A freeway off-ramp in Sacramento symbolizes California’s money pit of homeless spending | Opinion

On a recent Thursday afternoon, off Interstate 80 on the corner of P and 30th streets, orange and white cones directed interstate traffic away from the grassy area near the ramp where the crew of contracted workers were laying large gravel rocks atop all the flat adjacent state land.

A large truck would first unload the huge pile of rocks onto the site, followed by a backhoe that would grab from the pile and spread it along the grassy patch of grass.

The sight was truly astounding. Never missing out on a moment to be nosy, I ran across the street to the workers and asked them why they were doing this.

“It’s because of the homeless problem,” a worker told me.

The scene encapsulated California’s struggle with homelessness. The state has spent more than $20 billion in five years on homelessness and yet the latest federal data showed that homelessness increased in 2023.

Now here before me was another cost of homelessness. The state paying money to landscape spaces constructed to make the homeless congregate somewhere else - people the state isn’t housing either, despite the billions allocated to do so.

And Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration isn’t exactly forthcoming about what they are doing along its highways to direct our most desperate residents somewhere else.

“Caltrans has used rock landscaping for a few years to help beautify areas along the state highway system throughout the state and has noted numerous benefits,” Caltrans spokesperson Dennis Keaton said in a statement. “In addition to helping prevent safety hazards by discouraging people from accessing the location, this kind of landscaping also helps prevent weed growth, reduces the need for watering and helps limit exposure for crews who are maintaining the right-of-way.”

Indirect, passive language isn’t fooling anybody. Anyone seeing this state work will know its purpose. It’s the language of a problem California can’t solve.

Keaton said Caltrans has performed similar work in Sacramento County on northbound I-5 at the Richards Boulevard on-ramp, northbound State Route 51/Business 80 at H and T Streets, and eastbound Highway 50 at the 15th and Broadway off-ramps.” Potential respites for the homeless are instead hostile outcroppings of rock.

The work is part of the Clean California initiative started by Newsom in 2021. Newsom has touted the effort for having cleared 2 million yards of litter from California roadways.

According to a Caltrans statement, grants towards the project have “funded nearly 300 projects statewide to revitalize and beautify under-served communities, some of which are already complete and now sources of community pride.”

It’s money that doesn’t seem to represent progress.

The state has committed to spend $1 billion toward the Clean California project, which could lead to another pile of rocks in Sacramento. What a lovely sight.

At a state legislative hearing last week, Newsom administration officials were grilled by legislators frustrated by a lack of relevant information to questions of where all that state money toward homelessness is going.

“You come to a budget committee, and there’s no numbers,” said Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, in the Los Angeles Times.

“How many people have we helped? How many people are off the street? … Because that’s what the public wants to know. What’s the money been spent on?”

Caltrans isn’t about to solve any homeless problems with this so-called landscaping. This rock increases the chances of someone experiencing homelessness trying to camp out in an adjacent neighborhood..

A little transparency from the Newsom administration would help. Where is all the money going?

Being silent or providing indirect answers on the issue doesn’t make it easier to swallow. It creates a false sense of accomplishment that no one is buying anymore.