{"id":149032,"date":"2026-01-25T15:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/149032\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T15:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T15:53:10","slug":"officials-believe-san-diego-is-well-positioned-as-cities-compete-for-dwindling-state-homeless-dollars-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/149032\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials believe San Diego is well positioned as cities compete for dwindling state homeless dollars \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Gavin Newsom warned recently<\/a> that cities and counties could lose state funds targeted at addressing homelessness if they don\u2019t show real progress in getting people off the streets.<\/p>\n

In San Diego, local officials say they\u2019re finally starting to see that progress.<\/p>\n

The Regional Task Force on Homelessness reported a roughly 7% drop<\/a> in homelessness countywide in last year\u2019s point-in-time count, from about 10,605 people in 2024 to about 9,905 in 2025.<\/p>\n

In the city of San Diego, homelessness \u2014 sheltered and unsheltered \u2014 dropped by 14%.<\/p>\n

In his recent State of the City address<\/a>, Mayor Todd Gloria pointed to the reduction as proof that the city\u2019s approach to homelessness is working.<\/p>\n

That progress puts the San Diego region in a relatively strong position as the state tightens the rules around Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention funding, known as HHAP \u2014 one of the largest sources of state money for homelessness programs \u2014 and as other funding sources shrivel.<\/p>\n

Temporary fix grows important<\/p>\n

HHAP was launched in 2019 as a one-time infusion of state cash to help cities and counties respond to the growing homelessness crisis. Over several years, it became one of California\u2019s key homelessness programs, delivering roughly $1 billion a year statewide for shelters, outreach, rental assistance and interim housing.<\/p>\n

That changed last year, when lawmakers approved no new HHAP funding amid a budget shortfall. Newsom proposed restoring the program in the upcoming budget, but at about half its previous size \u2014 $500 million \u2014 and attaching stricter accountability requirements.<\/p>\n

To qualify for future funding, cities and counties must show they are doing a number of things the governor has pushed: adopting strong encampment policies, maintaining a state-approved plan to build new housing, earning a \u201cpro-housing\u201d designation from regulators, putting up local matching dollars and showing measurable progress at reducing homelessness.<\/p>\n

San Diego officials say the region checks those boxes.<\/p>\n

Both the city and county have encampment ordinances that align with Newsom\u2019s \u201cmodel\u201d policy and have stepped up enforcement in recent years. Each also has a state-approved housing element, and San Diego was among the first cities in California to earn a pro-housing designation, which the state gives to jurisdictions that streamline approvals and adopt policies aimed at increasing housing production. The county followed soon after.<\/p>\n

City leaders say they have used HHAP dollars to provide more shelter beds, rent subsidies and outreach teams to get people off the street and into stable housing. The county has used the money to provide housing subsidies for at-risk populations, such as foster youth and seniors, and develop plans for emergency housing programs.<\/p>\n

Frustration in Sacramento<\/p>\n

Walt Bishop, director of government affairs for the city of San Diego, said the region has been preparing for the accountability shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was frustration from the governor\u2019s office and the Legislature that (they\u2019re) putting a lot of state investment in this and not seeing visual results on homelessness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bishop said the city believes it can meet those expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou give us this money, we will be accountable,\u201d he said. \u201cYou set the markers, and we\u2019ll meet them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But housing officials and advocates warn that without new, ongoing funding \u2014 especially long-term funding \u2014 the region could struggle to sustain the improvements it\u2019s made.<\/p>\n

Funding sources that helped fuel recent gains, including federal housing vouchers tied to affordable housing projects, are tapped out, even as the need for deeply affordable housing continues to grow.<\/p>\n

Ryan Clumpner, a San Diego Housing Commission board member, said recent progress has relied in part on state funding that\u2019s temporary or, like HHAP, inconsistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are running out of options at a rapid pace, and every intervention that people are familiar with \u2014 almost all of those are coming to an end in the next one to three years,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s really no plan for what we\u2019ll do after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Buying hotels, building shelters<\/p>\n

San Diego Housing Commission CEO Lisa Jones said federal programs, such as housing vouchers, along with state funding, including HHAP and Homekey, have been \u201cfoundational\u201d to San Diego\u2019s homelessness response, helping boost the number of shelter beds, develop permanent supportive housing and stabilize people at risk of losing their homes.<\/p>\n

Homekey, a state initiative launched during the pandemic, helped cities buy hotels, motels and other properties and convert them into housing for people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

San Diego used Homekey funds to create more than 600 housing units. The program is now winding down, and state officials have not indicated it will continue at the same scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reduction or elimination of these funding sources would hinder further progress,\u201d Jones said, adding that the commission is now placing greater emphasis on homelessness prevention and housing stabilization to keep people from falling into the system in the first place.<\/p>\n

Federal housing vouchers, which have played a key role in San Diego\u2019s response to homelessness, are also under increasing strain.<\/p>\n

Stephen Russell, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, said vouchers have effectively been frozen at the federal level for years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, rents have gone through the roof,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Vouchers generally require tenants to pay about 30% of their income toward rent, with the voucher covering the rest, up to certain limits. As rents rise, that gap grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Housing Commission was essentially subsidizing the gap,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That money is now gone.<\/p>\n

Voucher squeeze<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Housing Commission decided to require some voucher holders to pay a larger share of their income toward rent, rather than cutting people off from assistance altogether.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice was, do we take vouchers away from 1,600 families\u2026 or do we ask everybody who\u2019s capable to pay some more? And so they\u2019ve gone with that second choice,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was unacceptable to them as policymakers to put people out on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The voucher squeeze also affects what kinds of housing developers are able to build.<\/p>\n

Affordable housing projects typically rely on a complicated mix of tax credits, public subsidies and private financing. For households earning less than 30% of area median income<\/a> \u2014 including many people exiting homelessness \u2014 rent alone does not cover the cost of operating housing.<\/p>\n

When someone has almost no income, the math just doesn\u2019t work without a subsidy, Russell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they can only pay $300 a month, but it costs you $700 or $1,000 a month to pay the mortgage on that unit, that\u2019s where the voucher comes in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Those subsidies, known as project-based vouchers, are especially important for permanent supportive housing, which pairs housing with services for people with serious health or behavioral health needs.<\/p>\n

Without vouchers, Russell said, developers are unlikely to bring forward new projects serving the lowest-income residents.<\/p>\n

Gains at riskCity and county officials say that HHAP funding has played a major role in preventing homelessness from getting worse, even if that impact isn\u2019t always obvious.<\/p>\n

In a recent presentation<\/a> on Newsom\u2019s budget, Monica Saucedo, a senior fellow at the California Budget and Policy Center, said declines in homelessness show that targeted spending has worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last several years, the state has invested over $1 billion on average annually through (HHAP), and the results speak for themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But Saucedo warned that scaling back the program could undo those gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though HHAP was designed as temporary funding, these dollars have become core to California\u2019s homelessness response systems statewide,\u201d she said. \u201cLosing or pulling back this funding now poses a real risk to the progress we\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russell put it more bluntly: \u201cTurn off the tap and see how many people come flooding back out on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, forces driving homelessness \u2014 high rents, limited housing supply and economic instability \u2014 continue to operate at a much larger scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe system producing homelessness is still running full speed,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to keep up.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some potential sources of relief. Recent federal legislation expanded low-income housing tax credits, which could help finance more affordable housing, Russell said. State lawmakers are also debating a large housing bond that could go before voters later this year.<\/p>\n

Locally, proposals to create dedicated revenue streams \u2014 such as taxing second homes or short-term rentals<\/a> \u2014 could provide more predictable funding, though those ideas remain controversial.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Mayor Todd Gloria acknowledged the risk posed by shrinking state and federal support, but said the city is preparing to adjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mayor has warned that a reduction in state and federal support can erode the progress we\u2019ve made,\u201d David Rolland said. \u201cBut he is quick to point out that, as we always do, we will aim to maximize limited resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Gavin Newsom warned recently that cities and counties could lose state funds targeted at addressing homelessness if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23,100,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-149032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149032","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=149032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}