House America Leverages American Rescue Act to Address the Homeless Crisis

Gov. Gavin Newsom recently attended a virtual meeting with U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia L. Fudge for the launch of House America. This is a national partnership led by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness that brings state and local leaders together in leveraging the American Rescue Plan Act to address the homelessness crisis.

“The Biden-Harris Administration and leaders like Secretary Fudge understand that it is unacceptable to have Americans living on the street, and that we need significant investments in housing and services, along with the political will to move quickly. California is dedicated to doing our part toward this national goal,” said Newsom.

California has committed an unprecedented $22 billion investment for housing and homelessness as part of the California Comeback Plan, which includes additional funding from the American Rescue Plan. California will build more than 84,000 affordable homes including 44,000 new housing units and treatment beds for people exiting homelessness. California will account for one-third of the housing created as part of House America’s initiative to re-house at least 100,000 households experiencing homelessness.

“The California Comeback Plan invests $3 billion to create 22,000 treatment beds to improve our state’s behavioral health system, which has been underfunded and overlooked for decades,” says Newsom. “In California, we’re not settling for the old way of addressing housing and homelessness – we are demanding greater accountability and more urgency to create housing and get people off the streets.”