SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Wednesday echoed a call from California Governor Galvin Newsom to give top priority to addressing the urgent challenge of homelessness, which has haunted the country's richest state for years.
"I agree with Governor Newsom that we need more housing -- for people of all income levels -- in San Francisco and throughout California," she said.
In his second annual State of the State address, delivered at the state capital Sacramento, Newsom gave a rare focus on the crisis of homelessness, which he called "the ultimate manifestation of poverty" and "a disgrace."
According to data by the U.S. Department of Commerce released in 2018, California would be the fifth largest economy in the world if it were considered a country, with Gross State Product standing at about 2.75 trillion U.S. dollars in 2017, bigger than Britain's.
Despite its huge wealth, California is still plagued by a host of challenges, including poverty and homelessness.
It is "a disgrace" that the rich state has failed to properly house, heal, and humanely treat so many of its own people, Newsom told the state legislature.
Across the California state, San Francisco is among cities and counties that are hardest hit by an aggravated homelessness crisis. According to one-night counts done every two years, San Francisco had a homeless population of more than 8,000 in 2019.
Breed has pledged to create 1,000 more shelter beds for the homeless by the end of this year since winning re-election as the city's mayor last November.
In her response to Newsom's address earlier in the day, Breed said building more houses to tackle the "critical" issue of homelessness is at the forefront of San Francisco's priorities.
"I was glad to hear the governor's support of ongoing resources for ... affordable housing, which will help San Francisco continue the progress," she said.
