Newsom has committed more than $827 million to combat homelessness in California; The Bay Area gets almost 1/5

LOS ANGELES – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced he is committing $827 million to California communities to address homelessness; Los Angeles took the lion’s share, with more than $380 million, and the Bay Area with nearly 1/5 of the $169 million total.

The money comes in the form of 37 new grants to help more than 100 communities and organizations find long-term solutions to homelessness, Newsom said, adding that the money comes with “robust accountability and transparency measures, as well as clear expectations” that will help ensure that progress is made. programs are measurable and effective.

“Our unprecedented commitment to ending homelessness can only be realized locally, with everyone doing their part to solve this crisis on the streets,” Newsom said at a news conference in Los Angeles. “We’ve given our local partners the tools and resources they need—it’s time to end this crisis. These new funds represent the hard work, accountability and strategic planning needed to address homelessness with real, lasting results.”

California has made “unprecedented investments” to address the housing and homelessness crisis, with $40 billion invested to help communities create more housing and $27 billion provided to communities to help prevent and end homelessness, according to Newsom’s office.

These new grants are part of the state’s Housing Prevention and Homelessness Program, which provides flexible grant funding to help communities support people experiencing homelessness through permanent housing, rental and relocation assistance, case management services, rental subsidies and other eligible grants. uses.

San Francisco, which has been fighting the encampments for months, will receive more than $43 million. Mayor London Breed said the funding will be a game changer for the city’s outreach efforts.

“It helps not only our ability to provide non-congregate shelters, but also related services so we can help people get out of homelessness,” Breed said.

She said the city has reduced the number of tent cities by 60% this year alone and said it has helped 20,000 homeless people get housing.

“We have expanded our shelter capacity by more than 70%, and we are doing so with government support,” Breed said.

Homeless advocates say street sweeping is not being done properly.

“As you can see, they throw it all in the truck,” said Russell, who lives near the Tenderloin camp and helps his friend every time the streets are swept. “They’ve taken two of his tents in the last three weeks, and they probably would have taken this one if I wasn’t there to help him.”

Back in April, a state audit reported that California spent $24 billion on programs to combat homelessness over a five-year period but did not consistently track the results or effectiveness of those programs, largely because the state did not collect sufficient data from cities or organizations that benefited funds were provided.

The governor said this round of funding will come with strict transparency and reporting rules so the state can track results.

As a condition of receiving new funding, awardees must agree to enhanced accountability, transparency and compliance measures, Newsom’s office said. Grant recipients will report monthly financial progress, which will be available in real time on the California Housing and Community Development website through the HHAP Financial Dashboard. Grantees will also upload program results quarterly to the California Homeless Data Integration System.

Grantees were required to work on these applications at the regional level, and they were required to explicitly commit to coordinating with each other, clearly identifying who was responsible for which parts of their joint regional efforts to combat homelessness, as a condition of receiving funding. Newsom’s office said.

The funding requires grant recipients to commit to addressing racial disparities in homelessness, prioritizing permanent housing over emergency shelters, and including people with lived experience of homelessness in program development.

Here is a list of those who will receive the grant:

• Alameda Region – $55.9 million.

• Amador, Calaveras, Mariposa and Tuolumne regions – $2.06 million.

• Del Norte, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, Sierra and Siskiyou region – $7.1 million.

• Fresno and Madera region — $25.76 million.

• Humboldt Region – $25.76 million.

• Imperial Region – $3.67 million.

• Inyo and Mono Region – $247,950.

• Kern Region – $11.17 million.

• Kings and Tulare region — $4.14 million.

• Lake District – $1.3 million.

• Los Angeles region – $380.36 million.

• Maryinsky district – 3.15 million US dollars.

• Mendocino Region – $1.784 million.

• Merced Region – $2.21 million.

• Monterey and San Benito region — $6.23 million.

• Napa Region – $1.43 million.

• Alluvial region – $1.9 million.

• Riverside District — $21.35 million.

• Sacramento region — $53.21 million.

• San Bernardino Region – $11.82 million.

• San Diego region – $58.84 million.

• San Francisco region – $43.32 million.

• San Joaquin Region – $14.07 million.

• San Luis Obispo Region — $4.32 million.

• San Mateo Region — $5.24 million.

• Santa Barbara region – $5.32 million.

• Santa Clara Region – $56.77 million.

• Santa Cruz Region – $5.08 million.

• Solano Region – $3.38 million.