California's CARE Act has connected 11,912 people with severe mental illness to services since the programme went statewide in December 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday, November 9, at a CARE Act Implementation Convening in Sacramento where he thanked the county teams and state partners who run the system. A total of 6,531 CARE petitions have been filed across 56 counties, the governor's office said.
Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Nov. 9, 2026
The new totals mark clear growth from the state's own 2026 CARE Act Annual Report, covered independently in October: through June 2026 the programme had reached more than 10,000 Californians, with more than 5,400 petitions filed across 54 counties, 1,414 voluntary CARE agreements and 56 court-ordered CARE plans, and nearly 4,900 people referred to services outside the formal process. In about five more months of reporting, the reach has risen by roughly 1,900 people and the petition count by more than 1,100 — the trajectory the governor pointed to in Sacramento.
Source: AV Daily News, Oct. 2, 2026 (2026 CARE Act Annual Report coverage)
What the outcome numbers show
Almost 1,800 Californians now have a CARE agreement or plan — growth of more than 250% in one year — and more than 5,381 people have been connected to treatment outside the formal court process, the governor's office said. The share of CARE participants living in housing rose from 53% at the time they were petitioned to 71% in the most recent reporting month; nearly half of the people who came in unhoused are now sheltered or housed, and 69% of those entering from institutions or facilities moved into temporary or permanent housing.
Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Nov. 9, 2026
Treatment measures moved the same way: use of mental health services rose from 77% to 87%, use of stabilising medication rose from 47% to 61%, and nearly 6 in 10 active participants are now getting all three key supports together — medication, treatment and housing. Who files petitions has also changed: families filed most petitions in the early months, but system partners such as hospitals, clinicians and public guardians now file about 61% of them, and petitions from inside the system are more likely to end in an agreement, the governor's office said.
Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Nov. 9, 2026
'Not everyone needs a court, but everyone deserves to be served. The progress we're seeing across the state is a testament to the commitment of CARE providers, and proof that this new avenue of care is reaching people who may not have been reached before.' — Governor Gavin Newsom, quoted in his office's Nov. 9 release.
The Central Valley angle: Fresno doubled, Kern tripled
Ten counties had been placed in what the state calls 'Care ICU' because they sat below the statewide petition-filing average of 6.2 petitions per 100,000 people. With intensive technical assistance, all ten are now showing progress and most are above the statewide average, the governor's office said. Fresno County and Kern County stood out: Fresno doubled its number of petitions since last year and Kern tripled its count. Both counties sit in the Central Valley — Fresno is one of California's largest Punjabi diaspora centres and Kern, anchored by Bakersfield, is another — so the speed at which CARE petitions, agreements and housing placements grow there is a direct local-services issue for diaspora families as well as for the wider community.
Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Nov. 9, 2026
Background: what the CARE Act is
The CARE Act — Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment — is California's court-based route for connecting people with untreated or undertreated schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders to voluntary treatment, housing and support. The first programmes began in eight counties in 2023 and the system was fully implemented in all 58 counties by December 2024, the October annual-report coverage noted. The governor's office says people with untreated psychosis in California are 10 times more likely to experience homelessness and 16 times more likely to be incarcerated — the gap the programme was built to close.
Source: AV Daily News, Oct. 2, 2026 (2026 CARE Act Annual Report coverage)
The convening itself showed how many parts of the system now touch a single CARE case: county behavioural health providers and service providers sat alongside judges, court staff, public defenders and public guardians, with representatives from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), the California Behavioral Health Directors Association, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Department of State Hospitals, the Judicial Council of California and the State Bar of California, the governor's office said.
Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Nov. 9, 2026
The wider homelessness and Prop 1 picture
The CARE figures landed alongside new statewide homelessness data: preliminary estimates show unsheltered homelessness declining for a second consecutive year, down nearly 13% since 2024, the governor's office said. On facilities, the state has awarded $6.1 billion in behavioural health infrastructure funding to support 535 new facilities, 9,570 beds and 44,863 treatment slots statewide, and the first behavioural health centre funded by Proposition 1 — the 2024 voter-approved overhaul — has opened, with the programme delivering 102% of the inpatient beds and 104% of the outpatient treatment slots promised in less than two years, according to the governor's office. These are the administration's own figures and framing; county-level results vary, and the state publishes county CARE data for public tracking.
Source: Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, Nov. 9, 2026
What happens next
The work now sits with the counties: the former 'Care ICU' counties must hold their gains above the statewide filing average, petition numbers in places like Fresno and Kern will show whether the recent jumps become a trend, and the next annual reporting cycle will test whether the housing share — 71% at the latest count — keeps rising. For families in the Central Valley and across California, the practical question is the one the convening was built around: whether a petition filed by a family member, a hospital or a clinician turns into an agreement, treatment and a home, as it now has for the nearly 1,800 people with a CARE agreement or plan.