CDSS warns HomeSafe, Bringing Families Home limited-term funds will expire; counties scaling back services

Jennifer Troia, director of the California Department of Social Services, told the Senate Budget Subcommittee No. 3 that California’s suite of department-run housing programs helped thousands but now faces an urgent funding cliff.

Troia said the programs “deliver housing related assistance, including case management, financial assistance, housing navigation, rental subsidies, housing stabilization” to people engaged with the social safety net, and that the state “was able to ramp up” these programs during the pandemic.

The programs at risk include HomeSafe and Bringing Families Home (BFH), both funded with one-time appropriations. The Legislative Analyst’s Office reported the remaining one-time funding for HomeSafe is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2026, and BFH’s remaining one-time funding is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2027. The department and advocates said some counties have already exhausted local allocations and stopped services.

Why it matters: HomeSafe and BFH are targeted, flexible interventions that county managers and advocates say reduce eviction and speed family reunification. The department told the committee HomeSafe served about 15,600 individuals from program inception through June 2024 and that in 2023–24, 62 percent of HomeSafe participants exited to permanent housing. Mendocino County officials and statewide advocates described high success rates and immediate harms if funding ends.

Panel details and evidence of program outcomes

Hannah Zamati, deputy director for CDSS’s Housing…