California homeless crisis looms as...

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Gonzalez, 32, her eyes welling. She turned back to the mirror, finishing her eye makeup. “I want to get help and find a program, but there’s no treatment around here. It seems like nobody cares.”

Across California, homelessness is impossible to escape. Steep increases — Sacramento County saw a 67% rise in its homelessness count from 2019 to 2022 — have so far blunted unprecedented government efforts to fund housing and treatment for people living on the streets. And although some communities have made progress, statewide the gravity of the crisis has deepened.

IRS says more early birds filing...

Although refunds are expected to be somewhat smaller this year because the COVID economic impact payments have ended, Moorehead advised people to file a 2022 return even if you don’t owe taxes.

“While people with income under a certain amount are not generally required to file a tax return, those who qualify for certain tax credits or already paid some federal tax by having taxes withheld from their paycheck may qualify for a tax refund, but they must file in order to get one,” he said.

Kevin Moorehead, Deputy Commissioner, Wage and Investment Division at the IRS, explains the green energy credits available to those who have purchased a green vehicle.

Don’t leave money on the table, agreed Sue Simon, Director of IRS Customer Assistance.

“What we want to do is ensure that anyone who has not filed a 2021 tax return do so.

But in order to collect unpaid benefits, you have to file both a 2021 and a 2022 return. However you fill out these returns, either electronically or by paper, Simon said it is imperative that you put “Zero” as the amount of your adjusted gross income. Then IRS computers can digest that information and by filing for both years, technical errors can be avoided.

The IRS won’t call you but you can call them on toll free phone lines and get assistance in one of 350 languages. Simon said interpreter services are also available in any of IRS’s 362 taxpayer assistance centers via their telephones.

“There are forms that are commonly used by taxpayers that are available in Spanish, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Haitian, Creole, Vietnamese and Russian,” Simon said. There are online tools at IRS. gov to help people determine if they are eligible for EITC, a Sales Tax Deduction Calculator to determine how much sales tax is allowed as a deduction in your state. There is the Free File Online Lookup tool that helps taxpayers find the right company to file their tax return under the Free File program. Go to IRS.gov and search the Pick List. There is also a tax withholding estimator tool.

“All of those are available in English as well as those languages that I listed,” she said.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) provides help and counseling to taxpayers, free of charge, especially about EITC and additional Child Tax credits which can be hard to understand, Simon added.

Susan Simon, Director of Customer Assistance, Relationships and Education at the IRS, details how taxpayers can get free help filing their taxes.

“During the last two years, we had about 50,000 volunteers throughout the United States doing tax returns. This year, as of today, we have 81,000 volunteers in the United States and Puerto Rico preparing free tax returns for individuals and families.”

Simon said the IRS provides information in a way that taxpayers can have faith and trust that their tax return is being done correctly, that there is no scam going on, that there is no fraud.

A lot of people used VITA. Last year, VITA volunteers prepared 2.2 million tax returns.

“Each one of these volunteers is trained by the IRS. They are certified. They are tested. So, you know you are getting accurate information,” she said. There is a Taxpayer Assistance Locator tool at IRS.gov to find the local office where you can set up an appointment and talk to someone in person.

This year is going to be “significantly better” than the last few difficult years of tax returns some of which the IRS is still processing, Moorehead predicted.

You could get more money in your pocket, he says. (Peter White/Ethnic Media Services)

Encampments have mutated into massive compounds proliferating with hard drugs and untreated mental illness. “Isn’t there supposed to be all this money and housing?” asked Gonzalez’s boyfriend, Joe Guzman, an exconvict who enforces rules for their encampment. Guzman said he has experience in construction but can’t find a job because of a felony drug record.

“Everybody out here is using,” said Guzman, 38, checking their emergency stash of naloxone, an overdose reversal medication, on a brisk November morning. “What else are you going to do, especially when it’s this cold? You have to be numb.”

At its heart, California’s homeless emergency stems from a long-standing shortage of affordable housing. But it is also a public health crisis: The encampments are rife with mental health and addiction disorders. Rats and roaches are endemic, as are stagnant sewage and toxic camp smoke.

Gov. Gavin Newsom brims with frustration — and purpose and new ideas — when confronted with what has become an age-old question for California leaders: Why, for all the money and good intentions poured into helping people out of homelessness, does it look worse today than ever?

Experts on homelessness say California stands out as the state that has done the most in recent years to address the issue, yet communities are struggling to make headway.

“Some people are demoralized,” Newsom said last summer, unveiling a strategy to fund housing for homeless people with mental health and addiction disorders. “Some people have, frankly, given up — given up on us, given up on the prospect that we can ever solve this issue. And I want folks to know that they shouldn’t give up.”

Newsom has muscled historic investments of public funds to combat the crisis, wresting a staggering $18.4 billion in taxpayer money in his first four years for initiatives directly targeting homelessness, a KHN analysis found. And more money is on the way: Spending is projected to grow to $20.5 billion this year.

As he wades into his second term as governor, the stakes are higher. He has signaled his ambitions for national office and speculation abounds that he’s positioning himself for a presidential run. He has cast himself as a vanguard for liberal values, taking out ads to goad the Republican governors of Texas and Florida for their conservative politics and publicly chiding fellow Democrats for being too meek in their response to the nation’s culture wars, including a right-wing assault on abortion and classroom speech on issues of race and gender.

On this national stage, California’s squalid tent cities loom as a hulking political liability, ready-made visuals for opponents’ attack ads. Newsom’s legacy as governor and his path forward in the Democratic Party hinge on his making visible headway on homelessness, an issue that has stalked him since he was elected mayor of San Francisco two decades ago.

And Newsom is recalibrating, injecting a new sternness into his public statements on the topic, something akin to “tough love.”

He is enjoining local governments to clear out the unsanctioned encampments that homeless advocates have long defended as a merciful alternative in a state woefully short on housing options. And he is demanding that cities and counties submit aggressive plans outlining how they will reduce homelessness — and by how much — as a precondition for future rounds of funding.

“We have written checks, but we’ve never asked for anything in return,” Newsom told reporters in August. “That has radically changed. We mean business. It’s unacceptable what’s going on in this state.”

Newsom has set in motion a costly, multipronged battle plan, in many ways a grand experiment, attacking homelessness on multiple fronts.

Through his brainchild “Project Homekey,” the state has plowed about $4 billion into converting dilapidated hotels and motels into permanent housing with social services. Billions more have been allocated to cities and counties to clear encampments and open additional shelters and supportive housing.

Separate from that, his controversial “CARE Court” plan seeks a novel approach to compelling people languishing on the streets with untreated psychotic disorders to get treatment and housing. It melds the “carrot” of a court-ordered treatment plan, to be provided by local governments, with the “stick” of the prospect of courtordered conservatorship if people deemed a danger to themselves or others refuse to participate.

Newsom allocated $88 million to launch the initiative, and state funding is expected to grow to $215 million annually beginning in 2025.

That’s on top of his CalAIM initiative, which over five years will invest roughly $12 billion into a blitz of health care and social services with the goal of improving health in low-income communities and averting the financial crises that can land people on the streets. This includes direct interventions like emergency housing assistance, as well as unconventional support like help with groceries, money management, and home repairs.

Philip Mangano, a longtime friend of Newsom’s who served as national homelessness czar during the George W. Bush administration, credited Newsom for using his political might to take on a seemingly intractable issue like homelessness after so many administrations ignored it.

“Yes, we are spending a lot of money, and yet the problem is getting worse,” Mangano said.

“But look, the largest investment ever made in the history of our country, on homelessness, came from Gavin Newsom. He sees himself as responsible for taking care of the poorest Californians, and homeless people. I’ve known him over 20 years, and there’s no question that’s where his heart is.”

Still, putting the issue front and center is a serious gamble for someone with Newsom’s ambitions.

“Doing nothing puts him in peril, but doing something — he runs the risk of failing,” said u PAGE 4