California's Big City mayors warn homelessness will balloon if state funding is eliminated
Sacramento (May 22, 2024) Mayors from California’s largest 13 cities have launched an all-out effort to make sure funding to address unsheltered homelessness is included in the upcoming state budget.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed eliminating the sixth round of funding under the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program. California’s big cities report that nearly 16,000 beds are supported by HHAP funding. California’s Big 13 cities have used Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) dollars to fund shelter, housing, and services that have helped 150,000 people experiencing homelessness thereby directly reducing unsheltered homelessness.
The mayors’ group held a press conference Wednesday to call on the governor and Legislative leaders to restore the $1 billion for HHAP for fiscal 2024-25. Gov. Newsom included HHAP funding in the January budget but eliminated it in the May revision.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg and other mayors said they are finally seeing the number of unsheltered people on the streets decrease — the result of increased shelter and housing funded by HHAP.
Mayor Steinberg noted that he and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass led the Legislature during 2009, when the state experienced its most severe budget deficit in history.
“Resolving the deficit is important, but so is continuing to make progress on our state’s most serious problem,” Mayor Steinberg said. “With the state's help, the City of Sacramento has expanded from fewer than 100 shelter beds seven years ago to more than 1,300 today – 97 percent of which are funded by HHAP. We are finally seeing the number of people on our streets begin to decline as we open more emergency shelter and housing. It is not the time to go backward.”
Read below for some of the facts and myths about HHAP funding:
Myth: Five rounds of HHAP funding have not produced fewer homeless individuals, therefore HHAP is not effective.
Reality: California’s big cities have used HHAP funding to stand up 15,772 shelter beds. These shelter beds are nearly 100 percent full on any given night. Without these shelter beds, nearly 16,000 additional people could be on the streets.
San Jose has used HHAP funds to stand up 499 new emergency shelter beds with a 69 percent success rate in exiting people to temporary or permanent housing, while Fresno reduced its homeless population by 5.6 percent. Los Angeles has used HHAP funding not only for thousands of emergency shelter beds but also for rental assistance, prevention, and permanent housing.
San Francisco recently reported that its unsheltered population fell 13 percent since 2022 to its lowest level in at least 10 years – a direct result of having more shelter and housing to offer. The reason homelessness has continued to rise in California is that the number of newly homeless individuals continues to rapidly outpace the capacity for cities to move individuals into permanent housing. In Los Angeles, for instance, each day 207 people are housed, but 227 enter homelessness. For every ten people housed in San Diego, sixteen people become newly homeless.
Myth: HHAP funding to cities is not getting people out of emergency shelter and into housing.
Reality: California’s 13 largest cities have used HHAP money to place 42,215 people into temporary and permanent housing. In addition to emergency shelter, HHAP funds have been used by cities to develop permanent supportive housing projects and programs that prevent people from becoming homeless. For example, Sacramento supports 200 beds of permanent supportive housing with its HHAP funds, including La Mancha, a converted motel that was turned into permanent housing with help from the state’s Homekey program. Fresno has successfully moved 7,000 people off its streets, with more than half of those now in permanent housing. And Bakersfield has used HHAP dollars for gap financing on a 70-unit Encampment Resolution Fund project that will move individuals directly from encampments to permanent supportive housing. A main factor limiting housing placements is not a lack of effort or efficacy, but the lack of housing supply. A combination of HHAP money and other new funding sources such as Homekey is helping accelerate construction of permanent housing in California’s largest cities, which will allow outcomes to improve.
Myth: Since voters passed Proposition 1, future rounds of HHAP are not necessary.
Reality: Funds from Proposition 1 will build behavioral health treatment facilities and permanent housing for people with serious mental and substance abuse disorders. Not everyone suffering from poverty, or struggling with the cost of housing, has a serious mental and substance use disorder. It should be noted that emergency shelter is NOT ELIGIBLE for funding. Permanent housing projects financed by Proposition 1 will take months if not years to build, and units will be available only to persons with serious behavioral health and substance use disorders. Proposition 1 is a vital tool to reduce the inflow of newly homeless individuals, but it is not a cure-all for unsheltered homelessness.
Myth: Cities have not actually set goals for using HHAP funding to reduce unsheltered homelessness.
Reality: California’s 13 largest cities have obtained state approval for plans that set aggressive accountability goals. Collectively, they have committed to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 16 percent by 2025, which equates to 14,000 people off the street. Cities also have committed to permanently housing nearly 35,000 unhoused people during that same period. Progress toward these goals will stall without the state funding that underpins sheltering programs.
Myth: Cities can maintain the same level of effectiveness and effort without HHAP funding.
Reality: The loss of HHAP funding would be devastating to the effort to reduce homelessness. It would require many large cities to close thousands of emergency shelter beds. That means more people living in tents on California streets. In Sacramento, for example, HHAP funds pay for 97 percent of the city’s 1,350 emergency shelter beds. Stockton funds all its low-barrier shelter beds with HHAP money. San Diego funds 1,072 emergency shelter beds with HHAP money, along with 206 safe parking spaces, a rehousing program, and a family reunification program that serves up to 700 people annually. San Francisco uses HHAP funds for 950 shelter beds. Los Angeles reports that the loss of HHAP funding would put 5,000 emergency shelter beds at risk of shutting down, while the City of Riverside would lose 91 total beds.
These are just a few examples. We are happy to provide more information, personal success stories, and tours highlighting our cities’ individual efforts.
In recent weeks, Governor Gavin Newsom has publicly demanded greater accountability for how local governments spend state homeless dollars. California’s Big City Mayors welcome these and any other changes that push cities, counties, and continuums of care to greater coordination and a greater focus on outcomes. Our new regional homeless action plans contain aggressive goals for reducing unsheltered homelessness – and we stand by those goals. That said, demanding greater accountability while eliminating a primary funding stream cities rely on to house thousands of people every night will make the problem of unsheltered homelessness far worse.
In closing, we ask that you restore $1 billion for HHAP 6 in the state budget so that cities can continue helping thousands of people every day thereby reducing the impact of unsheltered homelessness in our communities. Respectfully, we believe there is no more important budget priority for the State of California.
