Fil-Am mayor leads push for $1 billion funding for homeless programs

Todd Gloria, the Fil-Am mayor of San Diego, chairs the Big City Mayors coalition. Image: mayortoddgloria/Instagram

SAN DIEGO – A coalition of mayors from the state’s largest cities, led by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, this week visited Sacramento to urge Gov. Gavin Newsom and the legislature to make funding homelessness services across California permanent.

The Big City Mayors coalition, chaired by Gloria, requested Newsom and legislators to avoid making cuts to the Homelessness Housing, Assistance and Prevention program and commit to funding it at $1 billion a year going forward.

“The shelters and service programs that big cities up and down California have created with local and state dollars are getting people off the street and connected to care,” the Filipino American mayor said after the meeting in Sacramento.

“We need to protect the progress we’ve made through continued state investment. “We have shown urgency in putting state funding to work to increase emergency shelter, bring people indoors and put them on a path to permanent housing,” he said. “We can build on this success, but cities need the certainty that a commitment to ongoing state funding will bring.”

The 13 members of the Big City Mayors also urged state leaders to restore cuts to the Regional Early Action Planning 2.0 grants, which “provide state funding to local governments to update plans and create tens of thousands of new housing opportunities to tackle California’s housing-affordability crisis,” a statement from Gloria’s office read.

The mayors also advocated for continued investment in the California Youth Service Corps program.

“Together, in partnership with my fellow California Big City Mayors, we will continue to create fundamental change in the way we address the housing and homelessness crisis,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “I know that we will continue strong collaboration with state leaders to protect and expand our progress.”

California is facing a significant budget deficit and legislators recently approved an early-action plan that reduced the budget shortfall by $17 billion. That plan had minimal impacts to housing and homeless programs, but the proposed budget does not include an additional round of HHAP funding.

“These dollars have changed hundreds of lives in our city and across the state, and are one of the single most impactful investments the state could make in ending the era of encampments,” said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.