Second Cohort in Governor Gavin Newsom’s 100-Day Challenge Initiative on Homelessness Launches

This month, the second cohort in the Governor’s Initiative officially launched their 100-Day Challenge. Unlike the first cohort, which focused on Project Roomkey, each community in Cohort 2 had a focus area relating to their unique needs - with an added lens on equity. The communities to participate in this cohort are:

• San Francisco
• Santa Barbara
• Sonoma County

From October 6-8, front-line staff from the three communities came together for the Launch Workshop, forming their community teams. Over the course of the virtual workshop they got to know each other as a team, zeroed in on their focus areas, and left the Launch having set and committed to the following ambitious and robust goals:

• San Francisco - In 100 days, we will connect 175 COVID-19 vulnerable single adult guests experiencing homelessness to safe and stable housing (leveraging Rapid Re-Housing & shallow subsidy resources) with prioritization of people who are Chronically Homeless and/or have disabling conditions. 70% will identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
   
• Santa Barbara - In 100 days, we will connect 75 veterans experiencing homelessness to safe and stable housing, with 100% offered support services. We will exercise sensitivity to the needs of veterans with families and female veterans.
   
• Sonoma - In 100 days, we will connect 65 Transition Age Youth (TAY) to housing with a special focus on (28%) LGBTQ+ and (65%) on youth who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color. In addition to housing TAY youth, the Sonoma County 100DC will reshape and reimagine our homeless response system in order to ensure housing accessibility to the maximum number of youth possible.

The teams from San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Sonoma are now on their 100-day journey and are in the midst of rapidly innovating, forging bonds across their system, and experimenting with new ways of working to achieve these goals in just 100 days.

We want to give a huge shout-out to the California Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, without whom this work would not be possible. We also want to thank C4 Innovations, who gave an excellent presentation on racial equity at the Launch - and will be helping the teams center equity throughout the Challenge and their work. 

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