What to Know About California’s Proposition 1 for Mental Health Care

California has about 12 percent of the nation’s population but more than a quarter of America’s homeless people — 181,000-plus at last count.There are many reasons for this outsize problem, including generations-old state laws that deinstitutionalized mentally ill people as well as high housing costs that have since priced tens of thousands out of shelter. But since the pandemic turned fentanyl abuse and tent camps into inescapable symptoms of a public health crisis, state policymakers have been under intense pressure to rethink California’s approach to behavioral health.Last week,…