California Governor proposes mental health reform and new treatment beds.

California Governor Gavin Newsom plans to ask the Democratic-controlled Legislature for a measure on the 2024 ballot to authorize funding to build residential facilities where up to 12,000 people a year could live and be treated for mental illness and addiction. The initiative would be partially funded by general obligation bonds that would raise between $3 billion and $5 billion to go toward construction of “campus-style” facilities along with smaller homes and long-term residential settings. The plan is the latest by the governor to address the state’s homelessness crisis, which has nearly one-third of the nation’s homeless population.