This month, the California Interagency Council on Homelessness
(Cal ICH) released a
snapshot analysis of grantee data from Rounds 1-4 of the
Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) Program. The
snapshot provides a high-level overview of fiscal data and data
by persons served. HHAP recipients, which include counties, big
cities, and continuums of care (CoCs) are required to track and
submit reports on fund uses and outcomes, including how much
funding from each round has been contractually obligated and how
much has been spent, the amount of funding provided for various
eligible use categories, the number of individuals served by each
eligible use, and the California System Performance Measures that
reflect the outcomes of people accessing HHAP-funded services and
housing.
The new data proves that, without the flexible funding provided
to local jurisdictions to address homelessness, the number of
unsheltered Californians experiencing homelessness would be far
higher than it is today. Some key highlights from the data
include:
The HHAP program helped find permanent housing for more than
72,000 people in 2022-23.
The number of people receiving services, exiting to permanent
housing, and being successfully placed from street outreach has
increased year over year.
Unfortunately, the number of individuals experiencing
homelessness for the first time has continued to grow each year
and outpace the number of people securing housing.
HHAP funding is being used for a variety of homelessness and
housing efforts with interim sheltering, operating subsidies,
permanent housing and innovative solutions, and rapid rehousing
as the top four categories for spending in Rounds 3 and 4.
Although the Governor’s May Revision proposes numerous cuts to
homelessness and housing programs, as well as no additional
funding for future rounds of HHAP, the Legislative Budget Plan
released this week rejects many of the proposed cuts and includes
an additional $1 billion for a sixth round of HHAP. The
Legislative Budget Plan also proposes to adopt Trailer Bill
Language for the HHAP program that further strengthens
accountability mechanisms, directs some funding to prevention,
clarifies eligible uses of HHAP funds, and makes technical and
conforming changes to Rounds 3-5 of HHAP. CSAC will
continue to advocate for the preservation of existing funding
for homelessness programs, as well as advocate for the
Legislature’s proposed inclusion of $1 billion for a sixth round
of HHAP. CSAC staff will work to keep counties updated as
additional information about the proposed HHAP trailer bill
language is released.
The full report, along with links to data tables and an overview
of each HHAP Round, can be found under the “What’s New” section
on Cal ICH’s
website.
