California voters had the opportunity to vote on the Behavioral Health Services Program and Bond Measure, known as Proposition 1, in the 2024 primary election.

If passed, the measure would partially reform how the government funds mental health services in the state.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been a major proponent of the measure, appearing in ads and campaigning for it across the state.

“These reforms will help California make good on promises made decades ago,” reads a statement attributed to Newsom on the governor’s pro-Prop 1 website TreatmentNotTents.com. “We see the signs of our broken system every day – too many Californians suffering from mental health needs or substance use disorders and unable to get support or care they need. This will prioritize getting people off the streets, out of tents and into treatment.”

Opponents of the measure include California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones and the California ACLU, who argue that the bill will be too large a cost to taxpayers for too little results and that it reduces oversight of funds.

“California’s mental health and housing systems need reform, but the numbers show that Proposition 1 is not likely to have any long-term effect in addressing California’s houselessness crisis, improving mental health systems, or helping alleviate mass incarceration,” said Carmen-Nicole Cox, director of government affairs at ACLU California Action.

“Prop 1’s changes to the Mental Health Services Act would force mental health, housing, and substance use disorder programs to compete for funding, and the $6.4 billion of debt it would impose on California would primarily fund forced treatment and institutionalization – not the community-based mental health services and housing Californians desperately need. Californians should vote NO on Prop 1,” Cox said.

Proposition 1 is a combination of two bills passed by the legislature in 2023, Senate Bill 326 and Assembly Bill 531.

SB 326 provides Proposition 1 with its changes to the 2004 Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). While Proposition 1 wouldn’t change the amount of taxes collected for MHSA, counties would be required to spend the money provided by the act on housing and personalized support services.

The bill garnered strong bipartisan support, being voted on favorably by almost all Democrats in the state legislature and more than half of Republicans. 

The part of Proposition 1 authorizing a $6.38 billion bond comes from AB 531. The money would be used to build mental health care and drug or alcohol treatment facilities and “housing for people with mental health, drug, or alcohol challenges.” 

The Assembly bill also earned some significant bipartisan support, though not as much as its Senate counterpart.