LA County Wins $36M For Homeless Housing

California just sent another chunk of homelessness money into Los Angeles County — but this one is narrower than a general shelter grant. On May 12, Governor Gavin Newsom announced more than $111 million statewide through Homekey+, and a little over $36 million of that went to two Los Angeles County supportive housing projects. The point is not just to build apartments. It is to build permanent homes tied to mental-health and substance-use services for people who are homeless or at serious risk of it. ### What actually got funded? Two projects in Los Angeles County made this round. Huntington Villas, in the city of Los Angeles, got $15.6 million to rehab a motel into 52 homes for people experiencing homelessness with a behavioral health challenge, plus one manager’s unit. PATH Villas South Park got nearly $15.7 million to acquire a newly built multifamily property with 51 units for the same population, plus one manager’s unit. That is the core of the local announcement. (gov.ca.gov) ### Why is this a different kind of housing program? Homekey+ is basically California’s “housing plus treatment” model. Regular affordable housing money can help build units. This program is specifically aimed at permanent supportive housing for veterans and other people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and also living with mental health or substance-use challenges. The state built it as an extension of the older Homekey program, but with Proposition 1 money behind it and a tighter behavioral-health focus. (hcd.ca.gov) ### Where did the money come from? The funding pipeline matters here. California voters approved Proposition 1 in 2024. That measure created a $6.4 billion behavioral health bond, including about $2.25 billion for Homekey+ supportive housing. So this is not an ad hoc grant Newsom found in a drawer — it is one slice of a much larger statewide bond meant to finance treatment spaces and supportive housing at the same time. (hcd.ca.gov) ### How big is this statewide round? This round funds six projects across California with $111 million total and is expected to create 307 new permanent supportive homes. After these awards, Homekey+ had allocated about $858.8 million across 50 projects, creating 2,471 affordable homes statewide, including 620 for veterans. Los Angeles County got a meaningful share, but it is one piece of a much broader rollout. (gov.ca.gov) ### Why does Los Angeles care so much? Because LA keeps getting money from several overlapping state channels, and each one solves a different part of the problem. In January, the state announced $419 million in HHAP homelessness funding for the Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco regions. In March, Newsom also announced a separate $65 million Proposition 1 investment to convert six vacant state-owned buildings in Los Angeles County into 162 housing and treatment beds. (gov.ca.gov) This new $36 million is smaller, but it adds permanent units in a county where every supportive housing opening matters. ### Is this enough to move the needle? Not by itself. Roughly 103 homes from the two LA County projects will help real people, but they will not come close to matching the scale of homelessness in the region. The value is in the model — permanent housing tied to ongoing services, not just a temporary bed. That is the bet California is making with Proposition 1. ### Why mention the 9% drop? (gov.ca.gov) Because Newsom is framing all of this as proof that the state’s strategy is starting to work. California said unsheltered homelessness fell 9% in 2025 — the first statewide drop in more than 15 years. The administration is using that result to justify more spending on the same mix of encampment response, shelter, treatment, and permanent supportive housing. (hcd.ca.gov) ### Bottom line? LA County did not just “win housing money.” It won funding for a very specific idea — that homelessness gets easier to reduce when housing and behavioral-health care show up together, in the same project, with permanent units attached. (hcd.ca.gov) (gov.ca.gov)