Governor Newsom made headlines this week announcing that his CARE Court program had reached a milestone of over ten thousand Californians receiving mental health support. According to CalMatters Housing, the governor claimed the initiative had hit its original goal range. However, when you dig into the actual numbers, the story gets more complicated, and that's what I want to walk you through today.
Here's where the math gets fuzzy. The state's most recent data shows that only about fourteen hundred people have actually received formal treatment agreements or plans through CARE Court as of June. The administration then added another group of people who engaged with CARE but ended up getting services outside the program to reach that ten thousand figure. The problem, as CalMatters reported, is that this math could be counting some folks twice, and it includes people whose petitions were dismissed without ever receiving services plus others still waiting to be processed.
What's interesting is that while the enrollment numbers fall way short of the original projections of seven to twelve thousand, the program does seem to be helping the people who actually make it through. According to CalMatters Housing's reporting, people in CARE Court are experiencing better housing outcomes and getting more access to mental health treatment and medication. Some public defenders have seen real progress, with clients telling them it's the longest they've gone without getting arrested.
But here's the concern that CalMatters highlighted. The program was supposed to focus on helping unhoused people with serious mental illness, yet only about a quarter of CARE Court participants were homeless when they started. Family members and disability rights advocates who initially supported the program have become increasingly frustrated because it's not reaching the most vulnerable people they thought would benefit. Disability Rights California noted that petitions from family members have dropped significantly, suggesting families may be losing faith in whether CARE Court can actually deliver what was promised.
The state report also flags some troubling patterns. Counties are dismissing large numbers of petitions, and among those dismissed, nearly three quarters never received any county mental health services afterward. Additionally, more than half of active participants experienced something concerning during the program, including jail encounters, hospitalizations, or conservatorships. Meanwhile, wait times for courts to rule on petitions varied widely by county, sometimes stretching to three months in more populated areas.
What I am seeing locally here in the Bay Area is that folks are still trying to figure out whether CARE Court is going to be a real game changer for our community or just another well-intentioned program that hasn't quite lived up to the hype. For families dealing with loved ones experiencing serious mental illness, the promise was clear, but the results on the ground haven't matched expectations yet. It's a reminder that whenever we hear about ambitious new programs meant to address homelessness and mental health, we need to look carefully at the actual data before celebrating victory.
