040 - California's CARE Court failures, and MAGA Huntington Beach's soon-to-be progressive congressman

The new congressional lines for California's Proposition 50 are going to have a wonderful effect on coastal Southern California's richest MAGA city council, Huntington Beach: They're going to be represented by a gay, Peruvian immigrant Democrat who arrived in the country undocumented. Yes, the town known for its "MAGA-nificent 7" council, which not only fought Sacramento Democrats on COVID-19 protections, housing, library books, gender policies in schools, and voter ID laws, but also BANNED pride flags, will likely soon be represented in Washington, D.C., by Robert Garcia of Long Beach, who has catapulted himself into party leadership over his scathing rebukes of President Donald Trump and billionaire man-baby Elon Musk. Sometimes, life is sweet. We also discuss Governor Gavin Newsom's harmful, anti-homeless CARE Courts--which homeless advocates and progressive groups fought against three years ago--a system that seems to have wildly failed in its promises of getting tens of thousands of unhoused folks onto the path toward housing using draconian court measures. Some statistics from the CalMatters story: "While Newsom’s administration estimated between 7,000 and 12,000 Californians would qualify for CARE Court, just 2,421 petitions have been filed through July, according to the Judicial Council of California. Only 528 of those have resulted in treatment agreements or plans. San Diego County anticipated receiving 1,000 petitions in the first year and establishing court-ordered treatment plans for 250 people. But in nearly two years, the county instead has received just 384 petitions and established 134 voluntary agreements. Los Angeles County saw 511 petitions filed – the most in the state. Of those, 112 resulted in care agreements or plans. In 2023, officials predicted to news organizations the county could enroll 4,500 people in the first year. Courts across California are dismissing a significant percentage of CARE Court petitions – about 45% statewide, although that number includes the handful of cases in which someone has successfully “graduated” from the program. The rate is even higher in some counties, such as San Francisco, where nearly two-thirds of petitions are thrown out.  The allure of CARE Court for many supporters was the promise of court-ordered treatment plans that would encourage sick people to accept the help they’d been resisting. But the courts have ordered just 14 treatment plans so far, according to the Judicial Council. Instead, most counties are solely offering voluntary treatment “agreements,” which sick people are free to ignore. Very few people have successfully completed CARE Court. Despite the fact that it has the most petitions, Los Angeles County has had no graduations. Nine counties have been operating CARE Court long enough to have graduations (the program takes at least a year to complete)." This appears to be an embarrassing failure for the man that Democrats increasingly want to represent them in the 2028 presidential election. Please don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to The Drain on your favorite podcast platforms. Questions? Comments? Pitches? Email us at [email protected]. We're still hanging about on Twitter: @sweetxpalma and @youknowkempa Oh, and we're on Bluesky: @thedrain.bsky.social, @palma.ltd, @yeshelloitskempa.bsky.social