State homeless housing effort aids 8,000

SACRAMENTO — A sixmonth sprint to convert hotels, motels and other vacant buildings into homeless housing has created shelter for more than 8,000 people at a fraction of the cost of new construction, state officials said Friday.

The Homekey program, which was started last summer with money from the federal coronavirus relief package, awarded nearly $800 million to dozens of California cities and counties to purchase sites and convert them into housing with supportive services by the end of 2020.

The grants ultimately produced 5,911 new units, according to a report by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, including 1,627 in the Bay Area.

Two acquisitions in San Francisco — the former Hotel Diva and the Granada Hotel, a singleroomoccupancy building — created 342 units of permanent supportive housing. A representative for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing said the Granada Hotel is about half occupied, while the Hotel Diva is being used for homeless people who need to shelter in place during the coronavirus pandemic and will transition in May.

Alameda County turned two motels into 250 units of housing, and Oakland used the funding to convert a former dormitory and buy more than a dozen singlefamily homes.

Officials said the speed and price at which they were able to complete the conversions demonstrated the promise of the approach. At an average of about $150,000 per unit the Homekey projects cost less than a third of building a unit of affordable housing from scratch. Some matching local and philanthropic funds helped pay the costs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is seeking $750 million in the state budget to extend the program for another year, and another $1 billion to apply the same model to mental health and senior care facilities.

But Jason Elliott, senior counselor to Newsom on housing and homelessness, acknowledged that the 8,264 people housed, or expected to be housed, through Homekey as of Feb. 1 represent just a sliver of California’s surging homeless population.

New data released last week by the state found that the number of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2020 had increased to 161,548, up almost 7% from the year before. Throughout the year, local providers reported serving a total of 248,130 people.

“Six thousand units is great, but it’s nowhere near enough,” Elliott said. “That’s why we’re going to double down, triple down and more on the Homekey program.”