Just a few blocks from a city-sanctioned homeless encampment in San Rafael, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other state officials made their case Friday for voters to approve the Proposition 1 affordable housing bond measure in Tuesday’s election.
The event also celebrated the opening of the new Ritter Center, a nonprofit that provides primary care and social services to residents in Marin County experiencing housing insecurity. Attendees touted the center’s new building as a success of a previous Proposition 1 passed by the state’s voters in 2024 that funded mental health services and expanded transitional housing.
“Back-to-back, two years of decline in homelessness in the state of California,” Newsom said. “You see that contrasted by historic rates of growth all across the United States. In so many big cities, you see double-digit growth in unsheltered homelessness.”
The Proposition 1 that appears on Tuesday’s ballot authorizes the state to issue an $11.25 billion bond to finance affordable housing programs. Ten billion dollars would support the construction and preservation of affordable housing, and $1.25 billion would fund veterans’ housing programs.
Affordable multifamily housing would receive $7.2 billion through low-interest loans to developers. Homeownership assistance would come in the form of $1.1 billion to help low- and moderate-income households buy homes. The remainder would go to fund related infrastructure, farmworker housing, higher education student housing, tribal housing and local pilot programs.
Ritter Center CEO Mark Shotwell credited California’s $10.44 million investment through the Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program with transforming the care the comprehensive center can provide. Administered by the Department of Health Care Services, BHCIP was designed to expand community-based facilities for mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
“Our new 14,000-square-foot health and wellness center brings medical care, behavioral health services, substance use disorder treatment, and other critical supports like food and employment services under one roof,” Shotwell said.
‘Part of a larger effort’
Marin County Supervisor Mary Sackett added that the center has made it possible for more than 2,500 people to receive critical care with over 30,000 visits.
“Here at the Ritter Center, you have a combination under one roof of a community mental health clinic, an office-based opioid treatment and outpatient substance use disorder treatment,” said California Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Kim Johnson.
“This is part of a larger effort,” Johnson said. “The bond, and also the additional investment by the state with the governor and Legislature’s leadership since 2021 equates to 543 new facilities across California, 9,570 beds and 44,863 treatment spaces statewide.”
California Housing and Community Development Director Gustavo Velasquez defended the state’s Housing First approach. Codified into state law in 2016, the model rapidly connects people experiencing homelessness to permanent housing without preconditions like sobriety, mental health treatment or a clean criminal record.
“We are starting to see the course of homelessness reverse in a steady way,” Velasquez said. “It is, I believe, all about the holistic strategy. Delivering comprehensive services with housing is what works. The evidence is conclusive in this respect.”
The number of people experiencing homelessness in Marin County increased slightly over the past two years, according to the county’s 2026 Point-in-Time Count. This year’s count found 1,128 people experiencing homelessness in Marin County, up from 1,090 in 2024. Nearly three-quarters, or 74%, were living in unsheltered locations such as vehicles, encampments or other places not intended for habitation.
While homelessness among veterans, youth and families declined, the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness doubled. Chronic homelessness is defined as a condition where individuals with a qualifying disabling condition, such as serious mental illness, substance abuse or developmental disability, have been homeless repeatedly over several years.
Applying pressure to spur construction
Newsom said that the core of the entire problem is that local governments are not building enough.
“I put a lot of pressure on those counties, and I’m not apologetic about that,” he said, referring to new higher state mandates to build more housing.
Leelee Thomas, deputy director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, said that without major state investments, none of the county’s new affordable housing construction would be possible.
“High costs of land, materials and construction have major impacts and currently, the main barrier to getting affordable housing built is actually funding.”
Leelee Thomas, deputy director of the Marin County Community Development Agency
Thomas cited the Marinwood development in San Rafael that would provide 125 affordable units, another at a former U.S. Coast Guard base in West Marin with 54 affordable units, and a 24-unit veteran housing development in Novato called Homeward Bound.
“High costs of land, materials and construction have major impacts and currently, the main barrier to getting affordable housing built is actually funding,” Thomas said.
Larry Florin, CEO of Burbank Housing, which is currently working with the Marin Housing Authority to renovate and manage Marin City’s Golden Gate Village public housing project, agrees that Prop 1 would provide an important source of funding at a time when many projects are stalled by financing gaps.
“Beyond funding, the biggest obstacles are lengthy approval and permitting processes, rising construction costs, and the time required to coordinate multiple agencies and stakeholders,” Florin said. “Even well-designed projects can take years to move from concept to construction.”
