Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent executive order compelling state agencies to clear homeless encampments on state property met with outrage from some organizations dedicated to helping unhoused people move off the streets, along with criticism from city officials.
San Jose’s Mayor Matt Mahan, for example, released a statement saying, “Clearing encampments only works if we have places for them to go, and require that they use them.”
But another Newsom initiative, Project Homekey, continues to fund developments that address at least the first part of Mahan’s objection. The first round of Homekey grant funding, according to a 2023 presentation by Lina Velasco, director of community development for the City of Richmond, provided $800 million to build nearly 6,000 affordable housing units in California. In an email, Pablo Espinoza, deputy director of communications for the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), stated that as of now, the HCD has awarded more than 250 Homekey projects, “resulting in 15,850 awarded units.”
According to statistics cited in Velasco’s 2023 presentation, the Homeless Management Information System, being used as part of the city’s Homeless Strategic Plan, identified 1,000 unhoused individuals. Almost all were adults without children, ages 25-54 and disproportionately Black, Indigenous, undocumented immigrants, people with disabilities and/or people “impacted by the criminal justice system.” Richmond, despite its significant unhoused population, was not part of the first round of funding, Velasco said.
The project profiled in the presentation, a renovation of a former Motel 6 at 425 24th St. in Richmond’s civic center, was recently awarded “$14,512,660 for the Civic Center Apartments, a hotel acquisition and rehabilitation project that will create 48 permanent supportive homes for people exiting homelessness, in addition to one manager unit,” according to an HCD press release.
Worth noting is that, according to the city, occupants of the project will not be fully subsidized, which is part of the overall plan to transition them from homelessness. “Tenants will pay 30% of their adjusted income toward rent and utilities,” according to the presentation.
Espinoza explained that “[Homekey] funds are awarded as an ‘Over The Counter’ process, rather than a competitive [process]. Applications are reviewed in the order received by geographic region…applications have to have a minimum of 100 points to be eligible for an award…[if] the applications score 100 or above, meet all threshold requirements, and are complete packages, then the application can be approved,” which was the case for the City of Richmond’s proposal.
Espinoza also clarified that the project has 12 months from the date of award, July 23, 2024, to complete construction, and then another 90 days to fully occupy.
The approved project also links several partners, in addition to the city: Novin Development, responsible for construction; Abode Services, which will coordinate health and supportive services for tenants once the Civic Center Apartments complex is occupied; FPI Management; and Trinity Center Walnut Creek, acting as “managing general partner.”
Despite that title, Trinity Center’s Executive Director Leslie Gleason said, the longtime service organization will not be involved in day-to-day operations, but instead, its participation allows the project to be available for a property tax exemption, which means rents will be kept low. This is in line with the state’s “affordability covenant” cited by Velasco, which stipulates a 55-year affordability period, and now, with Homekey, includes a 30-year use restriction.
Trinity Center has also successfully worked with Novin Development on a 70-unit workforce housing complex in Pleasant Hill, Gleason said. Novin’s portfolio includes 14 projects, accounting for “over 600 new construction units in the pipeline,” according to the 2023 presentation. These projects include 100% affordable senior housing, and permanent supportive housing.
“We are always looking for opportunities to increase affordable housing and open doors for people we are serving,” Gleason said. This includes, she added, the chronically homeless, especially those suffering from disabling health conditions. The Richmond project will also help Trinity Center “to expand our expertise” in helping the groups it serves, she said.
Once the project breaks ground, the HCD will continue oversight. “The department has a very thorough oversight process, including confirming project completion, and occupancy, along with five years of monitoring,” Espinoza said.
What is most hopeful, Gleason said, is the recognition, exemplified by the Civic Center Apartment project, and Homekey overall, of the understanding that for the transition from homelessness to succeed, supportive services must be part of the process.
“How to manage a lease. How to manage [a budget] … we want people to be successful,” she said, ending the loop of “back out onto the street.”
