The number of unhoused individuals in Richmond increased by 90% since 2019. For details, see https://cchealth.org/h3/coc/pdf/PIT-infographic-2022.pdf. Contra Costa County has responsibility for homeless programs (H3 Homeless Programs) but is not committing enough resources, instead passing the responsibility to cities. Supervisor John Gioia should be working harder to direct resources to West County, which has the County’s highest homeless population of 877 individuals.

Instead of working to house the homeless, Gioia has been playing a key role in obtaining $36 million in the state budget to purchase a small part of Point Molate for a park that the City paid $1.00 for.

Unfortunately, Richmond’s response is ineffective because of the inability or lack of motivation of RPA City Council members (McLaughlin, Jimenez, Wills and Martinez) to spend City money on homeless programs wisely. Instead of using the millions of dollars of City money appropriated to actually place homeless people in homes, they have frittered it away perpetuating homeless camps.