There are few issues that demonstrate the failure of California leadership more than homelessness. Seemingly everywhere you look, homelessness is diminishing the quality of life and safety in our communities– and perhaps most troubling, we are leaving thousands of Californians to struggle and die on the streets.

We need a new approach to homelessness that addresses the root causes of the problem: mental health and substance abuse. We need to reform the way we treat those suffering from mental health and substance abuse and reform conservatorship laws to make it easier for families, social workers, and law enforcement to take action when someone simply can’t act on their own accord. In addition, we need to return to the successful drug courts model which provided the ability of judges to require those suffering from addiction to receive treatment.

We also need to make it easier to build new housing in California. The high cost of housing directly contributes to the homelessness crisis and is caused by radical environmental policies implemented by the state. In the Senate, I would champion efforts to streamline housing construction and lower the cost of building new housing units in our state.