Poverty and homelessness are huge problems in California, but are largely a result of "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded," and, yes, some bad policies related to that which mostly aren't identifiably "liberal" policies. High taxes aren't the problem, except to the extent that they (the services they provide) are part of the attraction.
I was not a big fan of SoCal when I lived there, but the public services, at least the ones that they choose to provide, both work well and are very important to the locals.
