Santa Clara, California, became the 100th community to join the Biden administration’s House America initiative to tackle homelessness by leveraging the recent American Rescue Plan and other federal resources, announced the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
“Like many of the communities that have joined House America, Santa Clara County is committed to taking a Housing First approach to solving homelessness through affordable housing solutions and supportive services,” said HUD secretary Marcia L. Fudge. “We cannot continue to sweep and move encampments from one area to another or from one city to another and think we are solving the problem. Solving homelessness means recognizing and confronting the injustices that have led people—especially Black, brown, indigenous, and other people of color—to their tragic circumstances. Solving homelessness requires focus and the investment of time and resources.”
The elected officials across state and local governments who have joined House America understand it will take a robust, all-hands-on-deck effort to solve this crisis, according to Fudge.
Launched in September 2021 by Fudge, in partnership with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the initiative aims to rehouse at least 100,000 households experiencing homelessness through a Housing First approach, and to add at least 20,000 new affordable housing units into the development pipeline by the end of this year.
So far, the House America communities have shared with HUD their goals to collectively rehouse more than 57,000 households from homelessness and add more than 44,000 units of deeply affordable housing to development pipelines.
