Newsom threatens California counties for failing to use his new mental
health court
[March 04, 2026]
By MARISA KENDALL/CalMatters
Frustrated by the slow adoption of one of his signature efforts to get
Californians with severe mental illness off the streets, Gov. Gavin
Newsom on Monday threatened to take funding from counties he said aren’t
doing enough.
Newsom called out 10 counties that he said are underperforming when it
comes to CARE Court – a program he launched in 2023 that uses the courts
to get people into mental health treatment. Counties that “haven’t
gotten it done” in his view are: Los Angeles, Orange, San Francisco,
Santa Clara, San Bernardino, Kern, Riverside, Yolo, Monterey and Fresno.
“I’m happy to redirect every damn penny in these programs to the
counties that are getting things done, period, full stop,” Newsom said
during a news conference. “Unless they stop doing what they’ve done.
Don’t make any more excuses.”
Orange County was quick to dispute Newsom’s assertion that it was
lagging on CARE Court. “Orange County is utilizing the CARE intervention
fully,” the OC Health Care Agency, which leads mental health treatment
for the county, said in an email to CalMatters.
CARE Court rolled out in eight counties at the end of 2023, and was
adopted across the entire state by December 2024. The idea was to help
some of the most vulnerable Californians – people who are in the grip of
psychosis, languishing on sidewalks and unable to take care of
themselves because all other treatment programs have failed them.
But a CalMatters investigation found CARE Court has served far fewer
Californians than initially anticipated, and many families who had
counted on the program to help loved ones with a severe mental illness
have been disappointed. The program also has faced challenges in moving
people off the streets and into housing, CalMatters found.
Through January, the state has received 3,817 petitions for care on
behalf of someone with mental illness. The petitions can come from a
person’s family, a first responder or a behavioral health provider.
Judges have approved just 893 treatment agreements, Kim Johnson,
secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency, said
during the news conference.
Judges have ordered 32 people into CARE plans, which can happen if a
participant won’t agree to or doesn’t follow a voluntary treatment
agreement.
Newsom’s administration initially estimated between 7,000 and 12,000
Californians would qualify for CARE Court.
More than 4,000 people were diverted away from the CARE program and got
services in another way, Johnson said.
The governor also highlighted counties he said are doing a good job
using CARE Court to connect people with treatment: Alameda, Humboldt,
Santa Barbara, Tuolumne, Marin, Napa, Merced, Sutter, San Mateo and
Imperial. He spoke from inside an under-construction wing of Regis
Village in Alameda, a mental health campus that has, among other
services, 44 beds prioritized for people in CARE Court.
“There are a number of counties that get it and are getting things done,
proving it can be done when you have leadership that cares enough to get
it done,” Newsom said.
The administration calculated the number of CARE Court petitions
received per capita to determine success, dubbing the 10 counties with
the highest number as “CARE champions,” and relegating the 10 with the
lowest to the “CARE ICU.”
The administration also updated its public accountability website to
include that metric for each county.
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 But that data doesn’t take other
important measures into account, such as the number of CARE
agreements reached in each county, the number of petitions that are
dismissed without someone getting treatment, or the number of people
who have graduated from CARE Court. San Diego County, for instance,
didn’t make the “CARE champion” list, even though, as of last
summer, it had the most graduations of any county in the state, with
10. Riverside, which was a close second with seven graduations, was
on the governor’s “CARE ICU” list.
Newsom promised that counties on his “CARE ICU” list would get extra
help through the state’s CARE Improvement and Coordination Unit. He
didn’t specify what that help would look like, but said the state
already is working with some communities to provide technical
support and training.
San Francisco, which landed on Newsom’s “CARE ICU” list, welcomes
support from the state to strengthen its CARE Court program, Charles
Lutvak, a spokesman for Mayor Daniel Lurie, said in an email to
CalMatters.
“Since day one, our administration has been using every tool in our
toolbox to address the crisis on our streets — reimagining street
outreach and adding recovery and treatment resources so we can get
people off the street and connected to the support they need,” he
said.
Orange County has received 231 CARE Court petitions and has 79
participants who have agreed to treatment and are receiving housing,
medication and other services, according to the OC Health Care
Agency.
“Orange County has utilized this effective treatment option for
those adults who meet the requirements of the program itself,” the
agency wrote in an email. “It’s not just about how many petitions
you have, which we have the fifth highest in the state, it’s about
the services provided helping change the trajectory of untreated
disease.
Newsom didn’t specify specify what funding might be at risk in
communities that don’t step up their CARE Court game. But he gave
some ideas when he said new money would be going toward programs
that can support CARE Court participants. That includes $131.8
million in Homekey+ awards, funded by Proposition 1, to create 443
homes for people who need substance use and mental health services.
The administration also rolled out another $159 million in Homeless
Housing, Assistance and Prevention dollars – part of the $1 billion
allocated in the 2024-25 budget.
In highlighting counties that he says have made good use of state
funds so far, the administration invited Alameda County Judge Sandra
Bean, who oversees the county’s CARE Court program, to share success
stories.
The judge described one woman who lives with a developmental
disability, a substance use disorder and a significant mental
illness, who now has her own apartment and is taking medication.
“We’ve had a number of people who have done really, really well,”
she said.
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