California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently said that a majority of San Francisco’s population of people experiencing homelessness came from Texas.
Is that a fact? Madlin Mekelburg of the PolitiFact Texas fact-checking team based at the Austin American-Statesman has the answer.
Here’s what Newsom said in a June episode of “Axios on HBO”:
“The folks that were on the street when we left [the mayoralty of San Francisco]: the vast majority were not from California. I’m not suggesting that they’re not our responsibility, and, in fact, quite the contrary: we took responsibility. We were dealing with – and by the way, the vast majority also come in from – and we know this – from Texas. Just [an] interesting fact.”
Newsom said that after Axios journalist Jim VandeHei asked him why San Francisco didn’t see a decline in its homeless population during Newsom’s tenure as mayor.
Mekelburg says to find out whether Newsom’s claim was factual, she started by looking at San Francisco’s own statistics on homelessness and housing.
Hear how Newsom’s claim scored in the player above.
Written by Caroline Covington.
