Los Angeles CNN —California has spent a stunning $17.5 billion trying to combat homelessness over just four years. “The problem would be so much worse, absent these interventions,” Jason Elliott, senior adviser on homelessness to Gov. David Swanson/AFP/Getty ImagesThe admittedly reductive math would leave nearly $4 billion for services like mental health treatment. Still, tackling mental health issues among the unhoused is a major plank in the Newsom administration’s effort. “One of the surprising things was how optimistic people were that relatively small amounts of money would have prevented their homelessness,” Kushel said of the people surveyed.

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