City Government

Newsom Signs $12 Billion Funding Package to Support Housing for Homeless Residents

In addition to the $12 billion funding package for homelessness, the state also plans to spend $10.3 billion on developing affordable housing units.

Published

5 years ago

July 21, 2021

Isabelle Price

One of the tents from the homeless encampment under the Guadalupe Freeway, adjacent to a newly constructed building near San Jose Diridon Station, in San Jose on May 25, 2021. (Harika Maddala/Bay City News)

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $12 billion funding package for housing and homelessness on July 19, the largest such investment in sheltering and supporting homeless residents in the state’s history.

The funding, which will be used over the next two years, will support efforts across the state to spur housing construction and the expansion of mental health services at the local level.

The state will use $5.8 billion of the funding to convert more than 42,000 hotel and motel rooms into housing units specifically for homeless residents and people struggling with severe mental health conditions.

The state launched the hotel room conversion program, known as Homekey, last year in a partnership with the federal government that enabled the state to reimburse the costs of acquiring hotel and motel properties.

Speaking at a Homekey site in Sebastopol, Newsom acknowledged that the state’s strategies in recent years to help homeless residents get off the streets have been failures.

“The state of California, with all due respect, has been nowhere to be found on the issue of homelessness for far too long,” he said.

Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said state and local governments have played “whack-a-mole” with homelessness over the last three decades with little to show for it.

“We have never encountered such an issue as homelessness, where everybody wants it fixed but nobody wants to be inconvenienced by the solution,” he said.

In addition to the $12 billion funding package for homelessness, the state also plans to spend $10.3 billion on developing affordable housing units.

Newsom said that the state plans to be more proactive in tying funding to whether local governments are actively housing homeless residents rather than simply throwing money at the problem.

“There’s six metrics that counties have to meet, and if you meet them we’re actually attaching bonuses, an 18% bonus opportunity, for actually delivering on the plan,” he said. “No plan, no money.”

Roughly $2 billion of the funding package will be paid to local governments through Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention grants, which have specific accountability measures that grant recipients must meet.

Since being elected in 2018, Newsom has frequently reiterated his intent to spur more housing development and, in turn, help homeless residents get off the streets.

Last year, just a month before the state shut down in March due to the pandemic, Newsom even went so far as to devote his entire State of the State address to issues of housing and homelessness.

In that time, however, the state’s revenue used to tackle issues like homelessness has fluctuated wildly, from a projected $54.3 billion deficit last spring to a surplus of nearly $80 billion earlier this year.

But while the funding package Newsom approved on July 19 is only a one-time expenditure, the governor said he plans to forge ahead with spending on housing and homelessness in future years.

“So long as I’m governor of California, that’s not going to be an issue,” he said.

Isabelle Price

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Oakland Post: Week of July 15 – 21, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 15 – 21, 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 18, 2026

Oakland Post

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From Disparity Study to Solutions: Oakland Coalition and Mayor Barbara Lee Renew Commitment to Reform City Contracting

She committed to ensuring the coalition has direct access to City leadership by designating Assistant Deputy City Administrator Chuck Baker the primary liaison. Working alongside Deputy City Administrator Sofia Navarro, DWES Director Emylene Aspilla, Race and Equity Director Darlene Flynn, and other City departments, the coalition will continue advancing these priorities while maintaining regular communication with City leadership.

Published

5 days ago

July 15, 2026

Oakland Post

Present at the recent meeting on implementing recommendations on Oakland’s Disparity Study on city work contracts were (first row, l. to r.): Chuck Baker, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and Darlene Flynn. Second row, l. to r.) Samuel Adams, Erica Astrella, Chadwick Spell, Cathy Adams, Stanley Cooper, Maria Wagner, Len Turner, Derek Barnes, Paul Cobb. Photo courtesy of Oakland Mayor’s Office.

Special to The Post

On June 30, a coalition of minority business leaders, contractors and others met with Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee to discuss the City’s commitment to implement recommendations outlined in Oakland’s Disparity Study and eliminate barriers that have historically prevented Black and minority-owned businesses from fully participating in public contracting opportunities.

Representatives of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce (OAACC), National Association of Minority Contractors Northern California (NAMC NorCal), Construction Resource Center (CRC), and the East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA) said the meeting represented an important milestone in a process that has been underway for several months.

On April 21, the Oakland City Council’s Life Enrichment Committee received a progress report from the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards (DWES), where Director Emylene Aspilla presented the coalition’s working document and outlined a collaborative implementation plan between the coalition and the City. That report established 30-, 60-, and 90-day objectives focused on five key priorities:

Reforming Local and Small Local Business Enterprise (L/SLBE) waiver practices
Strengthening prompt payment compliance
Improving procurement forecasting and transparency
Expanding contractor capacity building and business development
Increasing oversight, accountability, and public reporting

A series of working sessions was scheduled between coalition representatives, DWES, and the City Administrator’s Office to begin implementing those priorities but were temporarily delayed by the resignation of former City Administrator Jestin Johnson.

Rather than allowing that momentum to stall, OAACC President and CEO Cathy Adams requested a meeting with Lee to gain clarity on the City’s direction and reaffirm its commitment to implementing the recommendations contained within the Disparity Study.

Coalition leaders described the meeting as productive, candid, collaborative, and encouraging.

During the meeting, Lee spoke not only from her role as mayor but also from her experience as an 8(a) contractor and business owner, sharing that she understands firsthand what it takes to build and grow a successful company, employ a substantial workforce, compete for public work, and navigate the complexities of municipal contracting.

Mayor Lee also expressed her commitment to personally participate in future working meetings with the coalition.

“This meeting represents a renewed commitment to partnership,” said Adams. “Mayor Lee listened, engaged, and demonstrated that she wants to move beyond conversation and into implementation.”

CRC’s Len Turner said the roadmap is already in place. ““The City already has the evidence. What’s been missing is execution. …Now it’s time to deliver results.”

Mario Wagner, president of NAMC NorCal agreed that the next phase must focus on implementation, funding, and accountability.

“The coalition is ready to get to work. …The next step is ensuring these initiatives receive meaningful funding in the upcoming fiscal budget cycle. Just as important, the City must establish transparent reporting mechanisms that keep the public informed through regular progress reports, measurable benchmarks, and accountability.”

Coalition leaders also acknowledged that while City leadership has indicated it is reviewing Local and Small Local Business Enterprise waiver practices, the community continues to seek a formal response regarding existing long-term waivers, including waivers extending 10 and 25 years. The coalition believes those waivers should be comprehensively reviewed and, where appropriate, rolled back as part of the City’s broader contracting reforms.

The coalition is also calling on the City to include meaningful funding in the upcoming fiscal budget cycle to support implementation of the Disparity Study recommendations and establish better methods and mechanisms to keep the public informed through regular progress reports, measurable benchmarks, and transparent accountability.

The coalition’s immediate next step is to schedule a working meeting with Baker, Aspilla, Lee, and the appropriate City staff to review what has already been accomplished under the implementation framework.