State sending $22.8 million from CARES Act to Stanislaus homeless service providers
Providers that run emergency shelters, conduct homeless outreach and house homeless people in Stanislaus County and its cities are in line to receive nearly $22.8 million from the CARES Act, the federal stimulus designed to respond to the new coronavirus pandemic.
The money is from the California Department of Housing and Community Development and is part of $252.7 million the department recently received from the federal stimulus and has allocated to homeless services providers throughout the state.
But the $22.8 million comes with challenges.
That includes the federal government requiring all of the money to be spent by July 2022. Local nonprofits and officials say that is a very tight schedule, which they say is made worse because of how long it can take Housing and Community Development to actually provide the funding. And the tight rental market and lack of affordable housing will make it difficult to place homeless people in housing.
California is allocating the $252.7 million to what are called continuums of care, which are made up of government, nonprofits, faith-based organizations and others that help homeless people.
The local continuum is the Stanislaus Community System of Care, and its members include Stanislaus County, the United Way, The Salvation Army, United Samaritans Foundation, Modesto and Turlock.
Housing and Community Development wants providers to ensure services are provided to all homeless people, including marginalized groups, Latinos, Blacks and other people of color, as well as members of the LGBTQ community.
Stanislaus continuum members met Wednesday over Zoom to discuss the new funding, and community members participated as well, with some speaking about the need for more services for Latinos and the LGBTQ community.
Modesto resident Miguel Donoso amplified his meeting comments in an interview. He said Latinos are undercounted and underserved by homeless services providers. He wants providers to address that as they spend the new funding.
‘Better bilingual outreach ...’
He said some of the issues include providers not having enough bilingual and bicultural employees in a county with a minority majority population. The Census Bureau estimated Latinos made up 47.6 percent of the county’s 550,600 residents as of last year.
Service providers need “better bilingual outreach and cultural competence,” Donoso said. “That’s not happening in this county. That’s hard to believe in this county.”
The Stanislaus continuum’s $22.8 million allocation is the third largest among the 40 continuums receiving funding. Only the Los Angeles and Riverside continuums, with each allocated $31.6 million, are receiving more. For context, the continuum for Stockton-San Joaquin County was allocated $3 million.
HCD officials said in an interview that the allocations were based on a formula — including poverty and COVID-19 rates and the number of unsheltered homeless people — and input from a continuum on its community’s needs and capacity.
Several Stanislaus continuum members said at Wednesday’s meeting they believe some of the reasons for the large allocation include the state’s recognition of the good work being done here on homelessness.
Operating, renovating, expanding shelters
The $252.7 million comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funding and is from HUD’s emergency solutions grant program.
ESG funding can be used for operating, renovating and expanding emergency shelters and for temporary shelters. The funding also can be spent on street outreach and for rapid rehousing. That puts homeless people in housing by helping them with security deposits, rent and utilities and other associated costs. People also receive case management and other services.
ESG funding also can be used to help tenants stay in their homes by helping them with rent and similar expenses. But the state does not want this funding spent on that until all of the people identified in the latest homeless count are placed in housing. The Stanislaus continuum’s last count was in January and tallied 2,107 homeless people.
Stanislaus continuum members voted to divide the $22.8 million in to these categories:
▪ Emergency shelters: 60 percent or $13.66 million
▪ Rapid rehousing: 16.8 percent or $3.825 million.
▪ Homeless management information system: 10 percent or $2.28 million (HMIS is a HUD mandate and is used to collect data on clients being served by providers.)
▪ Administration: 3.2 percent or $734,400
The Stanislaus Community System of Care will use a competitive process to award the $22.8 million to service providers.
This is the second and final round of CARES Act ESG funding that Housing and Community Development is distributing to continuums. The first round was $41.8 million, and the Stanislaus continuum was awarded $857,100.
HCD officials said in an interview they could not give a timeline for when the latest funding will be available, but said they are working diligently on getting the funding out.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
