{"id":141556,"date":"2026-01-20T14:01:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T14:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/141556\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T14:01:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T14:01:29","slug":"california-counties-must-jump-through-new-hoops-to-get-homelessness-funds-long-beach-post-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/141556\/","title":{"rendered":"California counties must jump through new hoops to get homelessness funds \u2022 Long Beach Post News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters<\/a>.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened many times to withhold state homelessness funds from cities and counties that aren\u2019t doing enough to get people off the streets.<\/p>\n

This year, those threats seem more real than ever.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s administration and the Legislature are adding new strings to that money, which they hope will help address one of the state\u2019s most obvious policy failures: Despite California\u2019s large recent investments in homelessness, encampments are still rampant on city streets. But cities and counties already are chafing under the tightening requirements, which they worry will make it harder to access crucial state funds without directly improving conditions on the street.<\/p>\n

To access state Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention money, cities and counties are being pressured to enact a policy regulating homeless encampments that\u00a0passes state muster<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a potential challenge in a state where local jurisdictions\u2019 rules on encampments\u00a0vary greatly<\/a>, and many localities have no policy at all. The state also wants localities to get a \u201cprohousing designation\u201d \u2013 a special status awarded to places that go above and beyond to build housing. It\u2019s a distinction that only\u00a060 of California\u2019s 541 cities and counties<\/a>\u00a0(home to just 15% of the state population) have achieved so far.<\/p>\n

Newsom, the Legislature, local officials and other stakeholders likely will spend the next several months fighting about those terms, and hashing out the conditions for the $500 million in homelessness funding\u00a0proposed in this year\u2019s budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Until those details are resolved, exactly what standard cities and counties will be held to \u2013 and what will happen to those that don\u2019t comply \u2013 is unclear. But one thing\u00a0is\u00a0clear: The state is done freely handing out cash.<\/p>\n

Some counties are already feeling the heat. They report increased scrutiny as they apply for the homelessness funds already approved in the 2024-25 budget (which, thanks to lengthy bureaucratic delays, have just been made available.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re holding the counties\u2019 feet to the fire,\u201d said Megan Van Sant, senior program manager with the Mendocino County Department of Social Services.<\/p>\n

Newsom\u2019s administration and legislators in favor of the new accountability measures say cities and counties for too long have been scooping up state funds without proving that they\u2019re using them wisely. The new message to locals is clear, said\u00a0Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva<\/a>, a Democrat from La Palma in Orange County: \u201cThe state has been moving forward, not only with the investment in dollars, but also with legislation. Now it is your time to show that if you want these dollars\u2026you have to show us what you\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the new requirements may make it more burdensome to access crucial homelessness funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry that, one, we may leave more cities out,\u201d said Carolyn Coleman, executive director and CEO of the League of California Cities, \u201cand, two, that we may cause delays in the ability to get more people housed sooner, which I think is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tougher application process<\/p>\n

Applying for state homelessness funds \u201cabsolutely\u201d feels different now than it did last year, and the state is asking tougher questions, said Robert Ratner, director of Santa Cruz County\u2019s Housing for Health program.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the county just approved an encampment policy in September, and has started working on getting a pro-housing designation, he said. But the state still returned the county\u2019s application with plenty of notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has felt, at times, like the goal post keeps moving a little bit,\u201d Ratner said.<\/p>\n

The county\u2019s application still hasn\u2019t been approved, but it seems to be getting close, Ratner said.<\/p>\n

In Mendocino County, the state appears to be holding funds hostage until the county can explain its plans to pass an encampment ordinance, said Van Sant. The county board of supervisors is working on such an ordinance, though it hasn\u2019t come up for a vote yet.<\/p>\n

But the state\u2019s requirement puts Van Sant and her team in an awkward position. As housing administrators, they have no say in any rules the county passes that regulate or prohibit encampments on local streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to stay out of it,\u201d Van Sant said. \u201cI still want to stay out of it. We\u2019re housing providers. We try to figure out how to provide people housing. We don\u2019t want to weigh in on enforcement. At all.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year, the requirements may get even stricter. Under the current rules, the state seems to be satisfied as long as a city or county can show how it plans to get a prohousing designation or pass an encampment policy. In the next round of funding, local leaders worry the state will withhold funds unless cities and counties have actually achieved those benchmarks.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about accountability<\/p>\n

At issue is the state Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention program, which provides the main source of state money cities and counties use to fight homelessness.<\/p>\n

Though Newsom introduced the first round of funding, $650 million, as a \u201cone-time\u201d infusion of cash for local governments in 2019, it became a recurring feature of his administration\u2019s strategy to reduce homelessness over the next five years.<\/p>\n

For four years in a row, the state awarded $1 billion a year to be divvied up between counties, big cities and federally-recognized regional homelessness funding groups known as Continuums of Care. Each round of funding was described as \u201cone-time.\u201d Even so, at least a quarter of the money has gone to day-to-day operating programs, according to\u00a0data collected by the state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, things changed. The budget lacked any extra cash for grant funds, and the state\u2019s main homelessness program received no new money. Instead, the Legislature\u00a0committed<\/a>\u00a0to spend $500 million \u2014 a 50% reduction from the last round of funding \u2014 in the coming fiscal\u00a0year contingent on \u201cclear accountability requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those requirements for localities, spelled out in a\u00a0follow-up budget bill<\/a>\u00a0signed into law last fall, include:<\/p>\n

Having a state-approved housing plan, known as a housing element<\/p>\n

Having a \u201cProhousing Designation\u201d from state housing regulators\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having local encampment policy \u201cconsistent with administration guidance<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

Ponying up some local funding to match the state contribution<\/p>\n

Demonstrating \u201cprogress\u201d and \u201cresults\u201d on housing and homelessness metrics<\/p>\n

These new demands didn\u2019t come out of left field. For several years now, \u201caccountability\u201d has been one of Newsom\u2019s favorite words when discussing homelessness funding. \u201cPeople have just had it,\u201d he said in 2023. \u201cWe want to see these encampments cleaned up.\u201d He\u00a0has\u00a0<\/a>repeatedly<\/a>\u00a0threatened<\/a>\u00a0to withhold funds, and has gradually ramped up the strings attached to homelessness dollars.<\/p>\n

But the current list represents an especially stringent set of requirements for locals hoping for a cut of what has been one of the state\u2019s signature funding sources to combat homelessness.<\/p>\n

Quirk-Silva noted that the current list of requirements is not final. She expects the administration to release additional legislative language in February. Legislators will fight over the details through the June budget deadline.<\/p>\n

She expected particularly fierce pushback over any kind of \u201cprohousing designation\u201d requirement.<\/p>\n

Revoking funds from areas of the state that lack such a designation would be \u201cpenalizing service providers for something that is outside of their control,\u201d said Monica Davalos, a policy analyst with the California Budget and Policy Center, a left-leaning think tank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan wishes the state would focus on more concrete measures of success, such as the number of people housed using state dollars, instead of things like a \u201cprohousing\u201d stamp.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making this way too complicated,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters.\u00a0Sign up\u00a0for their newsletters. Gov. Gavin Newsom has threatened many times to withhold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-141556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}