SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — California Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a new website, accountability.ca.gov, to track local progress on housing and homelessness.
Newsom is releasing $920 million in Housing, Homelessness, Assistance, and Prevention (HHAP) funding but the money is going to be tied to housing performance benchmarks, according to a press release from the Governor’s office.
The state will be able to withhold funding from local communities that do not make enough progress toward addressing the housing and homelessness crisis, and the website lets Californians follow their community’s progress.
“Communities that receive awards through the newest round of HHAP funding must adhere to increased accountability, transparency, and compliance measures,” the Governor’s press release says. “These include an increased focus on resolving encampments, requirements that recipients have a compliant housing element to obtain future funding, and requirements that grantees obligate and expend past awards before receiving new funds.”
In the 2025-2026 budget Newsom will also ask for conditions on any state funding, again requiring a compliant housing element for local governments receiving grants.
Communities with a “pro-housing” designation will be prioritized, and there will be what the Governor calls “mechanisms to claw back funding from local governments that fail to demonstrate progress.”
San Diego County’s numbers on the State of California Accountability website show:
- 33,309 housing units were completed between 2019-2023
- 57,544 housing units were permitted in the same timeframe
37.5% of the way through the housing element (2021-2029) the County has completed:
- 5.5% of its Very low-income housing allocation
- 13.4% of its Low-income allocation
- 10.2% of its moderate-income allocation
- 34.1% of is Above moderate income (or market rate) allocation
In 2024, the number of homeless individuals in San Diego County increased, while the total year-round beds available decreased. There were:
- 10,605 people experiencing homelessness (+3.3%)
- 6,110 people living unsheltered (+18.2%)
- 17,398 year-round beds available (-4%)
San Diego County’s housing element is compliant, as are all the housing elements of the cities in the County; The City of San Diego and San Diego County have pro-housing designations from the state; Since 2019, over $220 million in HHAP funding has been awarded in the San Diego Area.
