A leader in homeless solutions, Monterey County gets swept up in a Newsom crackdown.

Like blameless students who find themselves punished with the rest of the class, Monterey County found itself caught up in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ire because he believes the state’s counties and cities aren’t doing enough to combat homelessness. Newsom announced Nov. 3 that he was rejecting every region’s homeless action plan and withholding all Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention funding, totaling $1 billion, until their goals were significantly beefed up. He complained current action plans would only result in a 2-percent statewide reduction in homelessness by 2024.

The announcement came as a shock to officials and nonprofit providers in Monterey County, a leader in the state for recent reductions in homeless numbers. Monterey County’s share of the $1 billion in HHAP funding was $3.38 million, which has already been allocated to new and ongoing housing and homeless services. They include, among other needs: $1.5 million for homeless shelter operations in Salinas, Seaside and Monterey; $800,000 to match state Homekey funding for the building of supportive housing in Salinas and King City; $218,000 for housing navigation and rapid rehousing efforts.

Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo, who also chairs the Leadership Council for the Coalition for Homeless Service Providers – an agency authorized by the state to accept homeless funding for Monterey and San Benito counties – says he agrees that everyone in the state can do better, but calls rejecting all action plans and withholding HHAP funding a mistake. “We are advancing aggressive projects locally because we know there’s more hard work to do,” he says.

Monterey and San Benito counties are tied in second place for projected reductions in homelessness among all regions across the state, having recorded drops in PIT counts since 2020 (20 percent and 15 percent in the last two counts), and are expected to achieve a 25-percent total reduction by 2024. Mendocino County is also projecting a 25-percent reduction. (Colusa/Glenn/Trinity counties are first, with an anticipated 64-percent reduction, but with smaller numbers.)

It appears Newsom is using both a stick and a carrot to get counties and big cities to beef up their homeless action plans. Monterey County Homeless Services Director Roxanne Wilson says a little over a week after the governor’s announcement, Department of Social Services officials announced they would require regions to post more ambitious goals and submit further detailed information for the next future round of funding. It came with a promise that current funding would be distributed.

“I’m not mad at the state making us take a deeper look,” Wilson says. “It’s just unfortunate that communities like ours are being negatively affected.”

The funds are expected to arrive after a meeting scheduled for 2pm Friday, Nov. 18, between Newsom and elected county board chairs and mayors of large cities. “At least we know they are moving forward to release the funds, so that’s exciting,” Wilson says.

Alejo is also hopeful for a positive outcome after the meeting. “We are in this together as partners, let’s focus on that, rather than pointing fingers,” he says.