Gov. Newsom Announces A New $300 Million Block Of Funding For Homeless Encampment Removal and Housing

Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that a third round of funding from the Encampment Resolution Fund worth $300 million will be made available to local governments across the state to both clear homeless encampments as well as to provide housing to those displaced as a result.

Since 2021 the California Interagency Council on Homelessness (Cal ICH) has continually given out local funding to clear homeless encampments and provide housing through Encampment Resolution Grants. Set up by the passage of AB 140, the two year, $700 million program has also largely focused on encampments on or nearby rights-of-way, which include highways and major public roads.

Before Monday, over $400 million had already been awarded by the state through two previous rounds of funding. The last block of funding to be awarded was $240 million in December of 2022. The Globe particularly noted that, through the programs spending habits, approximately $34,821.43 was spent per homeless person. This was in addition to the billions spent on homeless programs in the past few years by the state, which Governor Newsom has claimed as a great success, despite an overall 9% increase of homeless people statewide in 2023.

The Encampment Resolution Grants have also been a prime focus for criticism in the past few years because of how the money has been spent by local governments. While homeless encampments have been removed at a rapid pace, local governments have had a difficult time providing permanent shelter or permanent supportive shelter because of restrictive spending or money drying up because of the high cost of removing encampments because of safety concerns along major roadways. Since July 2021, 5,679 encampments have been removed because of the first two blocks of funding, and yet homelessness has gone up despite the funding being supposed to help people from encampments move into housing.

On Monday, Newsom announced a third block of ERF funding worth $299 million in grants. Applications for funding are to be accepted through June 2024, or until all funds are given out. According to the Governor’s office and Cal ICH, the $299 million will be available to locals as well as Caltrans to remove encampments and assist an estimated 10,000 individuals experiencing homelessness. Half of the new grants will also be prioritized for encampments on the state rights-of-way.

$300 million more in grants

“Since day one, combatting homelessness has been a top priority,” Newsom said during a press conference on Monday. “Encampments are not safe for the people living in them, or for community members around them. The state is giving locals hundreds of millions of dollars to move people into housing and clean up these persistent and dangerous encampments. And we are doing the same on state land, having removed 5,679 encampments since 2021.

“I think we can all agree that we need to do more to clean up encampments. We weren’t just cleaning up encampments – out of sight, out of mind – and displacing people, removing people, but that we’re trying to resolve the underlying issues in the first place and actually support people in getting them back on their feet to self-sufficiency.

“But those receiving the money will be held accountable. We’re not just writing a blank check and hoping things get better. They actually have specific numeric goals, minimum expectations and standards that must be met. 13,000 homeless people across the state have already been helped with hundreds of millions of dollars that were previously funded. This new infusion will help 10,000 more.”

NEWS: @CAgovernor announces $300 million in grants to cities and counties to address homelessness. @GavinNewsom predicts this money will help to move 10,000 people off the streets.

— Elex Michaelson (@Elex_Michaelson) November 28, 2023

Cal ICH Executive Officer Meghan Marshall added, “Housing is the solution to homelessness, and these grants will help our local partners assist their unhoused neighbors move from dangerous and unsightly encampments into safe and stable places they can call home. These funds will provide resources for intentional and very deep engagement and offer real and immediate services, which will result in lasting transformations.”

Some of what Newsom and others said of the ERF on Monday can be backed up. The goals, expectations, and standards mentioned by Newsom were outlined in detail in the funding notice released by Cal ICH. Any local government wanting funding will need to provide everything from how many people are to be served by the project and how they plan to move people at encampments to the new housing, to maps of sites and projected outcomes.

However, like previous rounds of funding, as well as other recent homeless programs with funding provided by the state, the high overall cost per homeless person rate as well as the highly questionable success rate have reared their heads again. Many have thus questioned if another round of funding would even be worth it and how the program itself could improve.

Doubts on the new block of funding

“It’s been a lot of lip service to be honest,” said an unnamed homeless services coordinator in Los Angeles to the Globe on condition of anonymity. “This kind of funding is crucial for us, but the lion’s share of it is going towards tearing down the encampments. And you know, many are by roads and are dangers to public safety. I mean, each year, we get horrific stories here of cars careening out of control and striking these camps where they injure or even kill people living there. So, as rough as it can be to clear these camps, it is a safety issue. We don’t want more dead or maimed that way.”

“But this is a multi-stage process. You move them out, then you need to get them housing. This funding only gets you so far into the second part. And then you need to get them to stay in housing. This is where it becomes a problem.”

“Newsom can say he helped 13,000 homeless from prior funding and will help 10,000 here. Personally, I think those numbers are off, but roughly, ok, that many homeless got into housing afterwards. The question becomes how many stayed. Because shelter, even permanent shelter, isn’t exactly liked by many. There isn’t a survey on it I know of, but informally there are many homeless who feel restricted by all the rules that come with housing provided by the government. You guys reported extensively on it. And many drop out and return to the tents as a result, or become seasonal and just go to the shelters and housing during colder months.”

“The real numbers Newsom should be saying are how many who were helped out by the funding have remained off the streets a year later. There are many people temporarily homeless, and there are success stories of chronically homeless people making it back up with a little help from the government. You can’t slap on a 0% success rate on this. People genuinely have been helped. There are formerly homeless people out there who can legitimately thank Governor Newsom.”

“But you can’t throw around prior funding having helped out 13,000 or this new funding going to help 10,000. You need hard stats to back it up, which were conveniently not linked in to the press release. What we do have are figures showing a growing number of homeless people in the state despite these programs, as well as many more on the street who didn’t go for housing. And the former is actually impressive considering that the state has been losing a lot of population at the same time.

“There is sadly no simple fix for homelessness, and there is no simple fix for housing a lot of people. This program helps with public safety, but hasn’t really finished the job with securing housing for the homeless. We need much stricter guidelines on the funding here, as well as   less restrictive housing options for the homeless. Otherwise, this $300 million isn’t going to help out too much.”

Since 2021, the Newsom Administration spent a budgeted $750 million on encampment destruction and rehousing, claiming to have helped an estimated 23,000 individuals living in dangerous conditions on our streets without shelter.