up,” Jim Cervantes, CalHFA’s chair, said during that Jan. 19 meeting.

“Disclosures, whatever we can do to mitigate — or rather, have prospective buyers understand what they’re getting into — would be extremely valuable, because no one’s a good market timer.”

California home prices, already rising for years, saw big gains during the pandemic, as mortgage interest rates hit historic lows and families sought more space for their remote work set-ups to practice social distancing.

The median price of a previously-owned, single-family home in California, as tracked by the California Association of Realtors, increased 47% from March 2020 to May 2022, when it peaked at $900,170.

That same month the Federal Reserve, in order to tackle inflation, began its most aggressive interest rate hikes in years driving up mortgage costs for consumers.

Since May 2022, the state’s median home price has fallen 16.5% to hit $751,330 in January.

Market change

Despite the decline in home prices, monthly mortgage costs continue to make the state’s housing market more unaffordable than at nearly any point in the last 15 years, particularly for lower- and middle-class families. Only 17% of families in California could afford a median-priced single family home at the end of last year, according to the Realtors group.

Given the rapid market changes, Tiena Johnson Hall, CalHFA’s executive director, called the governor’s reductions in Dream for All funding prudent at CalHFA’s January meeting. “There’s still a lot of room for (home) values to continue to decrease, and that is what we expect to see,” she said.

In February, the state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst projected a revised $25 billion deficit in next year’s state budget. Since then, job growth nationally and in California has remained strong, except for layoffs in the tech sector.

The full details of the Dream for All program — for instance, which lenders will offer the shared equity loans to borrowers — are not yet available from CalHFA.

And loans will not be immediately available to consumers when the program launches this month. Lenders will need a month to six weeks to roll out the loans and begin marketing them to consumers, said Ellen Martin, a CalHFA official tasked with designing the program.

“We do know that there’s a lot of excitement out there,” Martin told CalMatters in a recent interview.

How it will work

Some details have been revealed in CalHFA board meetings, public hearings and a report to the state Legislature. Here are some of the program’s key components.

• The loans will not be available for all Californians. Only those who earn 150% or less of the median income of others in their county qualify. Those income limits vary by county, with $300,000 being the cut-off in pricey Santa Clara and San Francisco counties, but $159,000 for many inland counties such as Fresno and Merced.
• The loans will cover as much as 20% of a home purchase. Whenever a home is sold, transferred or refinanced, a borrower will owe the state the original amount the state invested, plus a percentage of the home’s increase in value. If the original loan was 20 percent of a home’s value, the seller would owe the state the original loan plus 20 percent of its increased value, though that amount would be capped at 250% of the original loan amount.
• A social equity feature of the program will be included for those who earn as much as 80% of the area median income. They will get to keep more of their equity when they sell, refinance or transfer their properties than others with higher incomes. Also about 10% of the initial state funds, or $30 million, will be reserved for those lower-income borrowers.
• The loans can be used to fund down payments and closing costs, including interest rate buydowns.
• Given the complexity of the program, borrowers will be required to complete a homebuyer education course.

Advocates’ concerns

The complexity of the program has some consumer advocates worried.

Lisa Sitkin, a senior staff attorney with the National Housing Law Project, said it would be wise for the agency to ensure borrowers receive periodic notices about the loan’s atypical details.

“As time goes by, people tend to forget and treat it as a normal loan, and I think it is useful for people planning to be reminded,” said Sitkin, a member of a working group advising CalHFA on the program.

A proposal to sell the loans as mortgage-backed securities also has her worried. California officials are exploring the idea of pooling the shared equity loans into securities and selling them to investors, to help provide additional money for other borrowers.

Many Wall Street financial institutions bundled often poor-quality mortgage loans into securities during real estate’s boom years and sold them to major investors. But during the years of downturn, getting help to homeowners was complicated by the difficulties identifying who exactly owned these loans.

“If they are sold into private, securitized trusts there is a lack of transparency about who owns your debt, and a lack of information about options if there are problems,” Sitkins said. “I really want to be sure that there are guardrails and protections for the borrowers.”

Consumers are cautious

As CalHFA officials were designing the program last year, they held several listening sessions online, taking comments from the public. Jake Lawrence, a 41-year-old cannabis entrepreneur in Willits who also runs a nonprofit, said he liked what he heard.

“I’m very interested. The problem we face is that there’s such a flux in what’s going on,” Lawrence said. “We’re in the middle of a housing market bust, so we’re gonna watch prices tumble for a minute.”

What’s more, one of the county’s biggest industries, the marijuana trade, has been hit hard by declines in cannabis prices. “It’s beyond suffering,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence also wondered how the state will calculate equity if he makes improvements to a home.

Despite his questions, he is considering the idea.

“It doesn’t hurt my feelings to share equity with someone who invests in me,” he said of the state. “And anybody that understands any kind of financial literacy should understand an investor should be able to have their expected ROI (return on investment). For me, I have zero issue with the idea.”

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

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The Board of Supervisors today postponed a decision over whether to spend more than $1.26 million to install a traffic signal at the accident-prone intersection of F and Oak streets. 

Problems at that intersection date back years, and neighborhood residents mounted a “Slow the F (Street) Down” campaign to advocate for traffic-calming measures on the busy thoroughfare of F Street.

County staff held a series of community meetings and later commissioned a traffic study, which revealed that a signal is warranted at the intersection. Traffic signals usually cost around $500,000, Public Works Director Tom Mattson said, but this location had unforeseen difficulties involving PG&E transmission lines and drainage. Still, staff recommended approving the project.

But several members of the board raised concerns. Third District Supervisor Mike Wilson said there hasn’t really been a comprehensive analysis of potential traffic calming measures and pedestrian safety for this southern stretch of F Street, which functions as an alternate route through Eureka, one that bypasses the traffic on Broadway.

Wilson also noted that the county’s road fund currently has a negative balance of $5.9 million. He suggested reviewing other options, including pedestrian-activated crosswalks and parking restrictions as potential means of slowing vehicle traffic and discouraging the use of F Street as an alternative route through Eureka.

Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo also expressed concerns about the project’s cost and said that, based on her conversations with area residents, there’s no “universal agreement” that a new traffic signal is the right solution. She suggested analyzing other alternatives.

“I’m not opposed to considering this,” Arroyo said regarding the traffic signal. “I just would like to consider other options and make sure that that’s the right fit for this large investment.”

Mattson pushed back a bit on Wilson’s pitch to dissuade traffic on F Street.

“If you go to the prior general plan, [F Street] was actually laid out as a one-way-road couplet with E Street as a main entry and exit into the city of Eureka,” he said. “The question is, where do you want the traffic to go?” He said that his staff can certainly come back with other options, but the signal is a solution to the problems at F and Oak, albeit an expensive one. 

“I need to do something at that intersection,” Mattson said.

A local resident who identified herself as Althea addressed the board, saying that if a regular traffic signal is too expensive, she’d like to see a so-called HAWK (High-Intensity Activated crossWalK) beacon installed.

First District Supervisor Rex Bohn was the lone supervisor to really push for green-lighting the traffic signal. He said that all the signals on Broadway have diverted traffic onto F, dramatically increasing traffic, and “quite a few kids” cross the street at Oak on the way to and from Grant Elementary School.

“I made a promise to a lady whose daughter was enrolled over there that we would do something about that intersection,” Bohn said, adding that he doesn’t believe studying the matter further is a responsible solution.

Second District Supervisor Michelle Bushnell asked whether the City of Eureka might be willing to help pay for a solution at the intersection, though Mattson said he doesn’t have much hope on that front. Still, Bushnell made a motion to continue the matter to a later date to explore alternative funding methods.

Wilson asked whether the continuance could also allow for exploration of other potential solutions.

“Anything to make this area safer,” Bushnell said.

The board voted 4-1, with Bohn dissenting, to continue the matter to a later date to allow more analysis, though the date was not specified.

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Earlier in the meeting, the county’s Code Enforcement Unit delivered its latest annual report, with manager Karen Meynell saying staff made significant progress last year toward addressing the backlog of cases involving problem properties around the county. In 2022 there were 329 new cases opened and 459 cases closed, and Meynell said there has been a dramatic decrease in new cases involving illegal outdoor cannabis cultivation.

Meynell attributed the progress made during 2022 in part to a new process that relies on automated letters informing both property owners and complainants of the status of each case. Within a week of receiving a complaint about a given property, code enforcement staff will review satellite imagery, permits and other data to determine the next course of action, Meynell said.

When there is evidence of code violations, property owners are given a “grace period” to abate the problems before a notice is served.

County staff performed four abatements in 2022, cleaning up properties with accumulated solid waste, junk vehicles, people living in un-permitted RVs and other violations. The nuisance properties included one on Montana Road in McKinleyville and one on Spears in Eureka, both of which had deteriorated after the owners died, according to Meynell.

At the third property, a 60-acre parcel on Eel River Drive in Loleta, 17 tons of waste were removed, including 40 junk vehicles and 250 tires. The fourth abatement was at a property on Summit Ridge Drive in Humboldt Hill, where staff had recorded various zoning and building code violations. 

“And unfortunately,” Meynell said, “as we see with some regularity in our cases, this property is starting to exhibit a re-occurrence of the same violations, and so a new case has been started in 2023.”

Meanwhile, county staff postponed a planned abatement at a longstanding communal living property near Trinidad known as Yee Haw. Planning and Building Director John Ford explained, “There was a desire to allow the property owner to come up with an alternative plan.” However, the violations remain, “and there hasn’t been any movement to resolve it,” Ford said.

Tax liens have been assessed against the property. 

Meynell said that many challenges remain for the county’s Code Enforcement Unit, perhaps chief among them being homeless encampments and people living in RVs.

“This is not news to you,” Meynell told the supervisors, “but with the housing shortage, there is no place where these people can go or relocate that would also not be problematic. And it’s difficult to remove people from their living situation with the knowledge that they have no alternatives.”

Other complaints the county receives involve conditions of “blight” — such as dilapidated buildings and overgrown vegetation — that don’t fall into any existing category of public nuisance or code violation. Meynell said the county may want to develop a blight ordinance with enforcement mechanisms.

Another challenge for the county involves complaints about vacation rentals, often involving problems with noise, parking and changes to community character. 

“It’s estimated we have hundreds of vacation rentals in our county, but they’re currently not allowed by zoning except in very limited circumstances … ,” Meynell said. “The owners and operators of these properties are usually surprised to learn that vacation rentals are not allowed, especially considering how prevalent they are throughout the county and how [property owners] pay their transient occupancy taxes.”

The Planning and Building Department is in the process of developing an ordinance to address short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. 

Bohn voiced frustration about properties that have been nuisances for so long that people have given up on complaining to local officials. 

“So what can we do up here to help the situation?” he asked. “I’d love to say we’re doing a great job but it just doesn’t feel like it.”

Ford said it’s a matter of having the right tools to address the problems, including placing properties into receivership where necessary and the possible development of a new ordinance pertaining to blight. He also noted that staff has to “walk a pretty precise line” to avoid violating private property rights. 

Wilson added that community watch groups can prove effective in documenting and addressing problem properties, and Arroyo said that the City of Eureka, where she served two terms as a city council member, has seen good results from placing properties into receivership when necessary. She said the receivers are often sensitive to housing displacement concerns and work with the public agency and property owners to try to keep tenants housed.

Fifth District Supervisor and Board Chair Steve Madrone suggested that the board might consider implementing free dumping given the sometimes prohibitive cost of hauling, say, a truckload of green waste for disposal.

“There are a few counties who actually don’t charge any dumping fees,” Madrone said. “We did this as a county back in the ‘80s when there was so much dumping happening on our county roads and highways that we actually opened up a bunch of transfer stations and for a little while they were free.”

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A couple other odds and ends:

• As part of the consent agenda, the board approved a contract with Redwood Community Action Agency and hiring a technical consultant for a planning study for a railbanking project that will employ funds from a “Sustainable Communities” Caltrans grant to look at extending the multi-use Humboldt Bay Trail from Eureka to Tompkins Hill Road near College of the Redwoods.  The planning study will be developed over approximately 18 months. [CORRECTION: This post originally said the board had approved the trail project itself, which was incorrect. The Outpost regrets the error.]
• Despite concerns from Auditor-Controller Cheryl Dillingham about the Public Works Department’s negative road fund balance, the board approved storm damage repair work for Briceland Thorne Road, which experienced roadway settlement and shoulder failure during the recent winter storms.

HUMBOLDT TODAY: A former Arcata City Councilmember is handed down his restraining order; Governor Newsom has thoughts on how to tackle California’s opioid problems; plus, the largest cash seizure in Del Norte County history. Those stories and more on today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• EUREKA COUNCIL PREVIEW: Several Housing-Related Items on Tonight’s Agenda, Including an Update on Vacation Dwelling Units in the City
• One of the Most Bullshit Things About Humboldt is That We Don’t Have Any Flags
• Homelessness, Rehabilitation and Health Care: What to Know About Newsom’s Legacy Tour

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

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Sal’s Myrtlewood Lounge, the famed Myrtletown bar, is closed for the time being after a car rammed the place this afternoon at about 2 p.m.

Michael Costanzo, who was bartending at the time, tells the Outpost’s Stephanie McGeary that a driver hit the gas when she meant to brake, plowing her vehicle into the bar’s storeroom. The driver hadn’t been in the bar previously and was, as far as anyone could tell, sober, Costanzo said.

About four people were at the bar when they heard a loud crash, Costanzo said. No one was injured.

As of about half an hour ago, staff were working to clean up the mess and were waiting for their insurance company to arrive. They’re closed until further notice, Constanzo said.

Humboldt County is a proud place. We’re always going on and on about how special we are, and how everywhere else sucks bad. And there’s a lot of truth to it! This place rules very hard.

But what’s one thing we don’t have? Apart from a Trader Joe’s?

We don’t have any flags.

Humboldt County should have its own flag. Eureka should have its own flag. Arcata should have its own flag. Fortuna should have its own flag. Trinidad should have its own flag. Maybe even, like, Cutten should have its own flag. Orleans should have a flag. There should be flags for every place in the county that has a name and where at least one person lives.

It’s not like this is a completely novel idea. Lots and lots of sub-national and sub-state places have their own flags, even in California. Check out Yolo County’s badass flag:

Yep, even a place as generally miserable as Yolo County has its own flag, and what’s more it has a killer flag.

Orange County also has a great flag, though it gets a little busy around the seal.

It’s not just counties. Lots of cities have their own flags too. Check out Fresno’s cool flag.

Here’s Cupertino.

The point is, lots of places have flags and we do not. 

I have contacted various elected officials over the years and demanded that they get going on designating an official flag for the area that they serve. They’ve all blown me off. As I see it, there are two possible reasons for this. Either they lack imagination, or they are afraid of the inevitable dumb culture-war battles that will take place in their chambers during the design phase.

Enough. Today I call upon the public to rise up and demand official flags for – at minimum — the county of Humboldt and every incorporated city therein. 

What would your Humboldt County flag look like? Show us a draft in the comments, please. Here’s the Outpost’s Izzy Vanderheiden’s first attempt. She’s completely open to your critique, so let her know what you think of it in the comments, please. Help her improve.

Gov. Gavin Newsom likes to talk about “the California way.” And as he barnstormed the state with sweeping plans to transform its approach to homelessness, criminal justice and health care, he laid out his ideas for what that “way” means — and his legacy.

Throughout his State of the State tour, the governor was often joking and jovial. But on Sunday, the fourth and final day, he took on a more somber tone, standing behind the lectern of a makeshift event space that was once a nine-bed emergency room to talk about improving mental health care.

He emphasized the far-reaching consequences of inadequate care and shared his own experiences, losing someone he’d attended his high school prom with, as well as his grandfather, a veteran, to suicide.

“We own this. We own this moment,” he said. “But we have now the tools and the capacity to turn this ship around.”

As he dives into his second term, Newsom chose the tour in place of the traditional speech to a joint session of the Legislature. In many ways, the events echoed the priorities that he was focused on at this same point in his first term four years ago — before unexpected crises, a recall effort and a seemingly inescapable pandemic scrambled his agenda.

In his first act as governor, shortly after he took the oath of office in January 2019, Newsom signed an executive order aimed at lowering prescription drug costs by directing state agencies to negotiate collectively with pharmaceutical companies for better prices.

On Saturday, he finally announced that California will partner with Utah-based generic drug company Civica to manufacture its own insulin, available for $30 a vial. The $50 million deal is the first major development in a plan Newsom has pursued for the past three years to create a generic label that can challenge an industry he has criticized for charging far too much for life-saving medications.

Two months into his first term, in March 2019, Newsom enacted a moratorium on executions and dismantled the lethal injection chamber at San Quentin State Prison. His decision stunned the political world by quickly reversing a campaign pledge to respect the will of California voters who have repeatedly upheld capital punishment.

On Friday, nearly four years to the day after that order, the governor was back at San Quentin touting his vision to transform California’s oldest correctional facility from the home of condemned inmates to a center for rehabilitation and training before offenders are released back into society.

In public poll after public poll, these issues are not what Californians identify as the most pressing problems in the state. Yet by regularly resurfacing them, steadily chipping away at breakthroughs on his own terms, Newsom suggests that’s what they represent to him — the issues most fundamental to his platform, those with which he seeks to build his legacy.

Governors don’t always get to define their own legacies, however.

Growing public anger over California’s ever more visible homelessness crisis has made this seemingly intractable problem the inescapable force of Newsom’s tenure. He recognized it back in 2020, devoting his entire State of the State speech to the topic, and COVID aside, no other issue has consumed more of his time and political capital since, a stark departure from his predecessor. For opponents — from those who unsuccessfully sought to recall him from office in 2021 to those already seeking to knee-cap any presidential ambitions he may possess — it is perhaps his greatest liability.

That was reflected in the central role that homelessness played in Newsom’s statewide tour, underlying his major announcements on two separate days.

The kick-off event, in Sacramento on Thursday, touted the governor’s successful push to get local officials to adopt more aggressive targets for reducing the number of people living on the streets in their communities.

The final stop, in San Diego on Sunday, launched a campaign to ask California voters to approve a $3 billion bond measure in 2024 for mental health housing and treatment beds. It builds on Newsom’s signature policy achievement from last year: A new court system aimed at compelling people with several mental illnesses, who often languish on the streets, into housing and treatment.

Wrapping up the tour, Newsom noted that the issues he discussed were connected, but especially housing and homelessness.

“I think those two issues truly do represent the twin challenges of this state — our fate and future,” he said Sunday in answer to a CalMatters question. “They’re connected to more of our challenges than any other two issues, and that’s really the thrust of this multi-day effort.”

To achieve all his goals on homelessness and other issues, Newsom needs the buy-in of state lawmakers, local officials and front-line workers.

Still, by orchestrating four days of events across the state instead of delivering a single speech in Sacramento, the governor did succeed on one score: He drew a torrent of media coverage, though reporters were often held a distance away from him at each stop. Newsom’s messaging was amplified by friendly Democratic allies at every event.

Trying to compete, Republicans in the Legislature posted social media videos warning that California is in crisis — on cost of living, crime, homelessness, schools, water and wildfires — and asserting that they have solutions in what they call the California Promise. “Californians want solutions to their everyday problems,” tweeted Assembly GOP leader James Gallagher of Chico. “The Governor’s shiny object routine is tired.”

On each day, and at each event, Newsom was being Newsom — prone to sweeping pronouncements, but less clear on some of the details. At times, he was repackaging or rebranding programs already underway. At others, he urged Californians to imagine a vision for something that doesn’t exist.

Here are some key takeaways and impressions from four days on the road with the governor:

Gov. Gavin Newsom tours a “tiny home” after announcing the state’s plan to address homelessness at Cal Expo in Sacramento, on March 16, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

Day 1: Homelessness in Sacramento

One area where California does lead the way is homelessness — but on the sheer numbers as much as on innovative policies. About 30% of people who are homeless in the U.S. were in California in 2022, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.So it makes sense that Newsom’s first stop was Cal Expo, home of the California State Fair, and one site where the state plans to establish a community of “tiny homes” for homeless individuals.

Following his remarks, Newsom ducked into each of the “tiny home” models set up, on green turf with picnic tables off to the side, as the event’s backdrop.

The governor was flanked by industry officials and, as was the case throughout the tour, by state lawmakers and local elected leaders, including San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who spoke about a so-far successful pilot program in his Bay Area city.

But how much Newsom reduces homelessness will be a hallmark of his tenure — regardless of how much, or how little, it’s under his control. He acknowledged some limitations: substance abuse crises, mental health and wealth inequality. Success of the tiny homes, he said, depends on local governments ensuring the quality of the services in the long-term.

“The entire homeless strategy in California is not the state of California,” he said. “Homeless strategy is realized not just locally but also begins locally and percolates up.”

The state’s willingness to fund local efforts came after “some tough conversations,” the governor noted. Just a few months ago, he threatened to withhold funding based on plans cities and counties submitted. With cities and counties pledging to get more people off the streets, he announced that his administration plans to free up $1 billion in state money to help them.

Newsom also highlighted programs that he launched during the pandemic: Project Roomkey, which places individuals in motel and hotel rooms as a short-term solution, and Project Homekey, where the state buys properties that can be converted into homes.

The “tiny home” program is not “‘it.’ This is a component of a larger strategy,” he said, pointing to the $3.4 billion he put in his proposed budget to address homelessness, despite what he projected as a $22.5 billion deficit.

For some, Newsom’s ambitious plan wasn’t enough. Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones of El Cajon called it another “Band-Aid on a crisis.”

A row of “tiny homes” on display at Cal Expo. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state’s plan to address homelessness on March 16, 2023. Photo by Miguel Gutierrez Jr., CalMatters

But for others, Newsom’s proposals didn’t go far enough. Just before the governor’s event, the California State Association of Counties urged state lawmakers to set up a new system for routing state homelessness funding through regional plans with clear responsibilities assigned to local governments.

The 1,200 “tiny homes” will go to Los Angeles, San Diego County, San Jose and Sacramento — places Newsom said showed “enthusiasm.” But at least for now, the program excludes San Francisco and other cities mired in crisis.

Day 2: Criminal justice at San Quentin

San Quentin State Prison is already considered a model for prisoner rehabilitation in California — attested to by inmates made available to the press. Programs such as a news service and a 20-week coding course have been transformational, and at a minimum, offer a place outside their cells to breathe. Inmates at other state prisons request transfers to San Quentin for the opportunities.

So at Friday’s event, when the governor spoke in sweeping terms about a plan to “transform” the prison into a “national model” for rehabilitation, questions prevailed: How long will it take? How much of the Scandinavian model will it emulate?

But the big question came from Steve Brooks, editor of the San Quentin News: How will this model help inmates with overcrowding and poor living conditions? And would the Scandinavian model mean violent offenders wouldn’t get to take part in the rehabilitation programs?

“No, quite the contrary,” Newsom replied, speaking inside a warehouse that is to be converted into a training center. “And I don’t refer to it as the Scandinavian model. This is the California model, the California way…. I’m for people that are committed, not passively interested, in changing themselves, and in turn helping us keep our communities safe and changing our communities as a consequence.”

The new facility will be designed by an advisory committee that includes crime victims, formerly incarcerated people and academics, the governor’s office said. Newsom is also asking the Legislature for $20 million for the plan.

Asked whether he plans to ask voters to make permanent his moratorium on the death penalty, Newsom didn’t commit to a ballot measure. As of March 8, there were 668 people sentenced to death in California.

Inmate Gregory Eskridge (right) and others reporting for the San Quentin News attend Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press event at San Quentin State Prison announcing the transformation of the facility to focus on training and rehabilitation on March 17, 2023. Photo by Martin do Nascimento, CalMatters

San Quentin currently houses 3,906 people, with security levels ranging from medium to maximum security. One is Angelo Mecchi. Newsom said that on a visit several weeks ago, Mecchi saw him and flagged that they’d played in the same Little League in Marin County.

“That spoke to me on a different level,” Newsom said. “We are many journeys, many parts — but one body. When one part suffers, we all suffer.”

Day 3: Health care costs in Downey

Three days into the tour, Newsom seemed particularly upbeat about Saturday’s announcement: Securing a contractor to produce insulin, bringing the costs down for patients with diabetes to $30.

“What this does is a game-changer,” he said. “This fundamentally lowers the cost, period, full stop.”

“I’m just really proud of this,” he added later, standing in front of a row of refrigerators that contained insulin medications at a Kaiser Permanente warehouse.

Advocacy groups were just as excited. “California’s investment to directly manufacture prescription drugs is a game-changer with national impact,” Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California said in a statement. “Even a modest decrease in the cost of key drugs could save hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.”

A girl shows off her insulin pod that continuously gives her insulin throughout the day to help manage her Type 1 diabetes. Photo by Anne Wernikoff, CalMatters

If manufacturing begins as planned later this year, the state would then seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration and start distributing early next year.

The governor said the long-term plan is to have Civica make the insulin in California. “The future happens here first. We are America’s coming attraction,” he said during what turned out to be the shortest of the four stops.

And he doesn’t plan to stop with insulin. Newsom disclosed that the state’s CalRx is exploring making its own naloxone (better known by its brand name Narcan) to treat opioid overdoses.

He also said this push to lower health care costs builds on California’s record of universal health care regardless of pre-existing conditions or immigration status.

“If we are arguably the fourth largest economy on planet earth, we’ve got to start acting like it,” he said, adding one of his common boasts: “Only in California. Eat your heart out, the rest of the United States.”

Day 4: Mental health in San Diego

In between the official tour events, Newsom made other stops, including at the City of Refuge social service nonprofit in Sacramento, at the Los Angeles River with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

So, on the final day of the tour, Newsom seemed a little less energized before his turn to speak at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center about his mental health initiative.

Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency, who accompanied Newsom on both Saturday and Sunday, took on some of the more detailed policy questions, such as how many beds are needed.

Besides the $3 billion bond issue to build new treatment centers to treat 10,000 more people a year, Newsom wants to redirect another $1 billion from an income tax on millionaires — approved by voters in 2004 — to operate them. That concerns county officials, who say any loss of state behavioral health money could also cost them federal matching funds.

The governor’s packed schedule meant zipping off quickly to the next event, and his team declined an interview request for Newsom to discuss the tour as a whole.

And while details of the tour stops were closely guarded, protestors managed to get word of his Sunday appearance. About 10 people stood outside the hospital with signs asking Newsom to speak out against the construction of a controversial barrier at Friendship Park, which straddles the border of California and Mexico.

“The governor of California should understand this is not a sideline issue,” said John Fanestil, a member of the Friends of Friendship Park community group, who was at the protest. “It should be his central issue on a visit to San Diego.”

Newsom hasn’t made an official statement, but told reporters at the border Sunday that he was trying to understand the Biden administration’s support for the barrier.

But back on message, he also announced $30 million to beef up the California National Guard’s efforts to stop drug trafficking, especially fentanyl — and to shore up his legacy, this time on the opioid crisis.

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