100-Day Challenges on Project Roomkey Launched

Back in December of last year, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a 100-Day Challenge Initiative to address homelessness across California - due to the impact 100-Day Challenges have made to accelerate efforts to prevent and end youth homelessness, and in tackling Veteran and chronic homelessness across the country. 

Just last month - in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4 communities came together (virtually) to launch the first set of 100-Day Challenges of this initiative. The focus of these Challenges is to ensure that those who are housed as a result of Project Roomkey exit the program into safe and stable housing. 

The communities to participate in this first cohort include:

• Alameda County
• Riverside County
• Los Angeles County
• Stanislaus County

Launched in April, Project Roomkey is a first-in-nation initiative to provide safe temporary housing in hotels and motel rooms for the most vulnerable amongst us experiencing homelessness during this pandemic.

“Through this effort, the state will provide dedicated support teams to counties, including assistance in identifying hotels, negotiating and executing operating agreements, and providing the local providers technical assistance in keeping the records necessary to receive federal reimbursement.”

Read more: At Newly Converted Motel, Governor Newsom Launches Project Roomkey: A First-in-the-Nation Initiative to Secure Hotel & Motel Rooms to Protect Homeless Individuals from COVID-19

Over the course of a week and several virtual workshops, the Teams came up with and committed to ambitious goals - all related to housing folks exiting Project Roomkey:

• Alameda - In 100 days, 400 people across Alameda County will exit Project Roomkey into safe and stable housing.
• Los Angeles - In 100 days, we will utilize shared housing to house 100 people age 55 or older and have an acuity score of 0-7 (without precluding people with higher scores).  We will leverage the learning to house an additional 300 PRK clients by the end of PRK demobilization.
• Riverside - In 100 Days, 140 seniors, 65 years and older, who are currently participating in PRK, will be in safe and stable permanent housing. 
• Stanislaus - In 100 days, 100 Individuals experiencing homelessness that are 65 and older and/or individuals experiencing homelessness with underlying medical conditions will successfully exit Project Roomkey into safe and stable housing which can include Permanent Supportive Housing and landlord engaged units with a focus on veterans, individuals dealing with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorder, and individuals with disabilities.

We want to give a huge thank you to the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council for being our partners in the work. 

These communities are already innovating, collaborating, and executing their way towards reaching their ambitious goals. Day 50 of these communities’ 100-Day Challenge is on July 14th, so stay tuned for more updates on their progress around then!

We will also be launching further cohorts as part of this initiative - with different focuses, in the future. More on that later!