Two nonprofits centered around providing legal aid to low-income Californians and a third working to end homelessness for women and children were awarded $500,000 in grants from the state, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Dec. 21.
The recipients are California Rural Legal Assistance—which provides free legal services to low-income Californians in rural areas; Bay Area Legal Aid—which also provides civil legal services for low-income residents, this time in the Bay Area; and Moms 4 Housing—an Oakland-based organization focused on ending homelessness for women and children.
“The award of these funds will assist these nonprofit organizations in their ongoing efforts to assist California tenants and those battling homelessness in our communities. It will take all of us working together to alleviate our housing crisis and I am pleased these nonprofit organizations will continue to be part of the solution,” Mr. Bonta said in the recent announcement.
The funds were made available from a portion of a $3.5 million settlement in a Los Angeles lawsuit where a real estate investment company had illegally forced some tenants out of properties in order to flip them for a profit.
“At the California Department of Justice, we will continue to hold accountable bad actors, and use every tool at our disposal to protect tenants and ensure that everyone has a safe place to call home,” Mr. Bonta said in the press release.
The two legal services nonprofits will each receive $225,000, and the one helping mothers and children regarding homelessness will receive $50,000, according to the announcement.
Executive Director for California Rural Legal Assistance, Jessica Jewell said in the press release the funds would be used to support the nonprofit’s “core housing services” in addition to expanding remote services to assist tenants, and advocacy efforts to create more mobile home parks to house low-income earners.
Genevieve Richardson, said the funds will help expand services across seven Bay Area counties for those experiencing homelessness.
“BayLegal will use these funds to further our work to address legal barriers to basic safety net benefits, healthcare, and housing to decrease homelessness and increase self-sufficiency and stability for low-income Bay Area residents,” she said.
Among counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alameda County had the most homeless in 2022—9,747—according to point-in-time counts, which record once every two years the number of individuals experiencing homelessness on a single night. San Francisco had 4,397 in the most recent count in 2022. Santa Clara had 9,903 homeless recorded in 2023. Napa County had the least homeless, with 506 counted in 2023.
