By Richard Hernandez
With his recent actions, Governor Gavin Newsom has shown himself to be a racist, a typical Anglo politician lording it over people of color, despite the empty promises of building toward an enlightened governance he has used to get into and stay in office, two of his former supporters, ones who actively campaigned against his being recalled from office three years ago, now say.
On August 28, The California Assembly gave final approval to Assembly Bill 1840, which had been passed by the California Senate the previous day.
The bill allowed undocumented immigrants to apply alongside other qualified applicants for the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan Program, which offers up to $150,000 in no-interest loans to cover down payments and fees.
The program lets applicants secure what are termed “loans” of 20 percent of a home’s purchase price up to $150,000 – an amount equal to a typical down payment on a home, in the form of a disbursement from the $255 million fund set aside for the program held within the California state treasury, prior to any payments having been made toward the purchase price on the home. The loan is to be recovered through the homeowner’s eventual repayment of the original loan amount plus 20 percent of the appreciated gain in the value of the home when it is sold, transferred or refinanced.
Theoretically, those taking out the “loan” could avoid having to pay it back or cover the 20 percent appreciation fee if the individual or couple who take out the loan does not sell it or refinance it and it remains with the purchaser’s or purchasers’ heirs or his, her or their trust into perpetuity. There is no provision in the law limiting how long the purchaser can hang on to the property.
In 2023, there were 1,700 applicants selected by lottery to access the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan Program’s $255 million in funds. In the most general of terms, the state legislature’s Democrats supported Assembly Bill 1840 and Republican lawmakers opposed it.
Republicans argued that in addition to the state not not being able to afford the program, it was simply unacceptable to make a program financed by California citizens in good standing and taxpayers available to illegal aliens whose participation in the California tax system is sketchy at best.
The bill’s author, Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) said the legislation would merely expand California’s down payment and assistance program for first-time home buyers regardless of their immigration status. Arambula in a statement said that homeownership creates financial stability.
“The social and economic benefits of homeownership should be available to everyone,” Arambula said. “As such, the California Dream for All program should be available to all.” Democrats who supported AB 1840 said that there were no giveaways involved, since those who apply for the loans have to qualify for mortgages, meaning they are working and thus paying taxes.
Republicans doubled down on their arguments against the program, reminding the Democrats that the California Dream for All Shared Appreciation Loan Program ran out of fundings in 11 days and remains tied down with an overcrowded backlog. They said that diverting precious state money reserved for housing to assist non-citizens in purchasing homes is unconscionable, given that the state has yet designed a workable program to house its homeless veteran population.
State Senator Janet Nguyen (R-Huntington Beach) said as much or more in a post on X shortly after the bill’s passage.
“I spoke out today on the Senate floor against 1840, assistance for first-time homebuyers,” Nguyen texted. “Veterans are beneficiaries of this program and it will be raiding their fund. I will always look out for our veterans and military.”
Nguyen said that making undocumented immigrants eligible for homebuyer assistance sends the wrong message by pushing California citizens who are seeking to benefit from the program to the back of the line.
Before Assembly Bill 1840 passed there were questions about the solvency of the fund behind it.
Last year, California set aside $300 million in the California Dream for All Program. Funds were exhausted within 11 days as 2,182 applicants received help, according to Senator Toni Atkins’ (D-San Diego).
Within two months, the California Housing Finance Agency in a report rushed into print was referring to the California Dream for All Program as “dramatically oversubscribed.”
“While it was expected that a few additional weeks would be necessary to build the requisite lender capacity and begin originating loans in earnest, the response to the Dream For All program was overwhelming, with unprecedented lender and consumer uptake,” the report California Housing Finance Agency stated.
The Senate Committee on Appropriations said it could not ascertain what the fiscal impact of making undocumented immigrants eligible for the $150,000 in assistance would be.
The committee, chaired by State Senator Anna Caballero (D-Merced), said it would have “unknown significant cost pressures, potentially in the millions annually.” Though her committee advised caution with regard to Assembly Bill 1840, Caballero voted for AB 1840.
There were similar disconnects in the run-up to the vote, but it passed.
It was widely assumed that as another piece of progressive legislation, it would be signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Over the course of most of his gubernatorial run, Newsom has been accommodating in finding room in the budget to fund all order of programs aimed at righting past social and economic wrongs. But within the last 18 months, less than a year after he was reelected to a second term, which followed by roughly 14 months his having survived a recall effort, the one-time mayor of San Francisco and two-term lieutenant governor was given a dose of fiscal reality indistinguishable from being doused with a bucket of ice water. As late as February 2022, Newsom was functioning under the assumption the state would achieve a $75.7 billion budget surplus later that year. He was given a series of downturning projections in the months thereafter, which erased most of that surplus before the 2022-23 fiscal year had begun. Things grew worse from there, with the state having no choice but to dig into its reserves to balance the budget in 2023-24, and the California Legislative Analyst’s Office projecting the most bleak 2024-25 imaginable, nearly a 180-degree economic shift over what the governor and others thought was the case two years previously: a $73 billion deficit. Over the last four months, the combined California Legislature and the governor have implemented a host of austerity measures, including a temporary tax hike on certain businesses, in an effort to reduce the deficit, having so far reduced the hemorrhaging of $73 billion in red ink to a still-devastating $46.8 billion shortfall.
Upon being presented with AB 1840, Newsom uncharacteristically hesitated. Then, he did what previously would have been unthinkable. On September 6, he struck it down with his veto pen.
In doing so, Newsom referenced the program’s limited funding, which included having absolutely no money budgeted for it in the current state spending plan after it was sucked dry in 11 days last year.
Newsom said he could not ignore the state’s ongoing $47 billion budget deficit. “This bill seeks to prohibit the disqualification of applicants from one of the California Housing Finance Agency’s (CalHFA) home purchase assistance programs based solely on their immigration status,” Newsom wrote. “Given the finite funding available for CalHFA programs, expanding program eligibility must be carefully considered within the broader context of the annual state budget to ensure we manage our resources effectively.”
The reaction was swift.
Some of the milder criticisms were that Newsom is a “fair-weather progressive,” ready to take action and credit when money is flowing but one revealed as a closet conservative when money gets tight. He wasn’t able or willing to live up to his rhetoric of seeking economic equality for all, it was charged.
Others were less charitable still. They pointed out that Newsom had not acted to prod the state legislature in the right direction less than a week previously when a pair of reparations-related bills that had already passed in the State Senate, SB 1331, which would have created a new state fund for reparations, and Senate Bill 1403, which would have established a state agency to oversee the reparation process and determine who would be eligible, were killed on August 31 in the Assembly when they were not brought to the full floor for a vote.
It was pointed out that the wealthy and white Newsom, whose father was J. Paul Getty and who owns at least two houses of his own, has no real compassion for poor immigrants from Mexico seeking to live out the American Dream.
And he has no feel for the descendants of the victims of slavery who were deprived of freedom and opportunity by their white masters – Newsom’s ancestors – when he stood by while far more conscientious lawmakers in the state he rules were trying to pass legislation that would atone for the legacy of racist policies that subjected the Negro to unthinkable disparities including employment, education, housing and health, even while the likes of Newsom and his parents and grandparents were living in mansions, others alleged.
Simply put, it was said, Newsom is an out and out racist.
William Washington III, who campaigned with the Democrats in 2021 to thwart the effort to remove Newsom from office, said he feels betrayed.
“We supported him,” Washington, who is active in the Black Lives Matter movement, said. “Where is he now when it’s our time for justice?”
Washington said it wasn’t just Newsom failing to act to salvage SB 1331 and Senate Bill 1403 that had revealed his true colors. He pointed to Newsom yesterday affixing his signature to AB 1960, legislation which addresses so-called large-scale theft, also referred to as smash-and-grab robbery. Authored by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, AB 1960 puts in place enhanced sentencing for those convicted of high-value property thefts, including those who knowingly traffic or resell stolen goods. The bill is of a piece with a broader set of laws relating to “organized retail crime,” ones intended to give law enforcement officers more leverage and prosecutors more options when dealing with practitioners of “smash and grab” tactics, which involve multiple perpetrators – from three or four to as many as two dozen – descending on a retail establishment and using hammers or other heavy objects to smash display or security cases and seize highly valuable merchandize in a flash effort which can net property worth upwards of $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 or even $100,000. The new legislation strengthens existing laws and mandates stricter penalties for felony property thefts involving damages or stolen goods valued at over $50,000. AB 1960 applies not only to those seizing the merchandise but their “fences,” or those who knowingly purchase or sell such stolen property.
“We all know who that’s aimed at,” Washington said. “It ain’t aimed at no white boys. It’s aimed at niguhz like us.”
Equally upset with the governor was Guillermo Muñoz.
Muñoz pointed out that immediately after Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 1840, he drew the praise of the Republicans.
“Governor Newsom listened to our calls and rightfully vetoed the bill to give illegal immigrants free home loans,” State Senate Republican Leader Brian W. Jones said.
“Republicans are racists,” Munoz said. “Republicans are against La Raza being able to own homes. When the Republicans wanted to take Newsom out of office, we stood by him all the way. Now, he’s in with them. We should have let them recall him.”
Arambula stopped short of calling the governor a racist, but he made clear he did not approve of the way he is treating Latinos.
“I’m deeply disappointed that Governor Newsom today vetoed Assembly Bill 1840,” Arambula said. “The bill had won wide support in the Assembly and passed the Senate to get to his desk. My bill was about fairness. It simply clarified the language to make it clear that undocumented immigrants can apply — once again, if they meet all the criteria. That includes securing a bank loan or mortgage. Successful applicants have to repay the loan, without interest, when they sell the house. In addition, 20% of the appreciation on that home’s value must be paid.”
Arambula bristled at the suggestion that undocumented immigrants are criminals or disobeying the law. He said they are as important to the make-up of California as full citizens.
“We are a nation of immigrants, and we should remind ourselves the value and humanity of the people coming here who make our economy better — an economy that is the fifth-largest in the world,” Arambula said.