4 Santa Clara County Cities Submit Project Homekey Proposal For 800 Supportive Housing Units
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Santa Clara County and several of its cities and partner organizations announced Thursday that they are submitting more than a dozen proposals to the state for funding to build more than 800 housing units over the next nine months.
The county, along with the cities of San Jose, Santa Clara, Palo Alto and Mountain View, plan to submit proposals for Project Homekey, a program the state launched last year with support from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency to convert hotels and motels into interim and permanent housing units for homeless residents and people with severe mental health conditions.
When applications for the next round of Homekey funds open Friday, the local governments and a handful of partner organizations including the Santa Clara County Housing Authority will submit a total of nine proposed housing projects across the four cities.
"To address the housing crisis, we must leverage partnerships and move quickly," Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Mike Wasserman said in a statement. "No one entity can do this alone - progress is made when we work collaboratively."
In San Jose, the city and Housing Authority plan to partner with multiple organizations focused on supportive housing and combating homelessness to convert a total of 311 hotel and motel rooms into permanent housing and an additional 61 rooms into interim housing for homeless youth.
In Mountain View, the county and city plan to convert 67 hotel rooms into permanent housing units that also feature supportive services for the complex's future residents.
San Jose, Palo Alto and San Jose also plan to work with the housing and homelessness nonprofit LifeMoves and the Housing Authority to develop 339 emergency interim housing units across the three cities.
"Thanks to our partners, we continue to build on our progress to house even more people with Homekey funds and grow our needed stock of deeply affordable emergency housing for our unhoused neighbors," San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said.
Cities across Santa Clara County received four Homekey awards during the programs' first round of funding awards. Those awards supported the creation of 364 housing units for the county's homeless residents, according to county officials.
© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.