Advocating for State Policies to Fund Homeless Services

An important component to keeping people housed and housing more people is support from policymakers, and a bill currently in the California State Legislature could do just that.

Assembly Bill 71, the “Bring California Home Act,” would create a permanent funding source for homeless services and permanent housing. As of now, no permanent state funding source exists.

In November, LAHSA and partners introduced Bring California Home, a statewide campaign calling on Sacramento to create a permanent funding source for homelessness and support local communities in their efforts to bring more Californians closer to permanent housing.

Assembly Bill 71 (L. Rivas-Chiu) will carry the proposal through the State Legislature. The bill seeks to establish $2.4 billion in new, on-going funding to support a comprehensive homelessness response strategy.

Funding would support local jurisdictions in implementing and scaling evidence-based solutions to homelessness and promote nimble, effective solutions that help ensure that homelessness is rare, brief, and nonrecurrent.

Last month, LAHSA Executive Director Heidi Marston spoke to State legislators about the importance of the funding AB 71 could provide.

“What we really need at this point is the sustainable, ongoing funding from the state level,” Marston said. “It’s really tough on systems when we cannot have some predictability in the budget, and we have to come back every year to have budget discussions.”

More details on the Bring California Home campaign and AB 71 are available on the campaign’s website. If you support ongoing funding for homelessness, we encourage you to contact your legislators and urge their support for this bill.

“Our state must provide the resources needed to meet the scale of the homelessness challenge and enable state and local government and community-based organizational partnerships to invest in strategies proven to keep Californians in their homes, ensure the safety of those experiencing homelessness, and help people exit homelessness faster,” according to Housing California, one of the co-sponsors of the bill.

We thank Assemblymembers Luz Rivas, David Chiu, and Sharon Quirk-Silva for their leadership on this effort and tireless advocacy on behalf of California’s most housing insecure.

Please contact your local Assemblymember and urge them to support extending and strengthening California’s eviction protections. You can find your Assemblymember here.