Governor Newsom announces local accountability, transparency rules for new round of homeless funding

News

Oct 29, 2024

What you need to know: Governor Newsom today announced 37 new grant awards totaling more than $827 million to help more than 100 local communities and organizations create long-term solutions to address homelessness. The grant agreements include strong accountability and transparency measures and clear expectations to ensure that local strategies to address homelessness are measurable and effective.

LOS ANGELES - Expanding California's unprecedented support for local efforts to create long-term solutions to address homelessness, Governor Newsom today announced that 37 regional grantees - representing 100 local communities and organizations statewide - will receive more than $827 million in new state investments to create new housing, shelter, and support for those experiencing homelessness. The funding comes with strong accountability measures and reporting requirements to ensure funding is used effectively and outcomes can be tracked and measured.

"We've given our local partners the tools and resources they need - it's time to end this crisis now. These new funds represent the hard work, accountability, and strategic planning needed to address homelessness with real, long-lasting results."

Governor Gavin Newsom

Investing in impactful solutions to address homelessness

California has made unprecedented investments to address the housing and homelessness crises, with $40 billion invested to help communities create more housing and $27 billion provided to communities to help prevent and end homelessness. Today's new grant awards are part of the state's Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) grant program, which provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness by creating permanent housing, rental and move-in assistance, case management services, and rental subsidies, among other eligible uses.

The Governor announced the awards in Downtown Los Angeles, where he was joined by city and county officials.

"The only way we can be successful in solving homelessness is by locking arms and implementing a comprehensive approach that shows results," said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. "The Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention program is critical to our success here in Los Angeles, and has helped reduce homelessness for the first time in years. I want to thank Governor Newsom and our state elected partners for working together to bring people off of the streets and into housing as urgently as this crisis requires."

Greater accountability

As a condition of receiving the funding, the awardees must agree to increased accountability, transparency, and compliance measures. These new measures will help enhance the ability for these state investments to drive real, measurable results and will help improve the tracking of data and outcomes. This ensures that grant recipients remain accountable and protects state funding.

Regional approach

Grantees were required to work regionally on these applications. Cities, counties, and Continuums of Care were required to explicitly commit to coordinating with one another, clearly stating who was responsible for which parts of their joint regional homeless efforts, as a condition of receiving funding. This will drive coordination and make sure homelessness is solved regionally - not treated as a problem that stops at the city limits.

Greater transparency

Grantees will report monthly fiscal progress that will be available live on the California Housing and Community Development's (HCD) website through the HHAP fiscal dashboard. Grantees will also upload HHAP program outcomes to the California Homeless Data Integration System on a quarterly basis.

More support

This round of HHAP funding embraces an inclusive process - helping California regions to assess and build on their existing capacity to address their unique homelessness challenges, transition homeless individuals and families into affordable permanent housing, and support those individuals and families in maintaining stable permanent housing. The funding requires grantees to commit to addressing racial inequities in homelessness, prioritize permanent housing rather than temporary shelters, and include people with lived experience of homelessness in program design.

"The HHAP Round 5 grants demonstrate how the state can support and amplify regional strategies and coordination to help our most vulnerable residents move into safe and stable housing," said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Secretary Tomiquia Moss. "The accountability in this round of funding ensures we are empowering local partners to design local solutions to prevent and end homelessness, and produce measurable results. By working together to address the unique needs in their communities we get that much closer to reducing unsheltered homelessness across the State."

HHAP funds build on ongoing state investments and are intended to be paired strategically with other state, local, and federal funds, including other HCD programs like Homekey+.

Care, compassion, collaboration

Today's announcement follows the Governor's executive order urging local governments to adopt policies and plans consistent with the California Department of Transportation's (Caltrans) existing encampment policy.

Prioritizing encampments that pose a threat to the life, health, and safety of the community, Caltrans provides advance notice of clearance and works with local service providers to support those experiencing homelessness at the encampment, and stores personal property collected at the site for at least 60 days. Earlier this month, Governor Newsom also provided local communities with $131 million, as part of the state's $1 billion of Encampment Resolution Funds to address homelessness, to help local governments address homeless encampments and provide shelter, care, and support.

As required by the Governor's executive order, the California Interagency Council on Homelessness today is releasingnew guidance to assist local communities in addressing encampments. The guidance provides local communities with best practices for resolving encampments and connecting individuals in encampments with services and housing.

California is also transforming behavioral health care by improving access, accountability, transparency, and capacity. This includes through the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Court, a first-in-the-nation approach to create accountability for connecting individuals with untreated psychosis to the treatment and housing they need. It also includes Proposition 1, which is expanding the behavioral health continuum using existing dollars and providing care to individuals experiencing mental health conditions and substance use disorders - with a particular focus on people who are the most seriously ill, vulnerable, and at risk of homelessness or homeless.

HHAP Funding provided by region

Local communities and organizations are required to coordinate and apply together through Regionally Coordinated Homelessness Action Plans. The 37 California regions awarded HHAP funds today have approved plans that demonstrated a commitment to the priorities of creating permanent housing solutions and sustaining existing interim housing.

For a list of regions receiving the award, view here.

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