A group of California Assembly members introduced a bill that would inject $2 billion into addressing California’s homelessness crisis — an immediate effort to meet the governor’s request for permanent funding to tackle the problem.
Under Assembly Bill 3300, the funding would be appropriated to cities, counties, Continuums of Care and affordable housing developers. The money would speed up help finding affordable housing, paying for rent and getting connected to the services they need.
Governor Gavin Newsom (D) asked lawmakers during his State of the State address to find an ongoing funding source to help local governments tackle homelessness. His proposed 2020-21 budget includes some $1.4 billion in onetime funding for that purpose — on top of more than $1 billion allocated in the last fiscal budget.
The bill’s authors include Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), Sharon Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton) and Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland). The authors said the bill will likely be heard in committee in April or May.
