Aguiar- Curry commends Lake County, tribal leaders for state homeless housing grant awards

This week, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that Lake County and the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians (SVBPI) have been awarded funding as part of the third round of awards for Project Homekey. Administered by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), $600 million was made available to local public entities to purchase and repurpose housing including hotels, motels, vacated apartment buildings, among others to modify them for long-term housing for Californians experiencing homelessness.

HCD awarded over $137 million for 19 projects in 15 California communities, totaling 938 units in this round of funding. Lake County was awarded $3.38 million in funding for Hope Center to serve up to 20 homeless individuals at a time as they prepare for permanent housing placement. Construction of the Hope Center project will be completed by October 1, with program participants expected to be able to access services by November 1, 2020.

“I am excited to have been a part of the opening of Hope Center. The collaboration of Hope Rising knows that we must focus on whole-person care if we wish to find solutions to our largest issue, poverty,” said Lake County Supervisor Tina Scott. “Hope Center will serve as a model for other communities challenged with a growing population of people experiencing homelessness.”

The Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians (SVBPI) has also been awarded $1.24 million to rehabilitate a 10unit multifamily residential property just north of Lakeport, in Lake County, to convert into permanent housing. As SVBPI is one of the few landless tribes in California, the housing crisis has severely impacted their community’s existing housing challenges.

“I am thrilled to see the efforts of Lake County’s leaders be rewarded with this significant grant, funding Lake’s first permanent housing center for the homeless,” said Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry. “I especially want to congratulate Supervisor Tina Scott and her colleagues on the Board of Supervisors, Hope Rising Lake County, and the community leaders of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians for their years of vision and hard work toward providing for Lake County’s most vulnerable residents.”

Hope Rising Lake County brings together leaders in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to work in collaboration toward the vision of making Lake County a healthy place for every person to live, learn, engage and thrive. For more information about their mission and efforts, visit http:// www.hoperisinglc.org.