Sacramento, CA – Senator Mike McGuire has been active and engaged working to secure resources, funding and support for programs and initiatives that address homelessness in our communities. Following a series of meetings, round-table discussions and workshops held throughout the North Bay and North Coast this year on the issues surrounding homelessness and mental health, Senator McGuire will host the first ever Northern California Homeless Services Town Hall, inviting anyone who is interested in tackling homelessness to attend.

“Homelessness, especially the lack of resources for housing and services, is at a crisis point across California – and our North Coast communities have been struggling to meet the need with limited resources and support,” Senator McGuire said. “While there is still an incredible amount of work to be done, we have made great strides this year by securing $2 billion statewide that will be invested in permanent homeless housing, tens of millions of dollars will flow into Northern California alone.”

This spring, Senator McGuire held a Homeless Services Summit bringing civic and non-profit leaders together to discuss strategies to address the lack of funding available for homeless services and programs. From that summit, valuable feedback helped shape state policy this year and since then, a lot has been accomplished. The Governor signed the State Senate’s $2 billion Homeless Services initiative (the No Place Like Home bill) which Senator McGuire helped lead. The initiative will build a minimum of 14,000 units across our state. 

In addition, Senator McGuire fought hard to ensure the state budgeted additional dollars for the Emergency Solutions Grant program so that when the funding method changed to improve geographic distribution (benefiting many of our rural North Coast counties), that competitive grants were still fully funded as well. The 2016-17 budget has $35 million made available to support rapid rehousing, emergency shelter, and other services to address homelessness throughout the state through the ESG program.

Because there were so many changes on tap with the ESG program, Senator McGuire brought the state agency that administers the program – California Housing and Community Development (HCD) – to Ukiah for a special workshop geared towards accessing these funds this summer.

And now that the $2 billion No Place Like Home initiative funding will begin to roll out in 2017, Senator McGuire made it a priority to get all stakeholders together in the same room (or watching online) for an informative and accessible Town Hall. At the Town Hall, representatives from the state, federal agencies and advocates and non-profits who have found successful projects and funding sources will present their ideas, findings and opportunities to address homelessness.

Here are the details:

Date: Thursday, October 27

Time: 6 – 8 pm

Location: Ukiah Valley Conference Center, 200 South School St., Ukiah, CA 95482

Save Room: Snacks and refreshments will be available

Watch live online: The hearing will be streamed live online.

This event is free and open to the public.

Additional meeting details and speakers will be announced in the next week.

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