WASHINGTON – Governor Gavin Newsom reversed reopenings statewide this week, ordering indoor businesses including bars, restaurants, and movie theaters to close amid rising coronavirus cases. Officials are also keeping schools from resuming in-person instruction for many districts, including Los Angeles and San Diego Unified School District this fall.
President Trump said not reopening schools is a “terrible decision” but top California officials said they’re basing their closures off of science.
The White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, or WHORC, focuses on using federal resources to stimulate the economy and encourage entrepreneurship. WHORC’s Executive Director Scott Turner condemned California for reversing business openings and said those decisions won’t help the state recover from it’s collapsed economy amid the pandemic.
Turner said communities and businesses can take care of themselves and said keeping everything closed is a sure way to hinder the economy. He said he hopes other states won’t follow suit.
“I’m hopeful that it won’t continue,” Turner said. “We need to open businesses. People in American want to work. You saw last month, we added 4 million-plus jobs for June. People in America want to work. We know how to take care of each other; we know how to take care of ourselves and our family. Look at people in here, washing our hands, hand sanitizer, social and physical distancing. Those things have to continue, yes, but the closing down of businesses to me is a negative way to approach our country and our economy. We need to open up so people can work and take care of their families."
The Trump administration is also criticizing California’s handling of the homelessness situation amid the pandemic. U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson said the state needs more “permanent solutions.” Right before the pandemic, Carson was tasked to visit California to help with the growing rate of homelessness.
Carson said since then the federal government has approved millions of dollars in aid to the state through the March coronavirus stimulus package. With some of that money, Newsom proposed buying hotels to use for emergency homeless housing and has since found temporary living spaces for thousands in the homeless community amid the pandemic. Newsom said he hopes to turn the properties into more permanent solutions.
But Carson said leadership shouldn’t just “stick them in a place,” but instead focus on other long-term resources like mental health, addiction, counseling, and medication.
“We don’t want to just put a band aid on it,” Carson said. “We want to do things that have a long-term impact.”
Carson said right now he’s urging leaders to come up with “action plans” that are more “sustainable.” In the last couple of years, according to the Board of Supervisors, California has been one of the only states that saw a sharp increase in homelessness.