The Homekey program is the largest expansion of housing for people experiencing homelessness in California’s history, said Gov. Gavin Newsom while at a Homekey site in Santa Clara County on Friday.
It’s a model the state wants to replicate. To continue with the momentum of the last year, state legislators have set aside a whopping $12 billion, the highest investment in housing in the state’s history, Newsom announced. The previous high was $1 billion.
"There’s a reason President Biden has identified the Homekey model as a national model," said Newsom. "And put $5 billion in the federal stimulus pot for programs like this."
According to Newsom, the program was able to make more than 6,000 units available for habitation in less than six months over the last year. "In the housing space, this was simply without precedent," he said.
The state budget last year allocated $846 million for the Homekey project, according to Newsom, which went not only to housing but also to support and services.
Launched last year in response to the pandemic, Homekey and Roomkey are two projects that were part of the state’s response to protecting Californians experiencing homelessness. Roomkey started first, providing unhoused people with individual temporary housing units, typically in hotels.
Homekey was the next phase. Administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, funding was provided to a variety of public entities to facilitate the purchase of and rehabilitation of housing, including hotels, motels, vacant apartment buildings, and other buildings and convert them into interim or permanent, long-term housing.
"We have to do things radically differently," said Newsom. "And that’s exactly what this project represents."
The budget is set to be finalized Friday and signed next week.
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