Humboldt County homeless advocates pushes for more public input on state funding uses

EUREKA, Calif. — As the homeless crisis in Humboldt County continues, some local homeless advocates are questioning how best to use state funding to tackle the issue.

Humboldt County Housing and Assistance Coordinator Robert Ward said since 2020, the county has received over $9 million in state funding and applied for another $4 million as part of the Homeless Housing, Assistance, and Prevention Program, or HHAP. He also points out that the scale of homelessness in Humboldt is unusual for rural areas. A 2022 point-in-time county reported just over 1,300 unhoused people in the county.

"We want to see more people exiting the homelessness response system to permanent housing, we want to see more people getting off the street and into shelter," Ward said. "We've had some funding support, street outreach, some for shelter, some for so-called Rapid Rehousing programs that provide temporary rental assistance and services.

At the same time, local homeless advocate Nezzie Wade worries about a lack of input into how state funding is allocated. "A lot of it is already sequestered by the county to determine where that money is going to go. Before there's ever any kind of opening up of others to get an opportunity to apply for a grant or whatever."

Wade oversees the Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives, or AHHA, and says the county needs to be more transparent and have more public participation. When asked about it, Robert Ward points to the Humboldt Housing and Homeless Coalition's public meetings and the listening session as part of each agenda.

In terms of how the funding is used, Ward said a portion of the round 3 HHAP grant is being designated for the Humboldt Navigation Center. That center is expected to provide shelter and essential services, but won't be fully open for an estimated two years. In the meantime, the county is calling on the state to take action on Humboldt's homeless situation.

"Rural Counties, like, like Humboldt don't have a lot of, of extra cash to, to deal with problems like this," Ward said. "We really need the state to step up and allocate adequate resources for the scale of the problem."

You can find more info on the Humboldt Housing and Homeless Coalition and available resources here.