CSH staff, along with our local partners and CSH Speak Up! Advocates, converged on the State Capitol building in Sacramento for our Annual Golden State Advocacy Day on March 27, organized to promote legislation and educate California lawmakers on solutions that provide housing with access to health and other stabilizing services for individuals and families facing homelessness and housing instability.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and many newly elected State Legislators have indicated their commitment to embracing solutions like supportive housing that have proven to stably house Californians. But that does not mean our work in California is over. Our 2019 Advocacy Day offered an opportunity for our Speak Up! Advocates to share stories of impact and make the case for measures like:
- Streamlined funding for operating subsidies, services, rental assistance, landlord incentives, and interim interventions through one application process,
- Creating a grant program to serve youth experiencing homelessness,
- Redirecting State prison and parole resources for housing and services,
- Strengthening a program to fund homeless services through Medi-Cal, and
- Budget Requests for Housing & Homelessness
While CSH visited with lawmakers and their staffs on both sides of the aisle in the State Senate and Assembly, these specific budget requests were raised and pursued at each meeting:
- Increase state low-income housing tax credits to $500M/year, ongoing,
- $100M/year in ongoing funding for a new homeless youth grant program, and
- $2B in one-time funds to address homelessness among adults, which would consolidate non-capital programs addressing homelessness into one program. This new “Flexible Housing Subsidy Pool” program, codified in a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Quirk-Silva, would allow cities, counties, and homeless Continuums of Care to apply and would offer a menu of options for funding (operating funding, services, rental assistance, landlord incentives, and interim interventions).
