147 housing units for mentally ill homeless coming to area

Riverside County will use $29.5 million in state money to build 147 units of supportive housing in Riverside, Wildomar and Coachella for homeless people dealing with mental illness, county officials announced Tuesday.

Those living in the housing units will receive services such as mental health counseling and substance abuse treatment, a county news release states. The housing will be embedded in four newly built affordable apartment complexes, the release adds.

“This is one of the most significant investments in affordable housing that Riverside County has ever seen,” Heidi Marshall, director of the county’s Housing and Workforce Solutions Department, said in the release. “This is important because it will provide much-needed, supportive housing, wrap-around services, and stability to the most vulnerable residents in our community.”

Dr. Matthew Chang, director of the county’s Behavioral Health department, said those living in the new units “will find the behavioral health resources and support they need, such as case management, peer support services, mental health care, substance use disorder support, and physical health care, while getting help with skills to succeed in housing.”

Information: www.rcdmh.org/administration/nplh

— Jeff Horseman

UC RIVERSIDE New law gives campus $201 million in new state funding

UC Riverside will get $201 million in new state funding after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an Inland lawmaker’s bill.

Assembly Member Jose Medina, D-riverside, praised the governor’s signing Sunday of AB 2046, which allocates $313 million to UCR and UC Merced.

“For years, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley have been historically underfunded compared to other regions of the state,” Medina said in a news release. “… The signing of AB 2046 and the investment of $313 million in the state budget are long overdue to these regions.”

Medina and other Inland lawmakers lobbied for the money to make up for what they described as a funding gap between UCR and coastal UC campuses such as UCLA. That gap, lawmakers argued, forced UCR’S growing student body to deal with crumbling classrooms and a lack of classroom space, counselors and faculty.

Lawmakers originally sought $1.46 billion in the new state budget for UCR and UC Merced.

AB 2046 includes money to “increase enrollment, tackle climate change and create health equity in the Central Valley and Inland Empire,” Medina’s release states. “It also creates union jobs for the community through the projects that receive this funding.”

— Jeff Horseman