CA districts report less homeless people as funding is reducing the station

From Marisa KendallCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

California counties report a reduction in homelessness, which suggests that the state has finally made progress in solving one of its most difficult and constant problems.

But even when governor Gavin Newm and local officials celebrate, the money that made these victories are at risk of evaporation.

The administration of President Donald Trump this month has tried to block organizations that do not support his social program to have access to federal housing funds for homeless – causes experts in the field to worry that politically liberal California may be a black list of decisive dollars.

The reduction in state -owned homelessness is also on the horizon, and some local jurisdictions withdraw funds while fighting their own budget deficits. There are counties, non -profit organizations and experts in the industry, worried the number of homeless in California will soon be returned immediately.

“I think we are doing something right,” said Sharon Gape, director of the California State Policy for the Corporation to maintain housing, for recent discounts. “This can come to the crash with a lot of concern about what is happening at the federal level, the change in federal policy, and the reduction of funding.”

Out of 29 seats in California reporting a formal census this year, more than half marked a decrease compared to 2024, according to AN Analysis the number of time from the Center for Urban Initiatives. This includes drops of about a quarter in CONTRA COSTA and SONOMA, 20% in Santa Cruz County, 16% in Ventura County and 14% in Merced County.

The columns of San Diego and Los Angeles reported a decrease of less than 10%. For La County, this marks For the second year in a row This homelessness decreases.

But funding is worried like a black cloud over these promising results. As the strings of the purse are tightened, service providers will have to reduce the staff, programs and capacity of the bed, which means that they can help less homeless people. For years, cities, cities and non -profit organizations in California have been pushing the Newsom administration to provide a constant source of homeless financing, so service providers can plan forward without worrying about how much money they will receive.

Some organizations are already feeling pressing.

From December to July, Union Station homeless services in Los Angeles County has rejected 700 families who need homes, said CEO Katie Hill.

“We just have nothing available to them,” Hill said.

County cut off housing vouchers while the city and the county fought Financial From the latest fires, the declining income from ownership tax and increasing legal payments.

Other organizations close their doors forever. The Downtown Streets team, which helps UNHOUSED residents in 16 cities in California find a home while earning money cleaning the local streets, plans to close next month after two decades of service.

“The financial and political environment we are operating in has shifted dramatically in recent months,” said CEO Julie Gardner in an email statement. “During this time (the city center team) lost several significant contracts and grants, creating a multimillion -dollar general funding. When combined with other factors, including rapidly increasing operating costs, these losses have made it impossible to continue to manage the organization in a financially sustainable manner.”

“I just don’t think we will see this funding”

The 2023 Congress was appropriated $ 75 million to something called the Continuum of Care Builds Grant, which had to help help build new homes for homeless. Former President Joe Biden’s administration began the application process for these grants in 2024, when Trump took the helm in 2025, his administration again launched the process with new criteria by applying again.

Then, in early September, the Trump Administration made everyone apply for a third time – With a very different set of criteria, they seem to disqualify organizations that support trance customers, use strategies to “reduce damage” to prevent the death of drug overdose or work in a “city of the sanctuary”.

Applicants had to testify that they did not deny “sexual binary in humans or encourage the idea that sex has been chosen or changing a characteristic.” They had to promise not to distribute drugs or allow drug use in their property.

“I think we are doing something right. It can get to a crash.”

Sharon Raport, California State Policy Director for Home Maintenance Corporation

Applicants also had to testify that they were operating in a city, county or state that cooperates with the federal implementation of immigration. NEWSOM resisted Trump immigration repression at the state level and recently signed a set of accounts Designed for a more ongoing ice inspection.

And candidates were required to work in a city, county or application that prohibit public camping and apply this rule. That a person may be easier lifting: arrests and quotes for camping-related activities Rose in some cities in California In the last year, after the US Supreme Court They gave cities More freedom of movement for cracking and newsom encourages cities To ban camping. But two recent government attempts to ban camps for homeless schools and other areas fell flatS

The new funding rules were a major blow to the Conta Costa County Hope Solutions, which was originally selected to receive $ 5.5 million to build 15 small homes for homeless 18-24-year-old children in Pittsburg. After the staff spent at least 100 hours completing the project proposal, they learned this month that they would no longer qualify for the new criteria. The Pittsburg Police Department says it does not participate in the implementation of immigrationS In addition, the new rules for the program specify the money should go to buildings that serve the elderly residents-a person of the Hope Solutions Youth Project since the launch.

“I felt like a bowel stroke,” said CEO Dean Piern, “and really repulsive to understand that we spent so much time and we asked so many of our partners in the county and others, and that that time could be spent elsewhere.”

Hope Solutions is still moving forward with the project, which Pearn hopes the organization will fund with its own financial reserves. But this means that non -profit goals will not have this money for its next project.

The National Union for termination of homelessness has recently filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on the new grant conditions, claiming that all projects in California and three dozen other countries would be unacceptable for funds. Earlier this month, a federal judge gave way to the Union and temporarily banned the federal government from distributing these funds.

Now those $ 75 million are frozen as the case is moving forward.

While the new conditions considered in the court case apply to only one specific federal grant for homelessness, experts are worried that it is a sinister sign of California. Service providers expect applications to be opened this fall for the main source of financing of federal homelessness – the continuous care program – which is implemented about $ 600 million In California Counts in 2023

If this application puts similar requirements, California may be in difficulty.

“Personally, I just don’t think we’ll see this funding,” Hill said from Union Station Services in Los Angeles County.

In a caseThe Counts San Francisco and Santa Clara have sued the Trump administration for contracts that prevented the recipients of federal homeless funds from using the money to promote “sexual ideology”, “electoral abortions” and “illegal immigration”. Counts have won Early victory Last month, when a judge temporarily blocked the administration to impose these conditions.

Other federal cuts are also outlined. Emergency Housing Vouchers Program, which started during the Covid-19 pandemic and now helps more than 15,000 Californians pay their rent, is expected to are exhausted Next year.

This doesn’t even count Home vouchers Other federal housing and homelessness programs that Trump offered in May still negotiated in Congress.

California, turning an angle of homelessness

California seems to be reducing their homeless population, according to HUB for urban initiatives, a California organization that helps local communities to form their homelessness policy, apply for grants and explore their homeless population.

The 29 California Communities, which report and report the population of their homeless this year, gathered a total of 131 209 people – a reduction of 4% of what the same communities report last year. This is an important step for a condition in which the homeless population has grown hard for years.

These data come from the federally authorized number of homeless points, where volunteer teams report people who do not see on the street one night in January. The number is imperfect as volunteers can ignore people who sleep off the road, and different cities use different methods-as some places are reported every year, others count each other. Of the 44 “continuum of care” required for census in California (some small, rural communities combine multiple cities in one continuum of care), 14 did not count this year.

The Federal Housing Department will release an official number for the country later this year.

NEWSOM Pipes of the original reductions, credit To pour money into homes for homeless and other services. He is not wrong.

Contra Costa County, which has noted the largest decline in homelessness this year, attributes its success to a large extent to the recent impetus to state funding, said Christie Saxton, Director of Health, Housing and Homeless Services for Conta Costa County. Over the last two years, the county has increased its shelter for homeless and housing capacity by more than one third.

Much of this was the Homes Program, Assistance and Prevention of the Homeless, which Newsom started in the 2019-20 budget year to fill what was the void of state funds for homelessness until then. Over the last few years, this program has been giving cities and counties to $ 1 billion each year.

These funds to support the funds as a temporary residential site of Delta County Delta County in Pittsburg in Pittsburg, which opened 172 units in 2021. Until then, this part of the county has about 20 beds for its residents, Saxton said.

But instead of carrying out this state funding, the Newsom administration decided to bring it into one -off gratuitous funds every year, leaving cities and cities to constantly guess what a budget will bring for next year.

This year this state program will receive There is no new funding (Due to the glacial pace with which the state distributes these funds, cities and cities have not yet received money from the last round). Next year, the amount should shrink to $ 500 million.

“We are significantly concerned about the cuts that come,” Saxton said, “since he has taken the influx of money to see these discounts and we need it to continue more than ever.”

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.