13 mayors want $750M in homelessness aid to go to them.
City leaders say they — rather than any regional administrators — can best provide housing, services
In a new twist on the old fight between Sacramento and local officials over housing solutions, the mayors of California’s 13 largest cities on Monday called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to give $750 million in homelessness assistance to them — not to regional administrators.
Members of the Big City Mayors Coalition, which includes Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco, met with Newsom in Sacramento to discuss the governor’s plans to fight the state’s homelessness crisis.
In a news conference after the meeting, one mayor after another applauded the governor for his commitment to housing the homeless, noting his recent State of the State address dedicated entirely to homelessness and his proposal to pour $750 million into a new homelessness fund in this year’s budget.
But the mayors aren’t happy with one piece of Newsom’s proposal: his suggestion to bypass cities and counties and instead
deploy that money regionally, to special regional administrators chosen by the state Department of Social Services.
Supporters say Newsom’s new plan is a more efficient way to tackle homelessness. But city leaders disagree.
“Cities deserve this investment and must lead the solutions to this vexing problem,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf. “We are on the ground. We are accountable to our community. We move fast and we are courageous. That’s what mayors are.”
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo described the group’s conversation with Newsom as “robust” and said the governor appears to be open to new solutions.
The mayors also want more money. They called on Newsom to pour $2 billion a year into the homelessness crisis.
“This is the time to strike,” said Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, “to make sure that we not only find that sustained source of funding, but that we invest it in a way that will lead towards the outcomes that we all so desperately want to see.”
Typically, state money to house the homeless goes straight to cities, counties and local continuums of care. But in his 2020-21 budget, Newsom proposed mixing things up by appointing regional administrators to allocate all funds throughout a larger geographic area.
Louis Chicoine, CEO of Abode Services, one of the main Bay Area nonprofits that would spend those funds, supports the idea. Under the current system, an organization like Abode is forced to enter into a separate contract for each new shelter or transitional housing program — resulting in multiple contracts within a single city, and potentially dozens throughout the Bay Area. That means the nonprofit has to waste its limited resources repeating the same application process dozens of times, he said.
“We hope the Governor sticks with his plan to go with a regional approach,” Chicoine, whose organization has 130 Bay Area contracts, wrote in an email. “Doing it the same old way, passing state funding out to every jurisdiction, is inefficient and costly. It would save time and money for the state to contract directly with qualified regional social service providers who will end up with one contract instead of multiple contracts within a region.“
But the mayors argued they’ve been responsible stewards of the money Newsom has entrusted to them in the past. Last year, he gave $500 million to local jurisdictions through the state’s Homeless Emergency Aid Program.
Already, 91% of that money has been allocated to projects that will help the homeless — 15 months ahead of the state’s deadline, Liccardo said during Monday’s news conference. Cities used just 3% for administrative expenses.
All in all, the more than $1 billion in homelessness funding that Newsom allocated to local jurisdictions last year will support 5,573 new beds in shelters and navigation centers across California and will bring 6,358 people off the street and into permanent housing over the next three years, Liccardo said.
“Of the many government agencies engaged in this effort,” he said, “cities are best positioned and best motivated to quickly, efficiently and effectively deploy homelessness solutions.”
The mayors aren’t the only ones pushing back against Newsom’s idea of regional administrators. A February report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office determined the proposal would complicate statelevel homelessness funding and coordination.
But as the homelessness crisis continues, with more than 150,000 people now unhoused in California, Chicoine argued that a new approach is called for.
“It’s time to try processes that are much more streamlined and efficient,” he said, “because the old processes that involve handing money out to many jurisdictions have proven to be pretty burdensome and inefficient.”