Ellen Perrault
With a 12% increase in homelessness based on the Riverside County 2023 Point in Time Count, news of the City of Riverside being granted a conditional award of $4.375 million in state funds to help purchase as many as five homes to create 25 units of housing for young people who are homeless or in danger of becoming homeless is good news for the city and individuals who may benefit.
The local award was part of $156.4 million in grants announced in November by CA Gov. Gavin Newsom to help cities and counties expand the availability of housing for individuals and families experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness, according to an official press release. Across the state, 12 projects in six counties will create 556 new affordable homes. Riverside was the only project awarded in Inland Southern California.
“The City of Riverside’s commitment to reducing homelessness focuses on preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place,” Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said in the press statement. “We know young people, particularly foster youth, are vulnerable and at high risk of becoming homeless, which is why these funds are so critical to our overall strategy of addressing homelessness.”
Riverside is partnering with Walden Family Services Housing for Transitional Youth project (Walden) on the project. Walden will provide supportive services to young people ages 18-21, including pregnant and parenting youth, and foster and former foster youth who are at risk of homelessness.
The Walden project calls for purchasing single-family homes throughout the City of Riverside and converting them to Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units where clients can be housed together while receiving services – including case management, education assistance, and job and life skills training — to support them in achieving self-sufficiency.
“We know from experience that pairing services with shelter is the recipe for success in helping people get off the streets,”said Mayor Pro Tem Erin Edwards. “This is especially true of young people who can avoid becoming homeless altogether if they have the right housing and guidance at this crucial point in their lives.”
The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), with this latest round of funding, brings the total of homes funded through the Homekey program to 14,040 across the state. The program is available to cities, counties, tribes, and housing authorities to develop a broad range of housing types including hotels, motels, hostels, single-family homes, multifamily apartments, adult residential facilities, and modular housing, and to convert commercial properties and other existing buildings to permanent or interim housing.
“Homekey continues to demonstrate that we can build quickly, and at a fraction of the usual cost, to deliver much-needed affordable homes for Californians struggling to find a place to live,” Gov. Newsom explained. “There’s still more work ahead, but the state is taking proactive measures, from implementing accountability standards to offering incentives, to confront this housing crisis head on.”