KPBS: Sen. Padilla secures millions in funding to tackle homelessness, San Diego is on the list
By Tania Thorne
U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced over $633 million in federal funding this week for programs to tackle homelessness and housing insecurity across California.
The funding includes help for homeless youth, continuation of homelessness prevention programs, rental assistance, and housing vouchers for rural areas in the state.
“Federal funding coming to California to address homelessness and the affordable housing crisis is vital,” Padilla said. “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.”
The funding awarded to CRC will also help support their domestic violence program.
Greg Anglea, the CEO of Interfaith Community Services, says organizations across San Diego are seeing an increase in homelessness.
“Homelessness is increasing in our communities and we believe it is a worth while investment for our federal government to also provide an increase in funding so that we can help more people,” Anglea said.
Federal grants aren’t new to Interfaith and Anglea said without the support organizations fall further behind on helping more people get off the streets,
“Without this funding source, housing programs that are housing disabled and formerly disabled seniors, would close,” Anglea said. “And without this funding homeless families who we will be working with in the year ahead, would not be able to get rental assistance and emergency housing to end their homelessness.”
While final numbers for the 2023 Point in Time Count have yet to be released, Anglea said last year about 2,000 individuals experiencing homelessness were counted in North County.
With limited resources, he said organizations need all the support they can get to help get people into housing.
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