Newsom Announces $600M Grant Funding to House Californians Experiencing Homelessness During Pandemic

Building on the success of Project Roomkey in California, Governor Gavin Newsom announced last Thursday the immediate release of $600 million in funding for Homekey — a project set forth to protect Californians that are at high risk for serious illness and or have been impacted by the pandemic and are in need of safe housing.

The money will be made available to counties, cities and governmententities to purchase housing , such as hotels, motels, vacant apartmentbuildings and other types of innovative housing and convert them into long-termand or permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness.

Of the total, $550 million of the funding budget is part of theallocated federal Coronavirus Aid Relief Funds (CRF) and the remaining $50million is derived from the State’s Federal Fund.

Upon the release of the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) on July 16, local governments will have until Aug. 13, 2020 to request a pre-application consultation with the Housing and Community Development (HCD) via email (Homekey@hcd.ca.gov) and for the priority application period.

Online applications for funding availability are live and allapplications are due by Sept. 29.

The state plans to announce awards as early as October 2020, fasttracking funds to cities and counties within the first 30 days of awardroll-out with the goal of having local governments spend grant funds by Dec. 30of this year.

This is considered one of the largest and fastest housing projects setin process to help protect the most vulnerable people in need of housing duringthis crisis in California.

The number of fatalities caused by COVID-19 have disproportionatelyimpacted Black and Latinx communities across the country. These unfortunatepatterns are also reflected in the number of people experiencing homelessnessacross California.

The state has also responded to this issue and has dedicated funds tovarious regions focusing on the goal to diminish the unequal disproportion ofpeople experiencing homelessness in the Black and Latino communities throughoutCalifornia.

“Homekey reflects our shared values, including dedicating pots of funding for various regions in furtherance of geographic equity goals. Homekey prioritizes cost control, speed, and social service enhancements as key criteria. And Homekey acknowledges and prioritizes racial equity because homelessness disproportionately impacts Black and Latino communities across California,” said Governor Newsom in a letter to local elected officials.

The urgency setting Homekey in process is also based on the successfulcollaboration between the state and local governments on Project Roomkey.

Since the launch of Project Roomkey, there have been close to 16,000leased hotels and motel rooms under county control, providing safe interimhousing to more than 14,200 people, and counting, during a short amount oftime.

Will local elected officials be able to act quickly and effectively toreceive grant funding to implement Homekey in their respective areas? Will $600million in funding be enough to make up for the potential rise in the number ofpeople who may experience homelessness caused by the pandemic? 

Time will only tell; however, based on the success state and localofficials have had with housing thousands through project Roomkey, theannouncement of millions of dollars to be allocated and spent by end of 2020for project Homekey indicates a level of urgency Newsom feels on addressing thehomeless crisis in our state during the pandemic.

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