Turlock mayor clashes with Gov. Newsom over homeless funding
Turlock's mayor is pushing back on Gov. Gavin Newsom over homelessness funding, saying the state's latest budget decisions are putting more pressure on cities just months after the governor publicly criticized Turlock's own handling of shelter money.
Mayor Amy Bublak sat down with CBS News Sacramento after new statewide cuts and shifts in homelessness funding, including changes to California's Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program (HHAP). In recent years, HHAP has been funded at about $1 billion annually for cities and counties.
In the current 2025-26 budget, the state did not add any new money into HHAP for this year. Instead, lawmakers and the governor approved a one-time $500 million "Round 7" for the 2026-27 fiscal year, at roughly half the prior funding level and tied to new accountability requirements for local governments.
Bublak says that the decision leaves cities shouldering more responsibility with fewer tools.
"I felt vindicated that, I mean, I told you so that this is what you're doing now, is putting all the onus on us, every city when I say us, and that's not going to work," she said.
"We already supply services for our communities, and cities primarily have the certain things that we do, public safety, sewer, water, roads, it's not the social issues," Bublak added. "We don't have the funding mechanism for that, but we will be told we need to."
The governor's office strongly disputes the idea that California is walking away from homeless funding and says criticisms of the current budget are misleading.
"We're sad and concerned for the sake of all Turlock residents that their mayor doesn't seem to know how to read a budget. Our anger at this Mayor's failure to provide adequate housing and shelter hasn't dissipated," Newsom's office said in a statement to CBS News Sacramento. "Saying that funding for homelessness is ending is just plain wrong. The Governor has not 'ended new investments in homelessness' nor did it 'omit a critical homelessness grant...' "
Bublak says her goal is not to end funding fights, but to get the state to work more closely with smaller cities that, she argues, are already stretching their budgets.
"Don't just speculate from afar. We have to work together," Bublak said. "That's the options are very limited, but we do have solutions in our city and we're running it. Well, maybe we could provide something that he could take and make bigger for the state."
The clash comes after a previous CBS News Sacramento report on Turlock's We Care emergency shelter that drew statewide attention in 2025. At that time, the Turlock City Council refused to allocate a symbolic $1 and a letter of support that would have unlocked more than $270,000 in state funding for the city's only low-barrier shelter.
Newsom reposted that story on social media and blasted Turlock's leadership. The governor's office has continued to fault Bublak for those decisions, even as she argues the state is now pulling back its own support.
"We really were giving money to them, the same funding that he was coming from, the county that came from him, we gave to We Care for long-term housing, and we gave $445,000, so how are we not helping the problem?" Bublak said. "We're doing the best we can. So it just, yes, it was hypocritical."
Looking ahead, Bublak says smaller cities will be watching how the state's one-time HHAP round is rolled out and how much flexibility they're given to address homelessness in their own communities.
