Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking closely at the other candidates running for Governor of California. Many of them are highly qualified – politicians, business leaders, educators, even a sheriff.

It’s still early in the race.

But already, I’m noticing a familiar pattern: candidates centering their campaigns around a single issue. “Housing is my issue!” “Public safety is my issue!” “Healthcare is my issue!” And while these are all critical concerns, politics isn’t a single-issue job – especially not in a state as complex as California.

What often happens is that a one-issue platform gets tested during debates, while multi-issue questions reveal the need for interconnected thinking. Because here’s the truth: to be a great leader – whether we call ourselves Representative, Senator, Assemblymember, Governor, or President – we must connect the dots. Not just between issues, but between the government departments responsible for addressing them.

Knowing statistics is important, and stats are something that can be looked up. But great leadership requires more than the ability to use google. It means being able to clearly articulate why services are needed, how they work together, and what they are meant to accomplish. Leadership requires creativity.

Let’s take Housing, specifically Homelessness, as an example.

Many politicians talk about housing as a narrow lens issue, one that is separate issue from homelessness.

There are multiple layers to California’s housing crisis. First, there simply isn’t enough housing for the state’s growing population. Second, the cost of available housing – whether to rent or buy – is extraordinarily high. Third, we face a persistent and growing homelessness crisis. These layers are deeply interconnected, and solutions must be just as multi-dimensional.

Nobody wants to be homeless. Seriously. Nobody does. What homeless people want is what we all want for ourselves – independence, dignity, and the freedom to shape our own lives. Many just want to be accepted as they are.

There are as many reasons for someone being homeless as there are homeless people out there. Some homeless people struggle to function within the seemingly rigid structures of our society. Others face physical or mental health challenges that prevent them from working – or that have bankrupted them entirely. There is another layer still, one where people work regular every day jobs but still can’t afford to pay rent in their community. They choose to live however they can, whether that is in a relative’s basement, in their vehicles or in a tent just to make ends meet until they can save enough to level up. And still others choose to live in vehicles, like vans or RVs, often working remote jobs while embracing a nomadic lifestyle that often gets mislabeled as homelessness.

It’s a large, complex web of people and stories that can’t simply be lumped under one heading – Homelessness.

And that’s exactly what politicians do – they lump the whole situation under a neat and tidy talking point and try to solve it with a one-size-fits-all policy.

Their solution is usually, let’s throw money at it, rather than look for the root causes and fix those.

Did you know that LGBTQ+ youth face twice the risk of homelessness than their straight peers?

So what are the solutions to the root causes homelessness?

The Starting Point Is Education:

We start by ensuring that all of our youth receive the best education possible and that we challenge them with our expectations. That they are given equal educational choices across the state, that they are challenged by their studies, and that they are prepared for life when they graduate. Education is about more than test scores – it’s about life readiness. It means that we need to give young people the tools, confidence, and resources they need to launch into adulthood on solid footing – whether they are going on to college/university, heading directly into a job they vocationally trained for, becoming an entrepreneur, or contributing in their own way to society.

Healthcare Plays An Important Role:

One of the solutions to homelessness is affordable healthcare, or Universal Healthcare, or MediCal for all. Healthcare should not be a privilege in the world of today, it should be, and it kind of already is, a right, one that we are being denied. Everyone should be able to walk into a clinic or hospital anywhere in the state and receive the care they need with dignity and grace. Universal Healthcare access would drastically reduce bankruptcies caused by medical debt, enabling people to stay in their homes because it takes one bill, usually a very large bill, off of the table. Healthcare, whether it is a Universal or insurance system, should provide critical and compassionate mental health support and possible live-in care to those most at risk of living on the streets.

Housing Development And The California Minimum Wage Go Hand In Hand:

Let’s be honest, does anyone think that what is considered to be “affordable housing’ is actually affordable?

Let’s not even talk about owning a home in California, let’s just talk about renting.

What wealthy developers and financial institutions define as affordable is, in reality, out of reach for the average Californian. One of the cringiest responses I hear from landlords when I ask why they are charging what they are charging for rents is: It’s what The Market will bear. Many often add that they don’t need to charge that much, it’s just that they can, so they do. I often respond with something along the lines of, you aren’t renting to a market, you are renting to someone who wants to make a home. The conversation usually ends in a shrug.

How many people have you spoken to recently that say they are just one or two months away from becoming homeless because their rent does not line up with their wages? While the current minimum wage in California is $16.50, that still doesn’t cover rent. Californians are hard working folks who deserve better.

Housing developers also have to do better to provide affordable housing for Californians. Not all Californians want to, or could afford to, live in gated communities, or suburbs where a car is needed to go to the grocery store, or luxury condos. Don’t we have enough of those? Sometimes smaller, simple, minimalistic, housing is the better choice for affordability.

We also have to consider approving different styles of housing, but maybe that is a longer topic for another post.

Anti-Homeless Laws Make Anti-Compassionate Laws:

This is a massive societal issue, and unfortunately, many anti-homeless policies are created at the city or community level – often without compassion or a complete big-picture view of the situation. We need to rethink how we approach alternative living situations, whether that’s homelessness, tiny house living, or van life. Not everyone fits, or even wants to fit, into a traditional housing mold. Our policies must reflect empathy and creativity, not punishment.

Other Related Issues To Homelessness:

Having access to public transportation pushes homeless individuals into the larger communities where it’s easier to get to from Point A to Point B, whether that is to medical appointments or just to find food.

Which brings up food deserts …

We also need a serious societal attitude adjustment when it comes to how we create wealth:

Too often, wealth in California – and across the country – is generated through the development of land into sprawling suburbs, the accumulation of rental properties, and profit-maximizing real estate practices. But when creating wealth becomes more important than creating community, we all lose.

We’ve normalized a system where being a landlord is praised as passive income, while tenants are vilified for struggling to pay rent in a broken economy. We treat housing as a commodity instead of a human right. And we rarely question the greed that drives up costs and pushes people out of their neighborhoods – and ultimately, onto the streets.

It’s not just about policy – it’s about values. If our economy rewards hoarding housing stock while thousands sleep unsheltered, then it’s not the economy that is broken, it’s society. The economy is doing exactly what it was designed to do. That’s why fixing homelessness also means rethinking how – and for whom – wealth is created in California.

So you see, the next Governor of California is going to have to be a multi-issue leader, one that will build onto the already existing platform of laws and rules and societal expectations. A Governor that will will move the state progressively into its next incarnation.