Newsom: FEMA to support Project Roomkey, house homeless in hotels for duration of pandemic

The federal government will continue supporting California's Project Roomkey — a statewide program that provides temporary housing to thousands of homeless people at high risk of contracting COVID-19 — for the duration of the pandemic, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday night.

Under the agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state will no longer need to submit requests every 30 days to reauthorize reimbursement for hotel accommodations, the governor's office said in a news release.  

"This is profoundly good news, and will continue to help support and aid and advance our efforts to address the homeless crisis here in the state of California," Newsom said in a video shared on Twitter.

The new reimbursement policy also applies to temporary isolation housing for health care workers, agricultural workers and people who need to quarantine or isolate upon release from prison.

Project Roomkey launched in April to temporarily house people in hotel rooms across the state, and prevent them from contracting COVID-19 while living in encampments, in shelters or on the streets. The program targeted seniors, pregnant women and others at risk for developing severe COVID-19 symptoms.

The program cost $57 to $300 per night per hotel room, depending on the level of service provided to individuals, according to data collected and previously reported by The Desert Sun. The state released $150 million in limited emergency funding and negotiated a reimbursement agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In partnership with 55 counties and three tribes, the program has so far helped 23,000 people get off the streets, out of shelters and off sidewalks, Newsom said.

The problem, he said, was the program was reimbursed on a month-to-month basis.

FEMA covers 75% of the program's costs. The state has also provided significant resources to offset local governments' portion of the cost, Newsom wrote in a letter to Project Roomkey partners. The state made $512 million in emergency funding available to support local governments, allowing them to expand and sustain the program, while beginning to transition people to permanent housing, he wrote.

The state had previously said initial funding needed to be spent by the end of the year, potentially leaving nearly 12,000 people still housed in Roomkey hotel rooms at risk of returning to homelessness, according to an analysis by The Desert Sun. In November, two weeks after The Desert Sun reported these figures, Newsom announced an additional $62 million in emergency funding for the program.

Newsom in the video did not detail the amount of funding the federal agency will be providing. A FEMA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"This action serves as acknowledgement of the importance of efforts like Project Roomkey in protecting the most vulnerable Californians and validates all your efforts to implement this first-in-the-nation program," Newsom wrote in the letter to Project Roomkey partners.

Overall, only 5% of Roomkey clients have found a permanent home, according to The Desert Sun's analysis, which was compiled by requesting client and placement data as of mid-October from all 58 California counties, The Desert Sun reported Nov. 17. Of the 45 counties that responded, 36 said they participated in the program. Thirteen counties did not respond.

Those 36 counties told The Desert Sun they had served 28,716 Roomkey clients since April, as of Nov. 17. This was more than was shown in publicly available state data, which only counted 22,300 individuals helped in those counties.

Of the total clients, 16% returned to homelessness, 40% were still in a hotel room but feared facing an eviction come the new year, and 39% left the program but caseworkers did’t know where they went, according to The Desert Sun’s analysis.

Nearly 100% of counties that responded to The Desert Sun’s survey reported they needed additional funding from the state or federal government in order to meet the needs of their local homeless population.

“The need for additional local support has been made clear,” the state said in November.

Previous reporting from Desert Sun reporter Nicole Hayden is included in this report.

Rebecca Plevin is a reporter for The Desert Sun. Reach her at rebecca.plevin@desertusn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @rebeccaplevin.