Contact: Russ Heimerich 

(916) 651-1385

SACRAMENTO - Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the second round of awards for Homekey, California's innovative, nation-leading $600 million program to purchase and rehabilitate housing - including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings and other properties - and convert them into permanent, long-term housing for people experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness.

More than $236 million was awarded by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), which administers Homekey, for 20 projects in 12 California communities, totaling 1,810 units. The average cost to Homekey is just over $130,000 per unit and brings the total awarded under Homekey to $312.7 million to date.

"We have not let up on our commitment to doing everything in our power to address homelessness," said Governor Newsom. "There is not a state in America that has committed this kind of capital infusion and purchasing power to get people off the street and into permanent housing thanks to Homekey."

"From a shared housing model, to providing safe spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, to our first Native American project, the second round of awards demonstrates how local communities are innovating and leveraging Homekey to serve the most vulnerable in their communities," said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. "As with our previous awards, most of these properties will provide safe housing."

The second round of awards includes projects in the following communities:

• The Kashia Band of Pomo Indians of the Stewarts Point Rancheria (Santa Rosa) has been awarded nearly $2.7 million to acquire 20 units and is Homekey's first tribal project to be recommended for an award. It will decrease the number of the Kashia Band's members experiencing homelessness by two-thirds.
• The Housing Authority of Riverside County has been awarded $10.5 million for three projects to acquire 159 units. One will house nearly 40 percent of Palm Springs' homeless individuals. Another will house farmworker families in the Eastern Coachella Valley, and the third will provide spaces for LGBTQ+ youth, people living with HIV, and vulnerable seniors.
• The City of Oakland has been awarded more than $20 million for two projects totaling 163 units. The city will acquire Clifton Hall, a dormitory building currently owned by the California college of the Arts. The other project will acquire 100 units at 20 scattered sites.
• The Housing Authority of the City of Fresno will receive more than $7.6 million to acquire a 99-unit motel to provide interim housing while it is converted to permanent housing. Permanent housing opportunities will be available to all occupants of the interim housing.
• The City of Mountain View will receive $12.3 million to acquire land to site 100 manufactured units that will serve as interim housing with wraparound services and a coordinated exit strategy, more than doubling shelter beds in the city. Overall cost is under $100,000 per unit.
• Shasta County will receive nearly $2.2 million to acquire five single-family residential properties representing 13 individual bedroom units to be utilized in a shared housing model strategically located throughout the county
• The Housing Authority of the City of Buenaventura has been awarded $1.2 million to acquire 12 newly renovated apartments on a severely depressed property. Rehabilitation of the property is already underway.
• The San Diego Housing Commission has been awarded nearly $38 million for two projects totaling 336 units, including a 192-unit motel that can house 228 individuals, and a 144-unit motel that can house up to 176 individuals. Both underwent renovation in 2018, and all units have kitchens and are ready for immediate occupancy.
• San Francisco has been awarded nearly $45 million to acquire a property that will create 232 units of permanent housing.
• Los Angeles County has been awarded nearly $54 million dollars to acquire five motels for a total of 430 units to provide interim housing while properties are being converted to permanent housing.
• Santa Clara County will receive $29.2 million to acquire an occupancy-ready, 146-room property with in-room kitchenettes for permanent residencies.
• The City of Sacramento Housing Authority has been awarded $13.7 million for its proposed La Mancha development in the southern part of the city to convert a 124-room extended stay hotel to permanent supportive housing that can be occupied almost immediately upon acquisition.

"Project Roomkey helped us get more than 1,000 people safely into hotel rooms," said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg. "Homekey will allow us to keep them safely indoors and permanently housed."

"On behalf of Los Angeles County, I applaud Governor Gavin Newsom for his unprecedented investment to help local jurisdictions combat the urgent moral crisis of homelessness amid a global pandemic, first with Project Roomkey and now with Homekey," said Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who co-chairs the Governor's Homeless and Supportive Housing Advisory Task Force. "Our Homekey award will cause our housing recovery plan to proceed swiftly, so that everyone we have brought indoors with Project Roomkey will be placed on a path to long-term stable housing with services."

"Homekey will change lives for the better in San Diego," said Rick Gentry, President and CEO of the San Diego Housing Commission. "Homekey will allow us to transform two hotels rooms into more than 330 new apartments, housing more than 400 homeless San Diegans, and will include the supportive services that are so important in helping our residents get back on their feet."

Building on the success of Project Roomkey, Governor Newsom in July announced the availability of $600 million in funding for Homekey, the next phase in the state's response protecting Californians experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness, following approval by the Legislature as part of the 2020-21 annual state budget. Of that, $550 million will be provided to cities and counties by California's direct allocation of the federal Coronavirus Aid Relief Funds, with an additional $50 million provided by the state to supplement the acquisition and

provide initial operating funds.

HCD began accepting applications for Homekey on July 22, 2020. Additional awards are expected weekly until all $600 million has been awarded. The response from local governments and housing providers was significant - demonstrating the strength of these state-local partnerships. By the priority application deadline on August 13, a total of 138 applications had been received from 67 jurisdictions statewide, with a total of nearly $1.06 billion requested.

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