SAN DIEGO — California Governor Gavin Newsom stopped in San Diego Sunday, as part of his four-city tour to address issues across the state.
Newsom gave several speeches throughout the day, discussing policies surrounding the behavioral health system, homelessness and the fentanyl crisis.
In his first remarks at 1:30 p.m. from Alvarado Hospital Medical Center, Newsom delivered remarks on new policies to modernize and expand the state’s behavioral health system.
One of the key proposals he announced Sunday is a potential 2024 ballot measure that will expand funding to build residential facilities where those with mental health conditions can be treated.
The governor then stopped by a National Guard facility in National City at 4:30 p.m. to deliver remarks on the fentanyl and opioid crises in the state.
In his speech from the facility, Newsom discussed additional funding going towards the state’s efforts to combat the crisis, as well as initiatives to make Naloxone, a medicine that treats an opioid overdose, more accessible and to provide border patrol agents with new technology to identify and seize illicit materials.
“I’m very mindful of what’s going on at the border, particularly as it relates to drugs that we are grappling with in this state and, frankly, across the nation,” the governor said during his speech in National City. “This is not about immigration. This is about a drug crisis that is being made worse by these synthetic drugs.”
Ahead of his stop in America’s Finest City, Newsom announced plans to address California’s homelessness crisis in Sacramento on Thursday. The governor said the state will spend around $30 million to build 1,200 small homes across the state in 2023.
County officials confirmed 150 of those tiny homes will be built in the San Diego region.
Newsom also made a visit to the Bay Area Friday, where he announced plans to transform San Quentin State Prison into a place where inmates can be rehabilitated. He also touched on plans to offer inmates job training as a way to prepare them for life outside of jail.
On Saturday in Los Angeles, the governor touted a plan to lower the cost of insulin.
“We had an idea, they put the legislation into practice and now we are implementing it,” Newsom stated Saturday. “A hundred million dollars we set aside, $50 million to do a manufacturing headquarters here in California. This $50 million will be established in a framework where there will be manufacturing outside the state, but for the benefit of the state.”