Blakespear drops push to force counties to cover half of city shelter costs

Driving the news: Blakespear gutted and rewrote the bill this week, as she told Politico, killing its financial mandate on counties.

• It now instead calls for the state's housing department to work with local governments to create a financial plan to end chronic homelessness in 10 years.
• The dramatically altered version of the bill passed the Senate's housing committee this week.

Between the lines: The California State Association of Counties lobbied against the legislation, arguing it effectively gave cities control over county budgets, but formally removed its opposition after the changes.

What they're saying: "Counties are ready to comprehensively address the homelessness crisis by addressing the two fundamental problems with the current broken system: clear responsibilities for each level of government — state, city and county — and reliable funding so local governments can follow through on what they start," said Graham Knaus, CEO of the CSAC.

• "We're working with elected officials in both parties at the state and local levels to identify real solutions."

Zoom out: Blakespear put the bill together with San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, who said it was needed to make sure counties do their fair share and to encourage cities to open shelters.

• The dispute between cities and counties over homelessness has been especially acute in San Diego, with Mayor Todd Gloria, during his State of the City speech, encouraging residents to blame the county when they see someone on the street suffering from severe mental illness or addiction.