Finally – A Tiny Gesture Toward Ending the Polarization
Trump critic Schwarzenegger thanks administration for efforts to combat California homelessness
Movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger thanked President Trump this week for his efforts to combat the homelessness crisis in California.
“Everyone knows @realDonaldTrump & I have our disagreements,” Schwarzenegger, the state’s former Republican governor and a critic of the president, said on Twitter. “But I want to thank you for sending @SecretaryCarson to our homelessness summit. We’ll only solve this if everyone works together. This issue is bigger than all of us. Now it’s time for action.”
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson was in Los Angeles on Friday taking part in a homelessness summit.
“U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson today visited Carmelitos Public Housing Development and announced a $20 million investment to nine public housing agencies (PHA) to help public housing families increase their earned income and become self-sufficient,” HUD said in a statement.
The president has made it a priority to address the homelessness situation in California despite disagreements with the state’s Democratic leadership about how to fix the problem.
Carson said in December that he was disappointed with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s leadership on the issue thus far.
Trump also spoke about the situation in December and said that California is doing a “really bad job” on the issue.
“Governor Gavin N has done a really bad job on taking care of the homeless population in California, the president tweeted. “If he can’t fix the problem, the Federal Govt. will get involved!”
The homelessness crisis in California continues to worsen despite the fact that California is one of the highest-taxed and biggest-spending states in the country.
The homeless population in California increased by 16.4% from 2018 to 2019, and 53% of all recorded homeless people in America lived in the state as of January 2019, according to HUD.
California’s poverty rate is one of the highest in the nation, and census figures show about 1 in 6 residents live in poverty.
“The middle class is fleeing California. The ones staying are falling into the poverty,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on his show while discussing the California homelessness crisis recently. “The state has the highest poverty rate in the United States. California’s Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality is identical to that in the republic of Congo. Literally.”
