Gov. Gavin Newsom was in Oakland on Friday to announce a $14.1 million state grant for a planned 41-door supportive housing facility in the city, one of six new homeless housing projects that won funding across California.
The money comes from Homekey, a $3.75 billion program that helps local governments buy underused motels, office spaces and other properties to convert into housing or shelter and build new facilities.
The Oakland site is a modular construction project slated for 9481 Edes Ave., near the Oakland Coliseum.
At a former Quality Inn Motel near the Coliseum that previously won Homekey dollars, Newsom praised the program for helping fund more than 15,000 units at a cost to the state of around $200,000 per room. Building new affordable housing in the region can sometimes cost five times that amount.
“We’re taking existing properties, converting them, and doing it at a cost the likes of which we’ve never been able to advance in our state’s history,” Newsom said.
During Friday’s news conference, the governor also took the opportunity to tout his effort to crack down on crime in Oakland by flooding the streets with 120 California Highway Patrol officers.
He promised more law enforcement “surges,” which some community leaders have dismissed as a political stunt. But he declined to offer specifics on how many officers that would entail or what types of crimes they’d target.
“I’m coming back again next week; there will be more announcements,” Newsom said. “I will come back the week after with still more announcements. I’m not going away. This not a passing interest to me; this is a long-term commitment.”
Earlier this week, Newsom announced the arrests of dozens of people and the recovery of scores of stolen vehicles with the influx of officers to Oakland and the East Bay. He said there are currently about 72 officers assigned to the area.
The latest Homekey awards, totaling nearly $100 million, leave only about $138 million in the program.
To raise more money for homeless housing, Newsom said voters needed to approve his $6.4 billion mental health measure on the March 5 ballot. Officials estimate Proposition 1, which has broad bipartisan support from state lawmakers but has sparked concern from some disability rights activists, would create 4,350 homeless housing units, with about 2,350 set aside for homeless veterans. It could also add more than 6,800 mental health treatment beds.
“It’s a no-brainer to support Proposition 1,” Newsom said, “if you care about the issue of homelessness, housing and mental health.”
On Friday, Newsom also announced Homekey awards for projects in Fresno, Los Angeles, San Diego and Yuba City.