ELECTION 2024: WHY IT MATTERS

Yes On Prop 1

It doesn’t matter if it’s Modesto or San Francisco or the beach towns of Southern California – firefighters and EMTs all over the state can discuss how the homelessness crisis has made the communities they serve – and their own jobs – more and more dangerous. The housing affordability crisis, the shutdown of our economy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the rise of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs on our streets have all contributed to the growing calamity that firefighters are expected to respond to every day, multiple times a day.

Several CPF locals have reported that 2023 set the record for the highest volume of emergency calls ever experienced at stations in their jurisdictions. Local presidents up and down the state attribute the increase to the rapid surge of calls involving homeless and behavioral health issues.

Something must be done. Proposition 1 is an initiative that will divert homeless individuals away from tents that line many streets in our state toward the supportive housing and services they need to be lifted out of the pain and suffering witnessed daily.

Prop 1 does not raise taxes. Prop 1 does not use general fund money that would otherwise go to funding firefighting and emergency response services. Instead, Prop 1 is funded by an existing fund voters created in 2004 that has to be used on mental health services. By expanding the allowable uses, treatment will include those with substance use disorders and prioritizing care for those with the most serious mental illness, including the disproportionate number experiencing homelessness.

Additionally, Prop 1 includes a bond that will be used to construct enough behavioral health beds to house over 11,000 Californians suffering from the most severe mental health needs, which allows them a place to live, recover, and stabilize. Prop 1 puts the people who need it the most into treatment, not leave them in tents to suffer.

Please remember to vote in person or with your mail ballot on or before Tuesday, March 5. Support this new tool of getting Californians off our streets, out of the tent encampments, and into the treatment environments so our public – and your jobs – are safer places to be. Vote YES on Proposition 1.