Newsom: 10 ‘failing’ California counties could lose CARE Court funds
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday he was prepared to claw back state funds from 10 counties he said had not made sufficient progress to treat people struggling with their mental health, homelessness, and substance use disorder.
Newsom labeled San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Kern, Riverside, Yolo, Monterey, Fresno, and Santa Clara counties “underperforming” when it came to implementing CARE Court, his 2023 initiative expanding a state mental health program.
The “benchmark” for successful implementation is 6.2 petitions per 100,000 residents, Newsom told reporters during a news conference in Alameda County, referring to the process by which qualified providers or family members can petition someone to undergo treatment, either voluntarily or via court order.
The 10 counties were listed as “underperforming” because they reported the lowest petitions per capita of 100,000 residents, according to Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos. His office said in a news release that they would “receive additional support through the state’s CARE Improvement and Coordination Unit.”
Last year was the first year all 58 California counties partook in the program. The residential rate is based on the 12 months of calendar year 2025, according to Newsom’s office.
Newsom championed CARE Court as his signature program to address street homelessness, mental health and the drug epidemic starting in 2023. According to previous Bee reporting, the San Francisco Chronicle and Cal Matters, CARE Court has fallen far short of its goals due to a slow rollout, high barriers to entry, and unattainable expectations.
Newsom has blamed CARE Court’s sluggish pace on local officials, who he said were inadequately supportive, hostile to implementing it, or reticent to challenge residents who were opposed to expanding housing and services. He also touted a 9% drop in unsheltered homelessness, a dubious statistic that is partially based on old federal data from 2024 and numbers pulled from local governments.
“I’m just not interested in funding failure now. So you know, they may overrule me,” he said, referring to past court challenges from local governments. “There’s a lot of power in LA County, Riverside County, Santa Clara County, some of the counties we’re calling out to overrule. But you know, with respect, I’m happy to sweep every damn dollar and redirect it to those, you know, folks up in Humboldt, folks over here in Alameda. Pay for performance, period. It’s common sense.”
Newsom’s office listed Humboldt, Tuolumne, Marin, Napa, Merced, Sutter, Alameda, Santa Barbara, San Mateo and Imperial counties as “CARE Court champions” who had made strides to tackle homelessness and offer increased services.
During the same news conference, Newsom said his administration was awarding $159 million to 20 regions throughout the state for the sixth round of the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, which since 2019 has granted state funds to city and county governments. Three of the counties he labeled “CARE ICU Improvement and Coordination Unit) Counties” — San Bernardino, Monterey, and Fresno — received HHAP funds in the latest round.
He named his hometown of San Francisco as an example of “failure,” and suggested that his revised budget proposal in May might reflect less available funding if the city and other local governments don’t make more progress on CARE Court.
Michelle Doty Cabrera, the executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, called CARE Court petitions “a cry for help.”
“The idea of measuring success on the numbers of people who are in need in any given community fails to account for those counties who may have already done an excellent job of connecting individuals with care that prevented them from falling into crisis,” she said in a statement. “Nor does it recognize the time needed to build trust with individuals in need of services. We will work with the administration to do everything we can to spread the word and bring those in need into services which is our true north.”
Fresno County spokesperson Ahmadreza Bahrami said that as of last week, 62 CARE Court petitions had been filed, putting the county at 6 per 100,000 residents, just under Newsom’s benchmark rate.
“We look forward to engaging in the enhanced technical assistance from the state,” Bahrami said in an email. “We also look forward to continuing to refine our local implementation of best practices and learning from the counties identified as CARE Act Champions.”
In a statement, Santa Clara County Executive James Williams said his community had been at the “forefront” of the fight to build more housing, address behavioral health and expand treatment.
“Our approach is grounded in what works: rapidly connecting people to clinically appropriate treatment and housing, rather than defaulting to lengthy, costly, and often inadequate court-based processes that do not produce better outcomes. CARE Court is one tool among many. The number of people who go through that process is not, and has never been, the sole measure of a county’s performance,” he said.
“If the Governor is asking what counties need to accelerate this work, the answer is clear: we need partnership and sustained funding. Counties across California are confronting multi-billion dollar shortfalls driven by federal actions, even as demand for behavioral health services continues to rise. Progress will only be accelerated by working together to close those funding gaps and expand proven local solutions, not by reducing a complex system to a single scorecard.”
Others, like Los Angeles, Yolo, San Bernardino, and Kern counties said they strived to provide their residents with services required under CARE Court.
“In the last quarter, Los Angeles County’s number of petitions filed has reached above the goal the State has set for us,” said Chung So, a Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health spokesperson.
“While recent comments from the governor’s office highlighted petition numbers across counties, it is important to note that low petition volume is not, in itself, a measure of success for CARE Court,” said Kern County Behavioral Health director Alison Burrowes. “CARE Court serves a very specific population and includes narrow eligibility criteria. It was never designed to be a comprehensive solution to homelessness, nor should petition counts be viewed as the sole indicator of system performance. Kern County continues to support and implement CARE Court as one tool among many in our broader continuum of care.”
Monterey County declined to respond. The two other counties Newsom named did not respond to requests for comment.
In an email, Charles Lutvak, a spokesperson for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, pushed back.
“Since day one, our administration has been using every tool in our toolbox to address the crisis on our streets — reimagining street outreach and adding recovery and treatment resources so we can get people off the street and connected to the support they need,” he wrote.
“Today, encampments are at record lows, more people are getting connected to shelter and treatment, and San Franciscans feel safer than they have in years. We have more work to do, and we welcome any additional support from our state partners to strengthen CARE Court and any of the other pathways that have helped us get people in crisis off the street and into the care they need.”
This story was originally published March 2, 2026 at 2:37 PM with the headline "Newsom: 10 ‘failing’ California counties could lose CARE Court funds."
