Los Angeles received $209 million in funding through Project Homekey, a program that converts buildings into housing in an effort to address the state’s homelessness crisis, Gov. Gavin Newsom and city officials announced Aug. 24.
The city will convert seven sites into permanent housing and contribute an additional $157 million in matching funds. In total, the city will create 15 new housing sites and 1,235 units through the second round of funding for the program.
It’s part of $694 million in funds for the program the state announced on Wednesday, providing 2,500 more units across 35 projects to 19 counties. At a Project Homekey site on Pico Boulevard in Mid-City on Wednesday afternoon, Newsom announced that the state has funded a total of 12,500 units through the program in its two years at a cost of $244,000 per unit.
“We’re just winding up,” Newsom said. “These dollars are now moving. These projects are opening up. No more talk. No more task forces. No more fights for appropriations. We got the money. We have the strategies.”
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis for Project Homekey until funds are exhausted. The state expanded the program with a $2.75 billion allocation last year, with a goal of creating 14,000 long-term housing units. The state began the program with $846 million in funding.
Los Angeles County received an additional $243 million in funds. That will help convert 14 hotels and multi-family apartments into interim or permanent housing, adding 720 units in Boyle Heights, Compton, East Hollywood, Inglewood, Koreatown, Redondo Beach, Lancaster, San Pedro, Westlake, Woodland Hills, and unincorporated areas of the county.
