{"id":479941,"date":"2026-09-30T01:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T01:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/479941\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T01:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T01:20:11","slug":"newsoms-do-over-on-sober-housing-could-help-erase-a-2028-campaign-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/479941\/","title":{"rendered":"Newsom\u2019s do-over on sober housing could help erase a 2028 campaign liability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published Sep. 29, 2026at5:04pm<\/p>\n

By signing a law to expand drug-free housing for homeless people, Gov. Gavin Newsom did more than reverse a prior veto. He also may have reset the narrative around a potential 2028 political liability.<\/p>\n

Newsom, a likely presidential contender, on Tuesday approved a bill that allows state funding for housing projects that promote sober living. His move is an abrupt shift from years of California homelessness policies shaped by a \u201chousing-first\u201d philosophy, which prohibits preconditions like sobriety or treatment.<\/p>\n

Last fall, Newsom vetoed a similar bill<\/a> from San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney. The governor wrote in his veto memo that housing sites banning illicit drug use could already be funded by the state, arguing that it would create a \u201cduplicative and costly\u201d extra category.<\/p>\n

But according to a legislative analysis report, state law has been focused on the housing-first approach to funding projects, a strategy \u201cinformed by a harm-reduction philosophy that recognizes drug and alcohol use and addiction as a part of tenants\u2019 lives and where tenants are engaged in nonjudgmental communication regarding drug and alcohol use.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Haney, a former San Francisco supervisor whose district included the Tenderloin and who sponsored both bills, said he was initially shocked by Newsom\u2019s reaction to it last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe veto message had us all scratching our heads,\u201d Haney said. \u201cNobody believed that we could already do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom faced swift blowback from both Democrats and Republicans, who argued that the state\u2019s approach ignored<\/a> how soaring fentanyl overdoses and open-air drug markets have shifted the conversation around addiction treatment.<\/p>\n

Mayor Daniel Lurie \u2014 a Newsom ally whose wife, Becca Prowda, works for the governor \u2014 was especially pointed in his criticism last year, saying, \u201cWe are starting to see progress, but the governor\u2019s veto of this bill\u202fthreatens to stop that progress in its tracks.\u201d Other Democrats, including Supervisor Matt Dorsey and San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, also slammed the veto.<\/p>\n

Some questioned the extent to which the veto was driven by state agencies. Grow SF, the moderate advocacy group, suggested as much, saying it \u201cexemplifies how state bureaucracy blocks effective local governance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The issue has continued to trail Newsom in recent months. Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton has repeatedly evoked it on the campaign trail, calling it an example of how Newsom\u2019s homelessness policies are a \u201ccomplete disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pathetically too little, way too late,\u201d Hilton said of Newsom signing the bill. \u201cThese are the defining failures of his time in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

That line of attack could be a liability for Newsom\u2019s presidential ambitions, despite his reversal, providing fodder to GOP foes who point to viral images of California\u2019s tent encampments and open-air drug markets to ridicule the governor\u2019s record.<\/p>\n

While Newsom\u2019s do-over took nearly a year, it has been in the works for many months. Officials from Haney and Lurie\u2019s offices began meeting with members of Newsom\u2019s administration last fall to convince state officials that the bill was needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the veto, it seemed clear pretty quickly that the governor did want to get something done quickly on this,\u201d Haney said.<\/p>\n

Haney argued that state agency guidelines effectively blocked funding for sober housing projects \u2014 even if the state law didn\u2019t explicitly ban it. He said the spread of open-air drug markets near supportive housing sites heightened the sense of urgency.<\/p>\n

\"MattAssemblymember Matt Haney authored the bill that allows funding for sober housing projects. | Source: Estefany Gonzalez\/The Standard<\/p>\n

Haney called the policy absurdly restrictive: \u201cImagine you\u2019re battling obesity, and you\u2019re forced to live in a McDonald\u2019s. It\u2019s nonsensical, and it\u2019s dangerous. If someone needs to get off drugs, the worst thing you could do is send them back to an environment where there\u2019s drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsom didn\u2019t provide a signing message when he approved Haney\u2019s legislation, AB1556, on Tuesday. His office said the bill would provide \u201crecovery options for homeless by making Housing First-compliant recovery housing clearly eligible for state funding, while preserving tenant protections and access to other housing options.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s administration still argues that sober housing was allowed under existing state law and that Haney\u2019s bill simply clarifies the process. But guidelines published last year by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness prohibit state-funded housing projects from evicting tenants for drug use and require that they be \u201cvoluntarily engaged\u201d in treatment services.<\/p>\n

Haney and sober housing advocates say those guidelines effectively banned state-funded recovery housing.<\/p>\n

San Francisco has a few sober-housing sites funded through the city. The vast majority of supportive housing units in the city operate under a \u201chousing-first\u201d policy that doesn\u2019t require treatment for residents.<\/p>\n

This summer, the Board of Supervisors approved Dorsey\u2019s legislation that targets so-called \u201cdrug-tolerant housing\u201d by requiring San Francisco to prioritize funding for future supportive housing projects that ban illicit drug use and allow evictions for repeat violations. The policy applies only to new projects funded by the city.<\/p>\n

But Haney\u2019s bill could expand the number of sober facilities in the city by unlocking state funding for new projects.<\/p>\n

The bill doesn\u2019t specify a specific funding amount \u2014 unlike his proposal last year \u2014 but it would make sober projects eligible for grants. Haney said the goal is to provide sober housing for those who want it, not to end the availability of \u201chousing-first\u201d sites.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published Sep. 29, 2026at5:04pm By signing a law to expand drug-free housing for homeless people, Gov. Gavin Newsom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[636,13259,457,1493,31349,101,103,102,104,106,105,37511],"class_list":["post-479941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-daniel-lurie","tag-drug-overdose-crisis","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-homelessness","tag-matt-haney","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-sf-reality-check"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}