California’s Big City Mayors, who represent California’s 13 largest cities, are urging Governor Newsom and legislative leaders to budget funding for the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention program, or HHAP.
The proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 did not include HHAP funding, but legislative leaders can still add the funding before they vote on the budget in June.
Following a Wednesday news conference, a reporter asked the group how the Governor and legislature should reconcile the funding that is coming. Meaning Prop 1 funding, and HHAP funding.
Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg took the question.
It's never been one or the other. Proposition 1 is a modernization of an existing revenue source, the billionaire's tax, known as the Mental Health Services Act, plus an additional $3 billion bond. But that is always been additive to HHAP. In part, as I said earlier, because of the history, the cities have never gotten direct allocation of resources out of the Mental Health Services Act. It has all gone to the Health and Human Services subdivision of the state, the counties of California. So, HHAP was something new and different and allowed the cities to have some direct authority over building beds at the pace that our public demands. And that's exactly what we have done with it. So, cities need both. It's not one or the other.
Each year since 2018, the state has provided substantial resources to local governments to address homelessness in communities throughout the state.
This request is for Round 6 of HHAP funding. Last month the Big City Mayors made a powerful ask to the governor and legislature to make HHAP grant funding level and permanent.
For KVCR News, I’m Jessica Greenwell.
