Even though 182,000 homeless people live in California \u2014 one-third of the unhoused population in the U.S. \u2014 no state agency was solely focused on the daunting challenge of solving homelessness until July.<\/p>\n
Heeding calls of experts who said the state\u2019s housing and homelessness programs were scattered across too many different departments, Gov. Gavin Newsom created a fresh agency in his cabinet that is now up and running<\/a>. To lead the new California Housing and Homelessness Agency, the governor tapped Oakland-based Tomiquia Moss, a former city official in Oakland and San Francisco who founded the influential Bay Area homelessness nonprofit All Home. Before she was sworn in this summer, Moss was secretary of the now-dissolved Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.<\/p>\n We recently sat down with Moss to talk about Newsom\u2019s legacy on homelessness as he prepares to leave office and potentially run for president in 2028, and the fierce debates unfolding over state and federal funding. The conversation has been trimmed for length and clarity.<\/p>\n Q: During Newsom\u2019s tenure as governor, he has rolled out new policies and court processes for people who are homeless, including those with severe mental illnesses or addictions. What programs or strategies are working right now?<\/p>\n A: We are increasing production of permanent supportive housing. Unless we create enough homes for people, we are never gonna address our homelessness crisis. So I think first and foremost, we need much more permanent supportive housing. And of course, that model requires services to meet the residents\u2019 needs. That is a piece I think the governor has really been focused on, particularly with Prop. 1 implementation<\/a>, where you\u2019re able to bring people with severe behavioral health challenges into housing. I think that strategy has worked really well.<\/p>\n The next is prevention. There\u2019s a methodology around homelessness prevention that I think is absolutely working. Increasingly, jurisdictions are realizing that it\u2019s much more cost-effective to prevent folks from becoming homeless in the first place than, once they\u2019re homeless, bringing them back into housing. We are starting to see counties invest their local resources and state resources into prevention.<\/p>\n Then the third piece of it is interim housing<\/a>. We absolutely need to bring folks inside as quickly as possible, allowing folks to stabilize and begin their journey to their permanent homes.<\/p>\n Q: Where is California falling short?<\/p>\n A: My job is to look at the full continuum of housing, and we fall short in every single category. We are 2.5 million homes short of the housing we need for the population. We\u2019ve been doing a lot of work in partnership with the legislature for the past eight years to figure out how to streamline<\/a> and how to make jurisdictions build their fair share.<\/a> But production is a really big challenge for California.<\/p>\n Q: With regard to state funding for homelessness programs, you\u2019re probably aware that cities and counties get upset<\/a>\u00a0about one-time funding that\u2019s approved some years, not other years, with criteria changes over time. They say that interrupts their services and limits what they can do. What\u2019s your response to that?<\/p>\n A: It was always a one-year allocation that can be used over multiple years. I think it\u2019s a little bit of a misnomer that jurisdictions can\u2019t plan how to use those resources over the various cycles. We recognize how valuable those dollars are to our local communities, and the state can\u2019t do it alone. The budget provided an additional $900 million toward the next cycle<\/a>, and the previous cycle is not fully expended. I do think it gives jurisdictions a runway to keep doing great work.<\/p>\n Q: An audit in 2024 found that the state had failed to track $24 billion to combat homelessness between 2018 and 2023. Are you comfortable with the way money is going out the door and the impact it\u2019s having at this point?<\/p>\n