On Wednesday the Legislature released Budget trailer bill language outlining the “No Place Like Home” (NPLH) initiative, which the Governor endorsed as part of his Fiscal Year 2016-17 May Revision released last month. The NPLH initiative would provide roughly $2 billion in bond financing – partially-supported through a portion of Mental Health Services Act funding – to construct permanent supportive housing to address local communities’ homeless populations.
While there are a number of concerns and technical issues with the bill, RCRC is working with a coalition of local government stakeholders to help guide development of the NPLH proposal and will be meeting with leadership engaged with crafting the final version of the bill. Specifically, RCRC will be advocating for rural counties to receive an equitable share of bond funding, appropriate representation on the NPLH Advisory Committee, which is charged with assisting the California Department of Housing and Community Development on implementation of the program and guidelines, and mitigating as many adverse impacts the measure will have on providing critical services in our communities. RCRC will provide additional information as the details of the proposal continue to become available.