Five years.
That’s the goal Sen. Catherine Blakespear has set to get every unsheltered and homeless person off the streets with her bill meant to increase temporary housing options.
SB 16 from Blakespear, a Democrat who represents communities in southern Orange County, which she calls “ambitious,” underwent some revisions last week.
It would require cities and counties that receive funding from the state’s Homeless, Housing, Assistance and Prevention grant program to provide a five-year plan to get to functional zero for street homelessness. Those plans would need to include “very specific and concrete” details for interim housing and other solutions, Blakespear said.
“The idea behind that is we’re spending a lot of money on homelessness and it’s going in a lot of different directions, but the most devastating is our street homelessness crisis,” said Blakespear. “Those are the people who are suffering and dying on our streets, and we need to be working with urgency to address that particular program.”
Orange County’s 2024 point in time count — a process that occurs every two years to help determine the number of people who are homeless — determined 4,173 people were living on the streets. An additional 3,149 were considered homeless but sheltered.
That count was a 28% increase from 2022.
Getting people off the street is in line with what constituents want, Blakespear said, but it hasn’t been prioritized by the state legislature in terms of policies of funding.
So part of the focus with SB 16 is recognizing that permanent housing — with or without supportive services — is extremely time-consuming and costly to build, Blakespear said, and a greater focus needs to be on interim housing.
Blakespear considers her bill to be an accountability measure because it requires very specific information from cities and counties, and it also lays out clear roles and responsibilities for counties and cities.
She said she’s been “extremely frustrated” in her 12 years in elected office — Blakespear has served in the state legislature since 2023; she previously served as Encinitas’ mayor and on its city council — wth the lack of progress to get people off the streets.
Her bill, she said, “requires rethinking some things that have been our fixed pillars” when it comes to addressing homelessness.
“I think we need to open our minds and our understanding to say that if somebody is able to sleep inside with a pillow and a bathroom and a sink to wash their hands, that is housing, that is substantially better than the street,” said Blakespear. “We should be OK funding that and feel good about the fact that someone is inside.”
In addition to requiring plans and setting responsibilities, SB 16 also would provide cities and counties with Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) credit for interim housing units for the acutely low-income category and provide nonprofits with a welfare tax exemption for using their own land for interim housing.
According to Blakespear’s office, interim housing can be constructed for as low as $50,000 a unit for municipalities versus $650,000 for a permanent housing unit.
The bill is scheduled for a hearing before the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on Wednesday, July 2.
In other news
• The Senate last week unanimously passed a resolution from Sen. Steven Choi, R-Irvine, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Korean War.
“On this solemn anniversary, we recommit ourselves to the cause of peace, the pursuit of reunification and the duty to remember,” Choi said in a statement. “We will continue to honor our veterans, educate future generations and work toward a future in which no Korean child grows up in the shadow of war.”
• The Assembly Business and Professions Committee gave the OK to a bill meant to expand access for animals to get health services. From Sen. Dave Cortese, D-Silicon Valley, the bill permits registered veterinary technicians to conduct vaccine and parasite control appointments in many animal shelters.
Assemblymember Phillip Chen, R-Yorba Linda, is a member of that committee and voted in favor of the bill.