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California Asks Trump Administration to Release Money to Fight Homelessness

Reuters

   SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - In the latest skirmish over California's
   homeless crisis, the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, asked President
   Donald Trump on Thursday to stop withholding federal housing vouchers
   that could benefit 50,000 homeless people.

   Newsom told Trump he could "immediately order" the Department of
   Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to issue federal housing vouchers,
   a program to assist low-income families, the elderly and the disabled
   find affordable homes in the private market.

   "With a single stroke of your pen, you can make a major, positive
   impact on homelessness right away," the Democratic governor said in a
   statement issued by his office.

   An estimated 130,000 people are homeless in California on any given
   day, more than any other state, HUD says.

   Trump has pummeled California officials for months about the state's
   growing homeless problem. On a visit to San Francisco and Los Angeles
   in September, the Republican president said people living on the street
   were hurting the "prestige" of those cities and sympathized with
   homeowners whose property values or quality of life could be hit by
   homelessness.

   The issue is just one front in a battle between the Trump
   administration and the leaders of the most-populous U.S. state.

   They have also locked horns over auto emissions, high-speed rail
   funding, building a U.S.-Mexico border wall and immigration
   regulations.

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