Sutter County Health and Human Services is asking the Board of Supervisors today to authorize an application for state homelessness funding.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development announced the availability of approximately $190 million in noncompetitive allocation funds for the No Place Like Home Program, according to a county staff report. The program is conditioned upon voter approval of the No Place Like Home Act of 2018 – Prop. 2 on the November ballot. If approved by voters, the measure would authorize the Legislature to appropriate funds to the Mental Health Services Fund for the No Place Like Home Program to begin making awards.
All counties are eligible to receive at least $500,000 in funds, according to the staff report, and the funds may be used to acquire, design, construct, rehabilitate or preserve permanent supportive housing and to fund capitalized operating subsidy reserves.
It’s not necessarily new funding, though: a yes vote in November authorizes the state to use revenues from the 2004 Prop. 63 – a 1 percent tax on income over $1 million for mental health services, according to Ballotpedia. The measure was referred to the ballot because the revenue for the bond would come from a tax that was created through a ballot initiative.
No Place Like Home is also not a new program. It helped fund the 42-unit Richland Permanent Supportive Housing Complex for the homeless and mentally ill on Garden Highway – approximately $2.75 million of the project’s $11 million price tag came from NPLH and the Mental Health Services Act funding, according to Appeal-Democrat archives.
The state funding is key in the county’s plan for addressing area homelessness. The Board has recommended staff move forward in working on an emergency shelter at the Behavioral Health site on Live Oak Boulevard.
The Yuba County Board of Supervisors must also review and adopt the same resolution.
