State funding for supportive housing headed to SoCal counties

Riverside and Orange counties will each receive over $20 million from the state for more permanent supportive housing units in governments’ ongoing attempts to reduce homelessness, California officials announced Wednesday.

Riverside County, in a partnership with Abode Communities, will get more than $21.7 million for the Desert Extended Stay project in Riverside, according to the governor’s office. The project is a hotel acquisition and rehabilitation that officials said would create a manager unit and 96 permanent supportive units for people who are on the brink of homelessness, exiting homelessness and chronically unhoused.

Orange County, in a partnership with American Family Housing, will receive $29 million for the 1400 Bristol St. project in Costa Mesa. The acquisition and refurbishing of a former Travelodge motel will add 76 permanent supportive dwellings and two manager units.

The SoCal counties were among nine awardees — Merced, Richmond, San Francisco, Sebastopol, San Mateo County and the housing authorities of Kern County and Sacramento County — that will receive a total of $130.6 million via the Homekey program, according to the governor’s office. The funding will add 533 new permanent supportive units statewide and help an estimated 4,886 Californians at risk of being unhoused, including initiatives focused on young people, individuals and families.

“We are proud to stand with local partners who are serving their communities by providing much-needed housing to alleviate homelessness,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “We’ll continue to support local governments who are doing the work to ensure everyone has a place to call home.”

The grants are administered through the state’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

“Originally an emergency measure to help curb the spread of COVID-19 among unhoused Californians, Homekey has grown and evolved into a model for supporting our families and individuals in need of housing such as deserving veterans and others experiencing behavioral health challenges,” HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez said in a statement. “Thanks to forward-thinking voters, HCD will get to play an even larger role in housing Californians who are struggling, and connecting them to the services they need to exit homelessness and maintain housing stability.”

Homekey began in 2020 as Project Roomkey. The program enables state and local governments and public entities to build permanent supportive housing by buying, developing and repairing a wide range of housing types such as hotels, motels, hostels, single-family homes, multifamily apartments and commercial properties.

Early Homekey projects were mainly hotel and motel conversions, while projects awarded in the most recent third round of grant funding “have included a hospital conversion, new construction and innovative modular construction approaches,” officials said. “The program goal remains to rapidly expand availability of affordable housing to help Californians exit or prevent homelessness.”

To date the program has awarded $3.6 billion for 259 projects that officials said will include 15,850 residences to serve a projected 172,000 California households over the project’s span.

“Homekey continues to demonstrate California’s steadfast commitment to working with local partners to expand our housing supply and build new homes for our most vulnerable neighbors,” state Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Tomiquia Moss said in a statement.

Now as funding for Homekey winds down, HCD staff are planning to expand its model statewide under the moniker Homekey+. In March voters approved Proposition 1, which officials said will fund housing and supportive services for veterans, homeless people and state residents with mental health challenges.

HCD and CalVet, the state’s veterans services agency, will announce Homekey+ grant availability before the end of the year, officials said.

The governor’s office noted the over $40 billion in state funds spent on affordable housing, and additionally, more than $27 billion to try to reduce homelessness since Newsom’s 2019 election.

Wednesday’s funding announcement follows Newsom’s July 25 executive order that directed cities and counties to use the state funding “to address unsanitary and dangerous encampments within their communities and provide people experiencing homelessness in the encampments with the care and supportive services they need,” according to the governor’s office.

According to the results of Riverside County’s most recent point-in-time homeless count, in 2023 the estimated homeless population was 3,725, compared with 3,316 recorded in the previous count.

In Orange County, the 2024 homeless population was 7,322 people. Compared with 2022, there was a 37% increase in the unsheltered population and an 18% increase in people living in shelters.

Additional information on Homekey is available at the HCD website.