SB 197 Housing was approved by Governor and includes new specifics regarding Encampment Resolution Funding Program

SB 197 includes the following about the Encampment Resolution Funding Program:

Encampment Resolution Funding program to assist cities, counties, and continuums of care in ensuring the safety and wellness of people experiencing homelessness in encampments, to provide encampment resolution grants to resolve critical encampment concerns and transition individuals into safe and stable housing, and to encourage a data-informed, coordinated approach to address encampment concerns. Existing law authorizes a continuum of care, city, or county to submit a specified application to the council for a program grant, and 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. Existing law requires the Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council to administer the program in accordance with a specified timeline, and requires the council to award initial grants by March 1, 2022. Existing law requires grant recipients to provide specified data elements, including health information, in a manner consistent with state and federal law, to their local Homeless Management Information System for tracking in the statewide Homeless Data Integration System.

This bill would specify that the provisions described above apply to funding round 1 moneys, defined to mean moneys appropriated for the program in the 2021–22 fiscal year. The bill would require additional funding round moneys, defined as moneys appropriated for the program in or after the 2021–22 fiscal year, to be used for specified purposes, including to fund projects from prior funding rounds that the council determined satisfied applicable program requirements but were not funded in the prior round, and to fund new program grants on a rolling basis, as specified. The bill would require recipients of additional funding round moneys to obligate and expend funds by certain deadlines, as specified. The bill would also require additional information from grantees in the above-described data elements. The bill would also exempt contracts entered into to implement the program from specified contracting requirements.

Click here to read the bill.