Policy Platform

Housing, Homelessness & Work

A unified plan focused on lowering rent, creating clear pathways out of homelessness, and building partnerships that deliver real results.

Executive Summary: Work–Live–Treatment Campus Pilot Donate

Homelessness & Work Pathways

A Results-Driven Plan to Restore Stability, Dignity, and Opportunity in California

The Core Promise: Homelessness is not solved by slogans or endless spending—it is solved with clear pathways, accountability, and real opportunities to rebuild a life. My plan focuses on preventing homelessness, bringing people indoors quickly, providing treatment when needed, and creating real jobs and skills training so Californians can stand on their own again.

1) Stop homelessness before it starts

The fastest and least expensive solution is prevention.

Measure of success: fewer first-time homeless Californians and fewer evictions.

2) Bring people indoors quickly with a clear housing pathway

No one should be left to cycle between the street and emergency rooms.

Measure of success: fewer people living outdoors and shorter stays in shelters.

3) Treatment-first support for mental illness and addiction

Compassion means meeting people where they are—and helping them move forward.

Measure of success: fewer psychiatric crises, overdoses, ER visits, and returns to homelessness.

4) Build and open housing faster and smarter

California cannot solve homelessness without more homes.

Measure of success: lower costs per unit and faster housing delivery.

5) Work & Skills Pathways: from stabilization to self-sufficiency

Housing stabilizes lives—work restores independence.

Paid transitional jobs

Skills training for real jobs

Employer partnerships

Removing barriers to work

Measure of success: job placement, retention, wage growth, and reduced reliance on public assistance.

6) Veterans: priority access to housing and employment

Those who served our country deserve a direct path forward.

Measure of success: stable housing and long-term employment for veterans.

7) Accountability, transparency, and safer communities

Every dollar must produce results.

Measure of success: fewer encampments, safer neighborhoods, and lasting housing stability.

Plain-language summary: California needs a homelessness strategy that actually works. My plan prevents people from falling into homelessness, brings those on the street indoors quickly, provides treatment when needed, builds housing faster, and creates paid work and skills training so people can rebuild their lives. The goal is simple: fewer people on the street, more people working, and real accountability for results.

Lowering the Cost of Rent

Making Housing Affordable by Reducing Costs, Risk, and Instability in California

The Real Problem

California’s housing crisis is not caused by a lack of buildings—it is caused by rent that people cannot afford. Families are being priced out of existing housing, pushed into instability, and driven toward homelessness by rising rents, income disruptions, and system failures.

Affordable housing is the goal. Lowering the cost of rent is the solution.

The Core Promise

Homelessness and housing instability are not solved by slogans or endless spending. They are solved with clear pathways, accountability, and real opportunities to rebuild a life.

This plan lowers the cost of rent by keeping people housed, reducing risk for landlords, using existing housing first, providing treatment when needed, and increasing incomes through work and skills training.

1) Prevent Rent Spikes from Becoming Evictions

The fastest and least expensive way to lower housing costs is to prevent people from losing their homes in the first place.

Measure of success: fewer evictions and fewer first-time homeless Californians.

2) Use Existing Housing to Lower Rent Pressure

New housing construction takes years and costs billions. California already has housing that can be used now to relieve rent pressure.

Measure of success: faster placements and lower per-household housing costs.

3) Treatment and Stability Reduce Long-Term Costs

Rent becomes unaffordable when untreated mental illness or addiction destabilizes lives. Addressing these challenges lowers long-term costs for individuals, families, and taxpayers.

Measure of success: fewer ER visits, fewer crises, and stable housing retention.

4) Work Is the Long-Term Rent Control

Housing is only affordable when income is stable. The most effective way to reduce rent burden is to help people earn more.

Measure of success: job placement, wage growth, and reduced reliance on rent assistance.

5) Accountability and Transparency

Every housing dollar must produce results that people can see and trust.

Measure of success: fewer encampments, safer neighborhoods, and lasting stability.

California needs a housing strategy that actually works. This plan lowers the cost of rent by keeping people housed, using existing housing, providing treatment when needed, and creating real jobs so people can afford to stay housed. The goal is simple: fewer people on the street, more people working, and housing costs that match real incomes.

Closing Principle: Affordable housing is the goal. Lowering the cost of rent is how we get there.

How Landlords Can Help Solve the Homelessness Crisis

—Gheorghe T. Golea as Governor: Getting the Partnership Right

The Reality

Homelessness in California is driven primarily by housing affordability, income disruptions, and public-system failures—not by a lack of housing owners or goodwill. Most landlords operate on thin margins and face significant legal, financial, and regulatory risk. Many want to be part of the solution—but rational risk avoidance keeps them on the sidelines.

The policy mistake of the past: Blaming or coercing landlords.

The solution going forward: Align incentives, reduce risk, and respect landlords as essential partners.

1) Make Participation Safe, Predictable, and Insurable

Landlords respond to certainty, not rhetoric.

What Government Must Provide

A. Guaranteed Rent Backstops

Why it matters: Late or uncertain rent is the number-one barrier to landlord participation.

B. Damage & Loss Mitigation Funds

Why it matters: Landlords cannot price unknown risk into affordable rents.

C. Fast, Fair Dispute Resolution

Why it matters: Lengthy eviction court delays can bankrupt small landlords.

D. Stable Rules for the Life of the Lease

Why it matters: Unpredictability is worse than regulation.

How Landlords Help

Key insight: Every landlord who says “yes” prevents months—or years—of public expense.

2) Use Existing Housing First (Fastest, Cheapest Impact)

Why This Matters

New construction:
  • Takes years
  • Costs hundreds of thousands per unit
  • Does not help people today
Existing housing:
  • Exists now
  • Costs far less
  • Preserves neighborhood integration

Landlord Participation Models

A. Master Leasing

B. Incentivized Direct Leasing

C. Short-Term Stabilization Leases

Why this works: Faster than building, less expensive per placement, more humane than long shelter stays, and keeps people integrated in real communities.

3) Prevention: Keep People Housed (Highest Return on Investment)

Preventing homelessness costs a fraction of resolving it.

What Landlords Already Know

Most evictions stem from job loss, medical emergencies, or family crises—not chronic irresponsibility.

How Landlords Can Help

What Government Must Do

Bottom line: Landlords will prevent homelessness if they are not punished for doing so.

4) Housing + Work = Stability

Housing stability improves when income stability improves.

Landlord Role

Government Role

Result: Tenants graduate to market-rate housing instead of cycling back into homelessness.

5) Responsibility + Support = Fewer Failures

This is not housing with no expectations.

Landlord Responsibilities

Program Responsibilities

Outcome: Fewer evictions, fewer conflicts, safer properties, and stronger communities.

6) Incentivize Participation—Never Mandate It

Mandates reduce supply. Incentives expand it.

Effective Incentives

Participation should be voluntary, respected, and rewarded.

7) What Landlords Should NOT Be Asked to Do

For credibility, this must be explicit.

Homelessness is a public systems failure—not a private property failure.

Landlord-Facing Closing Statement:
“When government reduces risk, guarantees rent, and provides real support, landlords will open doors. That’s how we reduce homelessness faster, cheaper, and more humanely.”

One-Line Summary: “The fastest way to reduce homelessness is to make it safe for landlords to say yes.”