AB 1285: Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program and Encampment Resolution Funding program.

Existing law establishes the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to provide grant funds to cities, continuums of care, and tribes in 5 rounds to support regional coordination and expand or develop local capacity to address homelessness challenges informed by a best-practices framework focused on moving homeless individuals and families into permanent housing and supporting the effort of those individuals and families to maintain their permanent housing. Existing law requires, to be eligible for a round 5 base program allocation, a jurisdiction that is not a tribe to apply as part of a region and to be signatory to a regionally coordinated homelessness action plan that has been approved by the council. Existing law requires the regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to include, among other things, an explanation of how each participating jurisdiction is utilizing local, state, and federal funding programs to end homelessness.

Existing law establishes the Encampment Resolution Funding program, administered by the California Interagency Council on Homelessness, to increase collaboration between the council, local jurisdictions, and continuums of care for specified purposes. Existing law requires the council to award moneys pursuant to the program as competitive grants, as specified, to be used to support encampment resolution and rehousing efforts for local jurisdictions. Existing law requires the council to prioritize funding applicants that demonstrate a commitment to cross-systems collaboration and innovative efforts to resolve encampment issues or have 50 or more individuals living in the encampment.

This bill would require the above-described regionally coordinated homelessness action plan to additionally include evidence and an explanation by a continuum of care that shares geographic boundaries with a city, county, or city and county that is using state funding allocated pursuant to the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention program or is receiving state funding pursuant to the Encampment Resolution Funding program to provide services or housing for place-based encampment resolution, of collaboration with the city, county, or city and county that addresses how people served through encampment resolution have or will be included in prioritization for permanent housing within coordinated entry systems.