There will soon be millions of dollars more available to address homelessness after County Supervisors agreed to accept the latest round of a State grant program.
George Solis, the principal administrative manager with County Social Services, asked Supervisors to approve a budget amendment to accept a $1.38 million State grant from something called the “Homeless and Affordable Housing for the Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention — Round 6” grant program (HHAP) coming out of the State Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
The program was hatched by the HHAP law that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in July 2024. The State Legislature appropriated $1 billion to fund the HHAP for Fiscal Year 2024/25, Solis explained. The HHAP is included within the California Health & Safety Code Book (Ch. 48, Statutes of 2024).
Earlier this year the HCD released a “Notification of Funding Availability” or NOFA for $760 million of this money “to regions made up of large Cities, Counties and Continuums of Care,” Solis said.
The County applied for funding twice and was told it was eligible for $1.34 million and the SLO County Continuum of Care was eligible for $1.41 million. The local body that works on homeless issues under the Continuum of Care program, the SLO County Homeless Services Oversight Committee or HSOC, voted to designate the County as the administrative entity for all this HHAP money, Solis said.
Last July HSOC voted to recommend Supervisors approve the so-called, the “Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention Program Round 6 Regionally Coordinated Homelessness Action Plan and Memorandum of Understanding” with SLO County “to participate and comply with the Regionally Coordinated Action Plan,” Solis said.
Last August, Supervisors authorized formal application for the HHAP Round-6 funding for a total of $2.77 million, roughly matching the amount the HCD had said was available for SLO County. On Jan. 30, 2026, the County received the award letter from the State.
The money is coming in two disbursements, Solis said. “The initial disbursement will be 50% of the applicants’ total HHAP-6 allocation,” he said. This will come after the State approves the HHAP-6 application and after the County reaches a contract with whoever is getting the funds and delivering the services. That entity will be chosen through a Request for Proposals (RFP) bidding process that hasn’t yet been done. Getting the rest of the money will be a bit trickier.
Solis said, “The remainder disbursement will be disbursed to grantees upon confirmation of having contractually obligated 75% AND expended 50% of the funds already received [the first disbursement] by June 30, 2027.”
So, what does the County do with these monies? In its filing for Round-1 of the HHAP, SLO County reported serving 563 households with “emergency shelter, safe haven and transitional housing.”
It served 347 households with rapid rehousing and 115 with permanent supportive (subsidized) housing, with a total of 391 “disabled households” across all “interventions.”
There were 90 households classified as experiencing chronic homelessness; and 247 households aged 55-older.
They helped 43 “unaccompanied youth;” and 157 households with military veterans.
Breaking it down by gender, Round-1 served 481 females, 572 males, one transgender and zero “gender non-conforming.”
By race the Round-1 funding served 663 white, non-Hispanic/non-Latino; 197 white, Hispanic/Latino; 49 blacks or African American; four Asians; and 30 American Indians. There were nine Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders; and 42 classified as “multi-racial.”
As for criteria in choosing who gets help and who doesn’t the County uses a standardized method.
“People experiencing homelessness,” the report said, “are prioritized for permanent supportive housing assistance based on a person’s score on the ‘Vulnerability Index-Services Prioritization Decision Assistance Tool’ (VI-SPDAT), combined with length of time homeless, use of public health and safety resources, and whether the person meets the eligibility criteria for the available programs [e.g. to be eligible for PSH funded by the HUD Continuum of Care program, a person must meet HUD’s definition of chronic homelessness].”
How did the County help with efforts to create “sustainable, long-term housing solutions for people experiencing homelessness?”
“The County and the Continuum of Care have collaborated with each other and with regional housing developers, the local Housing Authority, and incorporated cities within our region to develop and implement strategies.
“This has included adoption of local funding to create additional affordable housing units, removing barriers to development of Accessory Dwelling Units, and successfully partnering with the local Housing Authority to help them obtain additional Housing Vouchers for our community through programs such as HUD-VASH, the Family Unification Program, and the Mainstream Voucher program, which provides incremental vouchers to serve homeless persons with disabilities.”
