Government
Nov. 24, 2025
Is CARE Court reaching California's 'Million Dollar Murrays'?
The state projected 7,000 to 12,000 Californians would qualify for CARE Court, yet from October 2023 to September 2025 courts recorded only 2,873 petitions, 6,489 hearings, 620 CARE agreements and 19 court-ordered plans. Judges say families are getting help, but it's unclear whether the program is reaching the chronically homeless who generate the highest public costs.
CARE Court is Gov. Gavin Newsom's signature program to address California's homeless crisis. But there is another name that sometimes comes up when talking about the issue: Million Dollar Murray.
Murray Barr was the subject of a 2006 The New Yorker magazine article. Malcolm Gladwell wrote that the alcoholic ex-Marine living on the streets of Reno may have accumulated more unpaid medical debt than any other person in Nevada before he died from his addiction. Police officers...
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