Padilla Announces Over $633 Million in Federal Funding Grants to Address Housing Insecurity Across California
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced over $633 million in recently allocated federal funding to address housing insecurity in California. The federal funding investments target programs aimed at mitigating the impacts of homelessness and housing insecurity in the state and across the country.
| Grant Type | Amount |
| Continuum of Care and Youth Homeless Demonstration Program Grants | $525.8 million |
| Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA2) Grants | $71.6 million |
| Grants and Housing Vouchers for Homelessness in Rural Areas | $26.4 million |
| Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants | $10 million |
| TOTAL | $633.8 million |
“Federal funding coming to California to address homelessness and the affordable housing crisis is vital,” said Senator Padilla. “But we must continue to do more to make meaningful investments in housing to ensure long-term, sustainable solutions to address this crisis. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to secure more resources for California and to ensure they are used effectively to assist our most at risk communities.”
Senator Padilla believes that housing is a human right and recognizes the need to increase affordable housing and address the homelessness crisis facing California. He is proud to advocate for increased federal funding and resources as well as champion transformative legislation, like his Housing for All Act, to significantly expand the supply of affordable housing and services for people experiencing homelessness. Earlier this year, Padilla introduced the Fighting Homelessness Through Services and Housing Act, a bill to authorize $1 billion annually to help local governments address homelessness.
More information about the federal housing investments being announced is below:
Continuum of Care (CoC) and Youth Homeless Demonstration Program (YDHP) Grant Awards
Senator Padilla is announcing $525,839,973 in grants Continuum of Care and Youth Homeless Demonstration Program Grants across California.
The Continuum of Care (CoC) Program is designed to promote community wide commitment to the goal of ending homelessness; provide funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, and State and local governments to quickly rehouse homeless individuals and families while minimizing the trauma and dislocation caused to homeless individuals, families, and communities by homelessness; promote access to and effect utilization of mainstream programs by homeless individuals and families; and optimize self-sufficiency among individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) is an initiative designed to reduce the number of youth experiencing homelessness. The goal of the YHDP is to support selected communities, including rural, suburban, and urban areas across the United States, in the development and implementation of a coordinated community approach to preventing and ending youth homelessness. Additionally, HUD is committed to sharing the experience of YHDP communities and mobilizing communities around the country toward the same end. A map of all currently awarded YHDP communities can be viewed here.
Click here for a breakdown of the grants being awarded to California communities.
Reallocation of the Emergency Rental Assistance Grants
Senator Padilla is announcing $71,606,791.33 being reallocated to California as part of the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA2) program was authorized by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which Padilla voted for, to assist eligible households with financial assistance, provide housing stability services, and as applicable, to cover the costs for other affordable rental housing and eviction prevention activities. Emergency Rental Assistance programs have made about 10.8 million household payments to families at risk of eviction.
Click here for a breakdown of the grants being awarded to California communities.
Grants and Housing Vouchers to Address Homelessness in Rural Communities
Senator Padilla is also announcing $26,395,422 as part of the second set of communities to receive grants and housing vouchers to address homelessness among people in unsheltered settings and in rural communities.
This announcement adds to the first set of grant awards announced in February. This will bring the total value of grants to $486 million to 62 Continuum of Care communities. In addition, HUD is inviting 139 Public Housing Authorities who partnered with grantee communities to accept approximately 3,300 Stability Vouchers (over 1,000 of which are for California) that allow people experiencing homelessness to obtain and afford housing.
Click here for a breakdown of the grants being awarded to California communities.
Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants for the City of Los Angeles Housing Authority
Senator Padilla is announcing a $10 million award to the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles for the Jordan Downs site in the Watts neighborhood. Choice Neighborhoods Implementation Grants assist in the redevelopment of severely distressed HUD-assisted properties into mixed-income communities. The program has a three-pronged “Housing, People, and Neighborhood” approach that includes not only redevelopment of distressed properties, but also provides support to housing residents related to the health, education, and income, while simultaneously investing in neighborhood improvement projects which promote economic development. Since the program’s inception, the Choice Neighborhoods program has seen 11,000 new units built across 44 cities. More than 32,000 units are planned.
###