Homelessness/Housing

Besides educating ourselves and LWVBC about the issues of homelessness and housing, our team will explore the best service groups to possibly align with, and may potentially do a public education forum. The Housing Team will not only explore and advocate for each city’s Housing Elements, it will also evaluate and potentially re-write our LWVBC Housing Position.

Contact Teri Neustaedter tmufic@gmail.com.

The biggest survey of homeless Californians in decades shows why so many are on the streets

The largest survey of homeless Californians in decades aims to dispel myths about what drives that state’s most pressing crisis. It found that addiction and mental health conditions rarely cause homelessness.

Read the full article from CalMatters.org here.

California State FY22-23 Homelessness and Housing Highlights

Governor Newsom and the Legislature have agreed on a state budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23. The budget continues to build on previous investments in preventing and ending homelessness, and expanding housing opportunities. Here are some highlights of what is in this year's budget for housing and homelessness:

California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH)

Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP): $1 billion for local governments to address homelessness. This will be the fifth round of the HHAP program. These funds will go to LA County, City of Los Angeles, and the LA Continuum of Care (administered by LAHSA)
Encampment Resolution Grants: $700 million to assist local governments with resolving critical encampments and transitioning individuals into permanent housing.

Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD)

Homekey 2.0: $1.45 billion for Homekey Round 3, which includes $150 million in this year's budget and $1.3 billion allocated for FY 2022-23 in last year's budget, to rapidly expand housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. During Round 2, the City of Redondo Beach received funds to support the conversion of a motel to permanent housing.
Catalytic Infill Development and Adaptive Reuse: $400 million to accelerate and scale housing production efforts by converting existing infrastructure, public lands, commercial buildings and underutilized retail space into climate-sensitive mixed-use locations with residential and other uses.
Infill Infrastructure Grant Program: $425 million to encourage affordable housing and mixed-use development on infill sites.
Housing Accelerator Program: $250 million to reduce the backlog of shovel-ready projects stuck in the funding pipeline.
Multifamily Housing Program: $325 million to provide low-interest, long-term deferred payment loans for new construction, rehabilitation and preservation of permanent rental housing for lower-income households.

California Housing Finance Agency

California Dream for All: $500 million to establish a program to make home ownership more achievable for up to 4,000 first-time home buyers.
Accessory Dwelling Unit Financing: $50 million to reimburse pre-development and non-recurring closing costs associated with the construction of ADUs.

UPDATE: 2022 Homeless Count

On July 6th, 2022, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) announced the public release of the Greater LA Homeless Count results will be delayed until September.

As part of the annual process, LAHSA first submits the results to HUD. This is followed by a validation process to ensure the data accuracy before releasing it publicly. HUD informed LAHSA at the end of June that the data validation would not begin until the week of July 18. LAHSA is scheduled to receive the HUD validated data in late August and thus plans to release the data to the public in early September.

Homeless Count Milestone Date Comparisons: Pre-COVID Counts vs. 2022

Street Count conducted: End of January (Pre-COVID) vs. End of February (2022)
Results to HUD: End of April (Pre-COVID) vs. End of May (2022)
Public release of the large geographies: June (Pre-COVID) vs. July (2022): -- Now September
Public release of the city-level results: July (Pre-COVID) vs. August (2022): -- Now September

The Roadmap Home 2030 is a bold, long-term plan to build affordable homes, protect low-income renters, end homelessness, and advance racial equity and economic inclusion.

learn more about the organization

Read the program summary

People over 50 now account for half of unhoused adults – a four-fold increase since 1990 when 11% of homeless adults were over 50 according to a study from UC San Francisco expert
Dr. Margot Kushel.

Learn more:
Fact Sheet: Older Adults in California Face Unaffordable Rents
California Homeless | Seniors on the streets: More older people in Sacramento are on the brink
California can stem the tidal wave of senior citizen homelessness
Report warns older homeless population will increase without intervention

Check out the South Bay Families Connected Homelessness Page for local Resources.

CRISIS SUPPORT

211 LA is the hub for community members and community organizations looking for all types of health, human, and social services in Los Angeles County, including housing, transportation and meals.