Dive Brief:
- California allocated $900 million for its Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program in its latest state budget, nearly doubling its funding proposal for the program in May.
- The funding comes with new mandates for localities, including an alignment with the state regarding homeless encampment clearing and demonstrable progress on key housing metrics, per legislation concerning the funding passed last year.
- Local government leaders have pushed for a return to $1 billion in annual funding for the program since last year, arguing the program has had a significant impact on reductions in homelessness for cities.
Dive Insight:
California, home to the nation’s largest unhoused population, has recorded declines in homelessness in recent years, including a 2.8% drop in 2025.
However, dissatisfied with local government progress on homeless encampments and facing budgetary pressures, Gov. Gavin Newsom halted a seventh round of funding for HHAP last year. “I’m not interested in funding failure anymore,” Newsom said at the time.
City leaders balked, warning cuts would come at the cost of shelter beds and progress in addressing homelessness in cities and counties. The HHAP program launched in 2019 and has allocated around $5 billion to localities through a number of annual funding rounds, most of them exceeding $800 million.
The League of California Cities celebrated the restored seventh round of funding, calling HHAP “the backbone of the state’s local homelessness response system.”
Riverside, California, has added more than 130 shelter beds, 100 permanent housing units and ended youth homelessness due in part to the program, according to Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, chair of the California Big City Mayors Coalition that advocated for the renewed funding stream.
“With new funding on the way, we’ll continue to expand outreach, support those at risk of homelessness, and connect more people to housing and stability,” Lock Dawson said on social media.
