Trump offers hope for the homeless —Newsom’s progress tour is a sham

President Trump took bold action to tackle America’s homelessness crisis with his July 24, 2025, executive order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” 

By prioritizing federal funding for states and cities that enforce bans on public camping and redirect resources to treatment for addiction and mental illness, Trump is showing the kind of leadership California desperately needs. 

Meanwhile, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is on a progress tour, touting what he claims are improvements in the state’s homelessness crisis. 

As someone who has spent years working directly with the homeless — veterans abandoned on Skid Row, downtown San Diego and countless other streets — I see Newsom’s campaign for what it is. It is a shallow public relations stunt designed to gloss over his failures while our heroes are left to die.

Newsom isn’t solving the crisis — he is sweeping it under the rug, just as he did before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to San Francisco. He didn’t clean up homelessness for Californians; he did it for a foreign rival. Now, with cameras rolling and higher political ambitions in mind, he’s pretending the problem didn’t fester under his watch. 

But the numbers tell the truth: California accounts for 28 percent of the nation’s homeless population, with over 187,000 people on our streets, 66 percent of them unsheltered. Veterans, who served our country with honor, are among the hardest hit, discarded by a state that prioritizes photo ops over people.

I have seen the human cost of this neglect up close. In Los Angeles, I met Army veterans sitting silently on a curb outside a housing facility built for them. They were denied entry because of past jail time — often for offenses tied to untreated mental health issues from their service. 

One veteran told me, “It feels like we don’t matter. Like our service never happened.”

In San Diego’s “swamp,” a female Navy veteran broke down when I hugged her, saying, “I thought everyone gave up on me.” She wasn’t asking for a handout—just a moment of dignity. 

And then there’s Mike Dolbow, a veteran living on the streets for over a decade with no outreach, no help, no recognition. He said, “Veterans are just a tool politicians use to get elected. They pretend to care when the cameras are on, then vanish.”

Buzzwords such as "curb to condo," "affordable housing" and "resilience hubs" sound polished in press releases, but they have failed to deliver.

Since 2019, Newsom has poured more than $24 billion into homelessness programs, yet the crisis persists. This includes one veterans' housing project that the California American Legion says has an anticipated total cost exceeding $1.4 billion for at least 1,200 units. That averages to approximately $833,000 per unit.

This isn’t progress — it’s a betrayal of those who served.

President Trump, in contrast, has a record of action. In May, he ordered the Veteran’s Administration to reclaim the West Los Angeles Veterans’ Affairs land to build housing for veterans — cutting through bureaucracy with speed and focus. 

The executive order also empowers local governments to clear encampments and fund treatment programs, ensuring people aren’t just moved but helped. 

As White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, by “removing vagrant criminals from our streets and redirecting resources toward substance abuse programs,” the administration will “ensure that Americans feel safe in their communities and that individuals suffering from addiction or mental health struggles get the help they need.”

What California needs isn’t more of Newsom’s over-funded photo ops — it’s base camps: infrastructure-based transitional communities modeled after the military. 

These disciplined, supportive environments, as I have advocated in my work with veterans, would provide not just shelter but a pathway to stability, offering veterans food, mental health services, addiction recovery, VA benefits assistance, and job training under one roof, with discipline and dignity.

Not shelters. Not stopgaps. Real solutions.

Newsom’s "progress tour" is nothing but an audition for his next job. Californians, especially our veterans, know the truth: years of inaction, empty promises and neglect. 

Veterans don’t need more words — they need action. President Trump’s executive order is a step toward delivering it, showing what leadership looks like when it’s driven by results, not headlines.

Kate Monroe is a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, CEO of Vetcomm and founder of Border Vets.