What’s really behind California’s homeless crisis?
It was former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel who famously said, “You never want to let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it gives you an opportunity to do things that you could not do before.”
The tactic has been linked to Saul Alinsky, the radical Chicago community organizer of whom former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama and Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are disciples.
In November 2018, California voters defeated a statewide ballot initiative that would have extended rent control statewide. It was soundly rejected by an almost 20-point margin. Every county in the state except for San Francisco voted it down.
Even the Democrat running for governor, Gavin Newsom, indicated his opposition to the initiative. But now that he’s in office, the former lieutenant governor and former mayor of San Francisco has changed his position, insisting the state must respond to the homeless problem.
Last week we learned of at least one of the actions the governor plans to take. Newsom signed a statewide rent-control law, overturning the will of the people. He followed the progressive playbook by using the homeless crisis “to do things that you could not do before.”
Progressives assert that the homeless crisis is due in large part to a housing shortage, and that the best way to address the shortage is with rent control. The new law also protects tenants from eviction without good reason and provides compensation to tenants if they are evicted due to renovation.