The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has drawn a line on homelessness, voting 3-2 to support a challenge to an expansive 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that forbids local governments in nine Western states from enforcing laws against camping or sleeping on sidewalks or in other public places unless overnight shelter is available.

That ruling came in September 2018. In invalidating a Boise, Idaho, law against sleeping on public lands, Judge Marsha Berzon wrote that “just as the state may not criminalize the state of being ‘homeless in public places,’ the state may not criminalize conduct that is an unavoidable consequence of being homeless — namely sitting, lying or sleeping on the streets.’” Berzon wrote for a three-judge panel.

Ted Olson, the former U.S. solicitor general who won the Bush v. Gore case before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2000, is among the attorneys working with the city of Boise on an appeal. Los Angeles County will file an amicus brief in support of the appeal.

Republican Supervisor Kathryn Barger and Democrat Supervisor Janice Hahn co-sponsored the resolution to file the brief. Democratic Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, a member of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state homelessness task force, surprised some observers by being the third vote for the resolution. Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and many big-city Democrats have endorsed policies that emphasize helping and sympathizing with the homeless. Garcetti has called homelessness “the moral and humanitarian crisis of our time.”

Supervisor: Don’t accept ’emergency’ as ‘new normal’

But Ridley-Thomas said in a statement that he was “fed up. The status quo is untenable. … We need to call this what it is — a state of emergency — and refuse to resign ourselves to a reality where people are allowed to live in places not fit for human habitation. I refuse to accept this as our new normal.” Los Angeles County has nearly 60,000 homeless people, according to official estimates, more than double the numbers seen 20 years ago.

Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis, both Democrats, voted no on the resolution, saying homelessness should not be criminalized. Kuehl also said she feared what a “terrible” U.S. Supreme Court might decide in its ruling.

Activists blasted Barger, Hahn and Ridley-Thomas not only for lacking compassion but for reinforcing the narrative of President Donald Trump that homelessness is out of control in coastal California.

“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” Trump said last week.

The president has used Twitter to depict leaders of these cities as hapless and paralyzed in responding to declining quality of life caused by homelessness. He also dispatched Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to visit Skid Row in Los Angeles last week and said he wanted to help California deal with its homeless problem.

But the nature of possible federal help is unclear. Trump has suggested that homeless people might be rounded up and housed on federal property or military bases, but civil-rights lawyers say the president has no authority to forcibly relocate individuals who have not committed federal crimes. 

The Associated Press reported that Carson might link federal housing grants to local governments’ efforts to make it easier to add housing by limiting regulations. That approach would parallel efforts by Newsom and lawmakers led by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, to weaken local zoning rules that they say enable NIMBYs to block new housing.

California’s housing crisis seems likely to soon become significantly more complicated – and quite possibly worse for poor residents who rely on federal help. That’s because President Trump’s proposed 2017-18 budget both undercuts and targets many programs that are part of the traditional government approach to providing affordable housing.

Trump’s goal of cutting corporate taxes from the present 35 percent to 15 percent has already led companies to lose interest in using tax credits for construction of low-income housing that have been in place for three decades. The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe have both reported on the chaos this has caused with pending projects whose financing has either disappeared or gotten much shakier because corporations expect a much-diminished tax burden from Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress.

Trump’s proposal to cut the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budget from $46 billion to $40 billion would eliminate the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, which has been used to upgrade and restore decrepit housing stock and to fund shelter for the homeless.

Since most of the HUD budget goes to housing assistance, such efforts would be pinched. Trump hopes to end the HOME program, under which federal funds are used to help first-time homeowners with their mortgage down-payment. While Trump’s budget only calls for a reduction of $300 million – from $19.6 billion to $19.3 billion – in the federal budget for Section 8 housing vouchers for poor people, the actual effects of his budget on the program could be dramatic. Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, told The Los Angeles Times that she expects thousands of Californians will lose access to the vouchers.

The Washington Post reported other federal subsidies would be much harder hit than Section 8 and that funding for major repairs at public housing would be cut 32 percent.

Like Gov. Brown, new HUD chief wants to ease housing regulations

Advocates for traditional federal housing programs denounced the HUD cuts as mean-spirited and unjustified. But the HUD budget cuts reflect both Trump’s campaign promises to reduce domestic spending and HUD Secretary Ben Carson’s view of government assistance programs as making Americans dependent on government and reducing their initiative to improve their lives.

In Carson’s testimony in his Senate nomination hearing, the retired neurosurgeon also sounded strikingly like Gov. Jerry Brown in decrying the idea that government-first approaches were a good way to tackle housing shortages.

“Overly burdensome housing regulations are bad for everyone and are increasing income inequality,” Carson told the committee, noting that home-ownership in the U.S. was at a 50-year low. “Complex webs of covenants and zoning ordinances across U.S. cities — in particular for low-density development — superimposed on already highly segregated neighborhoods have slowed integration.”

Last year, Brown called for a sharp reduction in the obstacles that local governments and local activists could put on new housing construction. He wanted projects that met certain conditions in providing less expensive housing and followed general zoning rules to have “by right” authority to build.

Like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Brown says housing costs will never come down as long as demand is high and supply is limited. Rents double or more the national average are common in California’s coastal cities, even in relatively poor neighborhoods.

The problem appears to be accelerating in the Golden State’s most populous region. “Rent increases in five Southern California counties are outpacing inflation at the fastest pace in 30 years,” the Orange County Register reported in October

But Democrats in the California Legislature blocked Brown’s proposal and appear more committed than ever to using government-built housing and rent voucher programs to help poor people afford shelter, introducing more than 100 bills this session that follow this general playbook.

Labor unions and environmentalists – key players in the Democratic coalition – opposed Brown’s proposal, which would have weakened the sweep of the California Environmental Quality Act. The landmark 1970 state law is often used by unions and environmentalists to win concessions from developers or to block projects outright.

Would it be the same insult-slinging, filterless personality Americans have grown accustomed to seeing on T.V., who protesters waited for hours just to throw eggs at and block his limo from entering the hotel complex thereby forcing him to enter through a back way?

Or would the business tycoon and GOP presidential frontrunner be more subdued to look more presidential — as media reports have recently suggested — while speaking to a politically experienced and partisan audience?

Wastes no time

His introductory video took shots at right-leaning media personalities, like Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Washington Post columnist George Will and Republican strategist and talking head Karl Rove, who have at times doubted, challenged or decried a Trump candidacy. The video ended with a freeze frame of his hand (which has surprisingly been a storyline during the campaign) looming large above a crowd. 

The beginning of his speech chronicled his efforts to get inside, which was “not the easiest entrance” he’d ever made, having to go “under a fence and through a fence.” (A later account added mud and dirt.)

Here’s the hole in the fence Trump used to evade protestors adjacent to the 101.

“Oh boy, I felt like I was crossing the border,” Trump said. 

And with that, he launched into an extemporaneous, 20 or so minute speech that was short on policy — he mentioned building a wall across the U.S./Mexico border (“We want people to come in our country, but they have to come in legally,” Trump said) and bashed multiple trade deals — but was long on bravado and digs at other candidates.

Content

Trump spoke largely about how he’s “winning” the race for the nomination, how he’ll soon “win” the nomination and how he’ll make America “win.”

“America doesn’t win anymore,” Trump said, noting that as of today his campaign has 1,001 delegates locked down of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination.

“I’m killing it, everybody,” Trump said. 

Trump spoke of a need for party unification. He spoke highly of the “incredible” Ben Carson, a former candidate who has since endorsed Trump.

Trump often complimented CAGOP Chairman Jim Brulte, who “did such a great job.”

He bragged about how he would compete and campaign in states that he said other Republican candidates write off, like New York (his home state) and Michigan. 

“No Republican would campaign in Michigan,” Trump said, overlooking the 2012 GOP nominee, Mitt Romney — the son of a former Republican governor of the Michigan — who vowed last cycle to campaign in the Great Lake State until the end.  

He spoke favorably of another former candidate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who this week was announced as Sen. Ted Cruz’s running mate (assuming he gets the nomination). 

“I like Carly,” Trump said, before adding that Carly brings no delegates with her to the Texan’s ticket (she technically won one delegate in Iowa).

On Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the other two remaining GOP candidates, Trump said they were acting like “spoiled children” for continuing to stay in the race. Cruz has only 565 delegates and Kasich has only 153. 

Trump also doubled down on his favorite critique of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also a former candidate.

“Low energy,” Trump said. “Very low energy.”

Trump referred to Kasich eating as “disgusting.” Kasich eating at campaign stops has been another surprising side theme of the primary.  

“Did you ever see him do a news conference without eating,” Trump asked.

Trump decried the trend of candidates savaging each other in the primary, only to ultimately fall in line and support the other when one drops.

“Ted Cruz, he’s a wonderful guy,” Trump said. “But I don’t want his endorsement.”

Highlights of Twitter’s coverage of Trump’s entrance and the protests

https://twitter.com/hunterschwarz/status/726140981658193921 https://twitter.com/ccadelago/status/726136663554957312 https://twitter.com/ccadelago/status/726149867010056192 https://twitter.com/LATSeema/status/726122131860262912 https://twitter.com/LATSeema/status/726122723806601217 https://twitter.com/LATSeema/status/726128380215590913 https://twitter.com/eastbaycitizen/status/726096358612963328

California’s often-beleaguered Republican voters are putting their faith in their party’s biggest outsiders.

In a new poll conducted by USC Dornsife and the Los Angeles Times, respondents indicated an overwhelming preference for Donald Trump and Ben Carson, reflecting West Coast conservatives’ deep dissatisfaction with politics as usual.

“Trump won the support of 24 percent of California Republicans surveyed, while Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and lesser-known conservative favorite, was backed by 18 percent,” the Times reported. “More than a dozen other candidates, most of them elected politicians, resided in the single digits, far behind the leaders.”

A fluid race

The poll suggested Trump owed his edge in the Golden State to the traction gained by hammering hard on the consequences of illegal immigration. But Carson, who has not belabored that issue, came in such a close second to Trump that the margin between them fell within the poll’s 5.3 point margin of error. In fact, as the LA Weekly noted, the poll revealed that “Carson held an 11-point lead when matched against Trump in a one-on-one matchup — 43 percent of Republicans supported him for president while 32 percent backed Trump.”

At the same time, respondents also demonstrated that the primary race in California remains as competitive as it appears to around the country. “Among Republicans, 1 in 5 voters polled in the state was undecided about which candidate to back, and many candidates were unknown to a quarter or more of voters interviewed,” the Times added.

Dan Schnur, director of the poll and USC’s Unruh Institute of Politics, described the result as a triumph of anger over ideology. “More than half of the Republican primary voters who have chosen a candidate are supporting someone who has never held elected office,” he said, according to The Hill.

The Trump effect

Although hardly the runaway favorite, Donald Trump has become a uniquely significant political force – especially in California, where his polarizing remarks on immigration have given Republicans and Democrats alike an opportunity to score political points of their own.

Some campaigning Democrats have turned Trump into their hoped-for advantage. “Former Hermosa Beach City Councilwoman Nanette Barragán and state Sen. Isadore Hall will attend two separate events in their district Tuesday protesting Trump’s arrival to the state for Wednesday’s GOP primary debate,” Roll Call noted. “Both Hall and Barragán are competing in a Democratic primary in California’s 44th District to replace Rep. Janice Hahn,” the outgoing Democrat who opted this year to run for a seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

What’s more, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom himself jumped into the fray, unleashing an animated video designed to deride Trump’s stance on immigration and, by implication, pump up Newsom’s own. “Mocking Trump as ‘Mr. Make America Great Again’ — the theme of the New York real estate magnate’s campaign — Newsom criticized Trump’s demand that the United States build a wall along the southern border, deport 11 million or so immigrants here without proper papers, and restrict citizenship rights of children of those in the country illegally,” the Los Angeles Times observed. “‘Trump’s plan will be a disaster and I’ll debate that at any time,’ Newsom said.”

The move underscored how Newsom, off to what the New York Times called an “early start” to his own political campaign, saw Trump as an opportunity to hit out at California Republicans. According to the Times, “other Democrats are likely to imitate his strategy of making Mr. Trump the face of the Republican Party. Mr. Newsom has been critical of Mr. Trump since he announced his presidential run, warning in July that Mr. Trump’s remarks about immigrants are dangerous.”

But the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll suggested Democrats would be advised not to push too hard in trying to reduce Trump’s California support to immigration. Discontent with Sacramento has extended throughout a host of other economic and policy issues as well, creating opposition that will remain fierce even with Trump and his rhetoric out of the picture. “Supporters of Trump and Carson had a far bleaker notion of California than other Republicans; only 5 percent of Trump backers and 8 percent of Carson voters said the state was headed in the right direction. Among supporters of other candidates, 18 percent said the state was going in the right direction,” according to the Times. 

By Calwatchdog.com Editors

Dr. Ben Carson, joined by author Eric Metaxas, spoke at the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC) on the importance of developing and maintaining an educated populace — one with common sense. Being proactive and strategizing, he said, rather than being purely reactive, is how to protect the conservative vision for the future. He also added that it was essential for Americans to take care of their own, not depend on the federal government and think wisely about how to spend our money. Watch the full speech below: