Opening Doors Marin Hosts Community Forums on Project Home Key 2.0

In July of 2020, the State of California launched a $750 million program called “Project Homekey”, with the aim of helping local communities rapidly acquire hotels, motels, commercial buildings, and other creative housing types in order to rapidly house people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. By December 29, 2020, the program had resulted in the acquisition of 94 projects, representing 6,029 units of permanent housing for individuals experiencing homelessness. In Marin County specifically, we received approximately $8.6 million to aid the purchase of 63 new units of permanent supportive housing in San Rafael and Corte Madera (more info about our local effort).

Given the success of “Homekey 1.0”, in January of 2021, Governor Newsom’s proposed FY21-22 budget included another $750 million allocation for “Project Homekey 2.0”. While this funding has yet to be approved by the Legislature, if the speed of Homekey 1.0 is any indication, approval and a new call for applications could come as early as May, and we would likely be facing the same expedited timeline of closing on properties by the end of the calendar year.

To that end, the weeks of April 12th and April 19th, Opening Doors Marin, in partnership with the County of Marin, is hosting a series of ten community information sessions about a possible “Homekey 2.0”. The goal of these sessions is to provide an overview of Homekey 1.0, describe what Homekey 2.0 might look like, and solicit community feedback about both the process and possible projects. We hope you can join and provide your feedback!