In this week’s edition: a federal shakeup portends the potential end of California’s long romance with Housing First, as HUD redirects billions toward faster, messier, possibly more effective shelter solutions. Meanwhile, the Bay Area loses its grip on D.C. power, UC San Diego discovers that calculus students can’t do fractions, and San Francisco stumbles into actual progress by doing the unthinkable — something simple that really seems to work! Plus: an epic Native American podcast, a curious corporate landscape off of the 405, and a Golden State casino that must have Vegas throwing a side-eye.

FEDS FLIP THE SCRIPT ON HOMELESSNESS FUNDS

Most observers would admit that California’s decades-long experiment with Housing First homeless policy — offering permanent housing without preconditions — has failed to deliver. Projects take years, costs continue to rocket skyward, and encampments are mostly just moving into the shadows. Now, HUD is forcing a reset. More than half of its 2026 $3.9 billion Continuum of Care funding will shift from permanent housing to transitional shelters bundled with mental health and addiction services. For California, which shoulders nearly a third of the nation’s homeless population, this is less a policy tweak than a triage order. The goal: get people off the streets quickly, with some structure and support, instead of waiting years for units that may never come. It's a sharp turn away from ideology toward urgency, and a recognition that in this crisis, permanence can’t come first. The success of this reset may hinge not on ideology, but on how swiftly and humanely it’s implemented.

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🤫 Everything you should know

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😟 - POWER OUTAGE PENDING — The Bay Area’s Washington political muscle, once unmatched in seniority, strategy, and influence is beginning to grind its gears. Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi’s looming retirement marks the final blow to a lineup that just recently included the House Speaker, Vice President, a giant of the Senate, and a slate of powerful committee chairs all hailing from Northern California. With Dianne Feinstein’s passing, Kamala Harris’ defeat, and long-serving reps like Barbara Lee and Anna Eshoo retired from Congress, what’s left is a green bench and aging placeholders. Power is shifting south, explains columnist Marc Sandalow, and the Bay's federal funding, legislative leverage, and national voice hang in the balance. — SF Examiner

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🤔  - THE MATH AIN’T MATHING — At UC San Diego, 18% of incoming freshmen now test below Algebra 1 — yes, middle school math — despite glowing transcripts, 4.0 GPAs, and even AP Calculus. The number needing remedial courses ballooned from under 100 to over 900 in just five years. The cause? Pandemic learning loss, systemic K–12 failure, and UC’s decision to ditch standardized testing. Faculty aren’t mincing words: “We face an enormous uncertainty when judging the math skills of our applicants.” Access is not the same as readiness, and wishful thinking isn’t a support strategy. — Newsweek

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💡 - SF TRIES RADICAL SIMPLICITY:  — San Francisco has finally stumbled upon the revolutionary idea that maybe screaming, delusional people shouldn't be dumped back on the sidewalk after a quick ER pit stop. Enter 822 Geary Street: once a Goodwill, now a round-the-clock urgent care haven for the city's mentally ill and drug-addicted to pull themselves together. It’s clean, calm, voluntary — and shockingly effective. In a town famous for red tape and empty buildings, this modest clinic is actually doing something radical: helping people. Naturally, it took two mayors, a pandemic, and an overdose crisis to make it happen. “For years, we’ve overcomplicated things in San Francisco,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in an interview. “We want to meet people where they’re at, and if they’re ready to get treatment, we want them to have it quickly.”. — NY Times

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🎙️ 💬 🎧 - ON THE POD: PLACE & PURPOSE

In Place & Purpose, Greg Sarris and Obi Kaufmann navigate California’s mythic terrain to decode a world coming undone. Sarris, Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford and worked as a full professor of English at UCLA. Across 12 live, seasonal episodes, they explore justice, ecology, memory, and belonging, not chasing progress, but rooting into place. The future, they suggest, isn’t invented, it’s remembered, written in the land, and waiting. — Place and Purpose

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🌲 🏜️ 🌴 - WHAT’S THE SCENARIO? IT IS THIS.

Image credit: DailyMatador on Flickr

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Tucked just off the 405 between a TGI Friday’s and the ghost of a lima bean empire lies California Scenario—Isamu Noguchi’s sculptural love letter to the Golden State’s geography, bankrolled by mall mogul/philanthropist Henry Segerstrom. It’s part art park, part corporate oasis, and possibly part Satanic sigil. Come for the granite. Stay for the surreal capitalism-meets-nature vibe. — Atlas Obscura

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🏃‍♂️ 💨 ✋ FAST FIVE

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1. 🎸 Gargantuan, $600M casino opens in Tejon, CA. LA Times
2. 👀 Pelosi (not that one) announces candidacy for CA state Senate. X
3. 🙄 Crescendo of stupidity follows TPUSA event at UC Berkeley. Berkeley Scanner
4. 🚛 California revokes commercial driver’s licenses of 17K immigrants. A.P.
5. 💧 Colorado River talks hit crunch time. What’s at stake for California?  CalMatters

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