Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced hundreds of millions of dollars in grant money to help local governments move people in homeless encampments on state property into temporary and permanent housing.
He also said new housing goals would be included in the next statewide planning cycle that will compel localities to build more housing for residents without any income or with very low income.
The moves are part of a continuation of an effort to create more housing options for people living in encampments, which courts have ruled can only be cleared when there is alternative shelter offered. Meanwhile, a U.S. Supreme Court case on Monday is challenging camping bans altogether, which could alter the state’s strategy.
The grant awards come about a week after a report from the state auditor said the state is doing a poor job tracking the effectiveness of the money it spends on homelessness.
The governor announced the awards of $192 million from the state’s $750 million Encampment Resolution Fund to 20 projects in 17 cities and counties, including several in the Bay Area and Central Coast. The Encampment Resolution Fund is a grant program to help local governments clear homeless encampments from state highways and other rights of way.
The funding will provide support for about 3,600 people, including 2,200 who will be placed in permanent housing, according to the governor.
Newsom blamed local jurisdictions for failing to gather adequate data on how the money was being spent but said the Encampment Resolution Fund was a success that he wanted to build on with new accountability measures in place.
The governor said during a virtual press briefing that a team of 22 staff members from the Department of Housing and Community Development will be dedicated to auditing and enforcing whether local governments are meeting their goals to reduce homelessness.
The Homelessness Accountability Unit will be modeled after the department’s Housing Accountability Unit and will work more consistently with local jurisdictions on following through on plans to reduce the state’s homeless population and provide services like mental healthcare. That, he said, will create better metrics for whether the state’s housing and transitional programs are actually working.
Around the Bay Area and Central Coast, Marin County was awarded $18.2 million, San Mateo County was awarded $14.1 million, and Monterey County was awarded $11.1 million. The city of Oakland was given $7.2 million, while the city of Santa Cruz was given $4 million.
The money can be used for a range of services and housing options to adhere to the state’s goal of establishing continuums of care and housing options for the unhoused population in the city or county receiving the money.
The governor also said the next Regional Housing Needs Assessment cycle, known as RHNA, will include requirements for local jurisdictions to include housing options for people in income brackets between zero to 30% of area median income levels to provide more housing for people transitioning from being homeless or who are chronically homeless.
The next housing cycle, the seventh, will begin in July 2029.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that encampments can only be cleared if housing is provided for those being displaced.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on Monday that has challenged blanket bans on camping in public.
The case, Johnson v Grants Pass, challenges the ability of governments to enact camping bans, arguing that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment if they have nowhere else to go.
Newsom filed an amicus brief in March asking the court to overturn the Ninth Circuit’s decision, calling it too broad. Newsom said Thursday that it was “common sense” and “compassionate” to eliminate encampments because he said they create unsanitary and unsafe conditions.
17 comments
Anyone realize that the more the Democrats do for the homework the more and more homeless we get? And they want to throw more and more money after the problem…never solving it.
There are signs posted at campgrounds that say “Do not feed the animals”. Its unhealthy for them to eat human food and it encourages them to reduce their natural hunting/foraging. This creates animals dependent on people feeding them, and creates a dangerous situation where the animals become nuisances.
Sound familiar?
Vote buying rhetoric.
What about the BILLIONS of budget deficit? …. and can WE taxpayers vote on the hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars going to this? … especially when we know it won’t solve anything?! … ridiculous waste of our $$ …. this is what voters wanted?! sad……
My question also-we’re upside down 70 something BILLION and now Newsom wants
to buy votes with money we don’t have. More homeless on the way.
Insane.
So he cannot account for 20+ Billion dollars, so let us throw more money at it. I am wondering whose pockets he is lining this time.
And he wants us to build more dump housing in nice neighborhoods to house these folks who do NOT want to live in a house under rules. At least by that thought our home prices should drop making it more affordable. SMH
They are going to offer mental services, gee how wonderful. The problem is, the drug addict homeless don’t want the mental services, they just want to do drugs!!
Until the DRUG problems are addressed, this is going to be a never ending cycle of failed policies and wasted resources.
Is the $ that is funding this project part of the $22B that is missing, or is it new funds to waste?
Asking for a tax paying friend.
Here’s a novel idea, figure out why you have so many homeless in this state. Perhaps raising the minimum wage so high on unskilled work? I would bet that law will produce even more homeless in the coming years. But they don’t fool us. We know you did that not to help workers but to look good to get re-elected. As long as California is so out-of-balance economically there will be lots and lots of homeless. They can’t even afford to move out of the state!
“… Encampment Resolution Fund was a success that he wanted to build on with new accountability measures in place” What are the new accountability measures? They just keep spending and the homeless numbers go up. Maybe try spending less and see if they go down. Kinda like going to the park and feeding pigeons everyday, more show up over time. Stop feed them and they start to disappear…
Oh LOOK, His Imperial Majesty Emperor newsom has once again found something to throw your tax dollars at and this it’s only hundreds of millions of dollars. Bet he had the usual photo OP to go with it.
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Actually, I’m still waitin’ for his homeless plan from 2004 to work.
“Just a few months after Gavin Newsom was sworn in as mayor of San Francisco in 2004, he announced a plan to get all of the city’s chronically homeless residents off the streets within 10 years.”
sacbee https://tinyurl.com/vdw3uhau
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Seems to me ’bout ONLY thing he is good at is spending YOUR tax dollars.
He’s also pretty good at losing or misplacing $22 billion.
Well this should fix everything.
No mention of mental health which we all know is a sizable component of the homeless problem.
As to why California leads the nation in homelessness, perhaps there is a passing correlation with California also leading the country in unemployment.
Throwing money at the problem is just a lazy alternative to actually working toward a solution When it doesn’t work, it will be blamed on others.
I live in Redding Ca & we don’t even have a city/county homeless shelter here. Only a church called the Mission that has a very limited amount of mats “beds” on the floor for overnighter’s & a 30 day stay if you become part of their alcohol/drug programs. Their success is basically providing meals/soup kitchen for homeless. However, staying there should have a caution attached that your likely to get sick staying there, 3 of their own employee’s died of COVID & many contracted it as well + there’s a high likelihood that you belongings will be stolen – even from the washing machines.
Due to lack of temporary accommodations within our city it is common seeing homeless walking the streets at all hours and sleeping on sidewalks as well as on empty homes porches & in front of businesses.
In talking to some of these homeless I have found that homeless from other counties/states migrate here too because they claim that our welfare benefits i. e. food stamps & cash aid are much higher than other states & that here they are not required to report in every month to welfare which also creates a the problem with not knowing where they are at or if they get arrested or if they are defrauding the program by trading off their benefits to others for cash, drugs or alcohol. Our welfare also gives them health insurance but no one is even checking on those receiving those to make sure they are actually going to doctor or are even taking the mental health medications that they need to be on. Our city has many medical clinics that are very easy to find & are accessable within the same blocks the homeless wander in town.
So I believe that until they assign caseworkers to work with & on the behalf of these people – the homeless will continue to stay on the streets with other homeless migrating to our city for those easy to get benefits without having to do a thing for them. Hell a lot of the homeless I’ve met don’t even have ID’s, cell phones nor know what day/date is because they really don’t even care about themselves let alone feel other’s do. . . enough to actually care to help them in filling out paperwork or encouraging them to take their meds while they are scared & not safe on the streets. The world is not a safe place for anyone but for most of us we can close our doors to shield us from the world. They have no place & believe no one is not a danger to them.
As long as gangs from Honduras, Mexican Mafia and notorious biker gangs remain in existence, the homeless will continue. These vast organizations account for the distribution of fentanyl, meth and heroine that feed the addictions, creates homelessness, and crime in our cities. Take a trip to the Tenderloin in SF
and speak to the homeless and ask why they live in the streets. It’s by choice and they get paid to stay and are giving pipes, needles, foil and whatever else they need to do their drugs.
Businesses have closed and the ones who stay open are subjected to theft and also violent attacks by the vagabonds. Every Sanction City has the same scenario and will only grow with more crime and homelessness because the drugs are so prevalent and cheap. The police have their hands tied due to the DA and city council. The Great Government is aware of these gangs and has allowed them to come through our borders for years. Gangsters work with other gang affiliates to spread the drugs and enforce the streets.
I remember when we did not have a homeless problem. The homeless were arrested and received drug counseling and mental health help. Why fix what’s not broken?
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