The City Council voted to apply for the Governor’s 100-Day Challenge, a new program to offer California cities and counties the opportunity to receive funds from the State while incentivizing new initiatives to address homelessness, during the February 10, 2020 Council meeting.
“Homelessness is America’s worst humanitarian crisis, and it impacts every city, county and state,” said Mayor Karen Farrer. “That means that every community, including Malibu, must contribute to the solutions, and the 100-Day Challenge will offer us incentives and assistance so that we can develop some real measures.”
The City will apply for the 100-Day Challenge with a Safe Parking Program location in Malibu, where people would be able to sleep safely overnight in vehicles while being required to be enrolled in services. The site would include security and sanitation services. The City Council voted to explore Safe Parking Program locations during a special meeting on homelessness on January 29, 2020.
The funding for the 100-Day Challenge comes from Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP), a $650 million one-time block grant that Governor Newsom signed into law in July 2019 that provides local jurisdictions with funds to support regional coordination to expand or develop local capacity to address their immediate homelessness challenges.
Communities have used the 100-Day Challenge to empower and support their pursuit of ambitious 100-day goals. For example, in 2017, three communities in the State of Washington launched a 100-Day Challenge focused on youth and young adults experiencing homelessness. At the end of 100 days, 615 youth and young adults had transitioned out of homelessness.
The State’s Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council (HCFC) will help cities to establish collaborative relationships, identify a target population, and implement the 100-Day Challenge in their communities. In the 100-Day Challenge, the local government sets its own goal, such as getting 100 veterans off the streets or building 100 housing units, and if that goal is met, becomes eligible to receive additional money from the HHAP funds.
To learn more about all of the City of Malibu’s efforts to address homelessness, including the Homeless Strategic Plan, monthly reports from the People Concern Outreach Team, results from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority’s Homeless Counts, and a link to sign up for e-notification by text and email to stay up to date on meetings and events related to homelessness https://www.malibucity.org/homelessness.
Submitted by Matt Myerhoff
