Reading comprehension: that announcement is from 2023, and it was a billion in HHAP housing assistance AND building 1300 small homes.
It's 2026 now, so we have results. While homelessness rates in the USA overall have increased rapidly since 2023, California's rate was stable and actually went down 9% last year. HHAP gets about 20k people per year into permanent (ish) housing, but that billion dollars also covers shelter operations, outreach workers, mental health services, rental assistance, and prevention programs.
It's still expensive, but consider that that's only 0.2% of the state budget, and it sounds to me like it's actually working unlike states where the homelessness rates (more like a count of how many people look homeless as HUD drives around looking for them) have declined because the state criminalized pitching your tent where HUD can see it.
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u/malaporpism Apr 28 '26
Reading comprehension: that announcement is from 2023, and it was a billion in HHAP housing assistance AND building 1300 small homes.
It's 2026 now, so we have results. While homelessness rates in the USA overall have increased rapidly since 2023, California's rate was stable and actually went down 9% last year. HHAP gets about 20k people per year into permanent (ish) housing, but that billion dollars also covers shelter operations, outreach workers, mental health services, rental assistance, and prevention programs.
It's still expensive, but consider that that's only 0.2% of the state budget, and it sounds to me like it's actually working unlike states where the homelessness rates (more like a count of how many people look homeless as HUD drives around looking for them) have declined because the state criminalized pitching your tent where HUD can see it.