Gavin Newsom: Let Doctors ‘Write Prescriptions for Housing’ Like Medication

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has proposed allowing doctors to prescribe housing akin to medication as part of a five-point plan to combat the state’s growing homelessness epidemic.

Newsom made the proposal during his State of the State address before a joint convention of the California Legislature on Wednesday.

“Health care and housing can no longer be divorced. After all, what’s more fundamental to a person’s well-being than a roof over their head?” Newsom told the Democrat-controlled body. “Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin or antibiotics.”

To help justify the plan, the governor claimed that “ten million Californians, one in four, suffer from some type of behavioral health condition.”

Newsom then floated a Medi-Cal reform measure, which would require an additional $695 million in budget funding. He also called for affordable housing to function as a “fundamental building block” to the state’s solution for homelessness.

Newsom capped off his remarks by calling California’s homelessness crisis a “disgrace,” echoing his remarks to Breitbart News in December.

“It is an embarrassment, it is unacceptable. And we’ve got to own it, we’ve got to own up and solve it,” Newsom replied when asked about the issue after the Democrat presidential primary debate at Loyola Marymount University. “And the affordability crisis on housing also needs to be resolved. It’s absolutely fair game to talk about regulation in that respect, and it’s fair game to talk about policies.”

Newsom’s admission came after the Department of Housing and Urban Development was set to release a report revealing that the U.S.’s homeless population had grown by 2.7 percent as of January 2019 due to a 16.4 percent increase in California’s homeless population.

President Donald Trump has criticized Newsom on the issue, writing in a Christmas Day tweet that the governor was undertaking “a really bad job of taking care of the homeless population in California” and warned the federal government could get involved unless the issue is solved.

“Governor Gavin N has done a really bad job on taking care of the homeless population in California. If he can’t fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!” the president wrote at the time.