GOP mocks Gavin Newsom’s ‘brag’ over modest increase in homelessness hike

California Republican leaders appeared to mock Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fiery response to a critical analysis of his handling of the Golden State’s homelessness crisis, saying that any increase in homelessness is not admirable.

State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones criticized Newsom, calling the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s year-end Homelessness Assessment Report an indictment of his capabilities.

"Gavin Newsom literally lost track of the $27 billion he spent on the homeless crisis," Jones said, citing the report as listing California first in homelessness, with an increase of 3% to 187,000.

"Today’s HUD report makes it clear that instead of solving the problem, Newsom’s endless spending ‘solution’ has only made it worse," said Jones, R-San Diego.

The report, however, also cited that Illinois, Wyoming, Hawaii and Colorado were the states where family homelessness doubled or worse.

A statement from the Republican caucus of the California State Assembly keyed into Newsom’s recent thorough defense against an op-ed in the outlet CalMatters that made similar criticisms.

"In case you missed it, Governor Newsom’s office threw a tantrum over a column… that broke down his history of failure on homelessness," the caucus, led by Assemblyman James Gallagher of Yuba City, collectively wrote.