California state agency reorganization puts new focus on homelessness
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
PRIORITY ON HOMELESSNESS
A new housing agency will be tackling California’s housing and homelessness issues.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a restructuring of state agencies aimed at streamlining housing programs and increasing affordability, according to a press release from the state Housing and Community Development department.
From the reorganization will come two new agencies: the California Housing and Homelessness Agency and the Business and Consumer Services Agency (BCSA).
The CHHA will focus on coordinating efforts to address housing, homelessness and civil rights. The BCSA will strengthen consumer protection.
The new agencies become effective on July 1, 2026. The current Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency will be dissolved at that time, according to the HCD release.
Tomiquia Moss, secretary of the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency, said the reorganization will “enable us to better reach our goal of 2.5 million new homes by 2030, with one million of them being affordable housing.”
The HCD release said the Newsom administration has implemented “significant policy changes” and provided support to local governments to address housing and homelessness during the past six years.
Homelessness increased nationally by over 18% in 2024, the release said, while homelessness increased by 3% in California.
GALLUP POLL SHOWS INCREASINGLY POSITIVE IMMIGRATION SENTIMENT
Via Rebecca-Ann Jattan
A recent Gallup poll showed increasingly positive attitudes towards immigration among a sample of American adults in the past year.
The poll was conducted from June 2 to June 26 and the results were based on a random sample of 1,402 adults nationwide who participated in phone interviews. The sample was weighted to represent the national distribution of racial and ethnic groups, with an oversample of Black and Hispanic adults.
Fewer Americans want reduced immigration into the country, with the percentage of people in favor of lower immigration rates decreasing from 55% in 2024 to 30% today. Republicans, Democrats and independents all showed decreased support for efforts to clamp down on immigration to the United States.
The poll found 38% of participants want immigration to remain at the current level, while 26% say it should be increased.
A record-high number of Americans called immigration a “good thing,” according to the poll, with 79% of all survey participants saying immigration benefits the country and 17% saying it is bad for the country.
“The numbers don’t lie: the majority of Americans agree that immigration is overwhelmingly good for our country and our economy,” Sen. Alex Padilla said in a statement following the poll’s release.
Of all participants, 38% approve of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and 62% disapprove, according to the poll. Among Republicans, 59% express strong approval and 81% of Democrats are in strong opposition.
Support for allowing undocumented immigrants to become U.S. citizens also increased, to 78% this year from 70% in 2024. Among Republicans, 59% were in favor of a path to citizenship in 2025 compared to 46% last year.
LIVESTOCK LOSSES
Via David Lightman
Democratic Rep. Adam Gray and Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra are teaming up to push legislation that would help provide up-to-date prices for livestock losses covered by federal disaster aid programs.
The Livestock Indemnity Plan currently provides help to livestock producers for livestock deaths not caused by natural mortality.
The plan, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, can help pay for losses because of severe weather, attacks by animals introduced to the wild by the federal government, disease or natural disaster.
The producers get compensation at 75% of the average fair market value of affected livestock.
But that value can now only be updated once a year. The act by Gray, D-Merced, and Feenstra, R-Iowa, would require quarterly updates to valuation, allowing quicker adjustments as market prices shifted.
The bill, Gray said in a statement, would “make sure that when Valley producers lose livestock through no fault of their own, they are fairly compensated according to the most up to date market prices available.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Maybe try stopping the spread of bird flu instead of firing bird flu experts at USDA?”
—Sen. Adam Schiff in X post
Best of The Bee:
California retiree group wants to investigate CalPERS. It’s not the first time, via William Melhado
Under his leadership, Sacramento State’s LGBTQ community grows stronger, via Calista Oetama
Sacramento homeless camp cleanup company sued for labor violations. City cuts ties, via Theresa Clift
This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 4:55 AM.