Dive Brief:
- California announced on Tuesday more than $827 million in state funding to help local communities and organizations tackle homelessness by creating new housing, shelter and support programs.
- The communities receiving the grants must commit to increased accountability, transparency and compliance measures to allow the state to track whether they are making measurable progress on reducing homelessness.
- The state required the communities to collaborate regionally on grant applications, with cities, counties and Continuum of Care systems explicitly committing to coordinate and clarifying which part of the homelessness response they are responsible for. “This will drive coordination and make sure homelessness is solved regionally — not treated as a problem that stops at the city limits,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a press release.
Dive Insight:
The state has gotten increasingly involved in local homelessness responses in recent months, with a focus on seeing measurable progress. “We’ve given our local partners the tools and resources they need — it’s time to end this crisis now,” Newsom said in a statement on Tuesday.
In August, Newsom said he would redirect funding away from cities and counties that don’t show “demonstrable results” in reducing homelessness. The state is even threatening to sue one city that extended a ban last month on new homeless shelters and other housing types. Newsom called the ban “counterproductive and immoral” while people are still in need.
Tuesday’s grants follow nearly $131 million in awards given by the state to local governments earlier this month to help them clear encampments of people experiencing homelessness and provide service to those individuals. California is also paying back local governments that clear encampments on state land.
California has invested $27 billion over the last five years to address homelessness, according to CNBC. “We want to see $27 billion worth of results,” Newsom said at the time of the $131 million awards.
The state is requiring communities that received awards Tuesday to report exactly how they spend the grants on a monthly basis, which will be publicized on a state website. Communities must also report the outcomes of their funded programs every quarter.
Communities must also commit to addressing racial inequities in homelessness, prioritize permanent housing over temporary shelters and include people who have experienced homelessness in the design of their programs, according to a press release.
