With new bill, California lawmakers hope to expand interim housing options

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — At one point, Alaniah Wiley was homeless and living off a bicycle trail in Sacramento.

Now employed and housed, Wiley credited her success to interim housing during a news conference at the California State Capitol on Thursday.

“I was in one of those,” Wiley told Courthouse News, gesturing to a model interim home that sat near the west steps of the Capitol. “Now, I’m out of there, and everything is going great."

Facing a crisis in unhoused people, California lawmakers in 2017 passed a law, the Shelter Crisis Act, aimed at giving local governments more tools to create emergency shelters.

In 2020, they expanded it further — allowing tiny homes like the one Wiley lived in to proliferate. In San Jose, there are now hundreds of such interim houses.

The homes are small. One example was 72 square feet — enough for a bed, a desk with a chair and not much else. Even still, such homes are inexpensive compared to permanent housing, with the 72-square-foot room coming in at just $10,000. They can also rest on wheels, making them easy to relocate.

At the press conference Thursday, State Senator Josh Becker, a Democrat from Menlo Park in the Bay Area, praised these housing options.

Still, he said the state could go further to help struggling people get off the streets. He and other officials are pushing the passage of a new bill, Senate Bill 1395, that Becker calls a rung in the ladder between homelessness and permanent housing.

“It cuts red tape, streamlines construction and gets people indoors faster,” Becker said.

Specifically, the bill would extend the sunset date for the Shelter Crisis Act until Jan. 1, 2036. It’s currently set to expire in January 2026.

The act allows local jurisdictions to declare a shelter crisis, which gives them power to offer emergency housing. It also provides an exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act for new shelters built. Becker's bill would further expand those exemptions.

State Senator Catherine Blakespear, an Encinitas Democrat and coauthor of the bill, noted at the news conference that more people enter homelessness each month than escape it. More solutions are needed, she said — but local governments must have the will to use the tools given to them.

“I urge all local governments to consider this option immediately as soon as this passes,” she said.

Elizabeth Funk, CEO of DignityMoves — a group that works toward supporting people experiencing homelessness and changing government policy — said traditional homeless shelters don’t work. They’re not conducive to getting people the help they need and into permanent housing.

Supporters like Funk point to three main benefits of interim housing.

They get homeless people into housing, which makes streets cleaner. It's fiscally responsible. Last but not least, it's just the right thing to do.

Interim housing doesn't end homelessness, Funk added — but it’s part of the process.

Also attending the news conference, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan agreed. Building permanent housing is costly, he noted, and takes at least five years. During that time, homeless people are condemned to live and sometimes die on the street.

For years, only one strategy has existed for combating homelessness, Mahan said: more affordable housing. Interim housing doesn’t displace that strategy but instead augments it.

“We need more tools in the toolbox,” he said.

Mahan’s city already is already using interim housing. It got them at $65,000 a unit and had them ready in under a year. They’ve helped get some 1,500 people get off the streets — and three years later, he said, 70% of those who'd used them remained housed.

Mahan touted the stability and access to services that such options can provide.

“They can’t wait for a brand-new apartment six years from now," Mahan said, "and they shouldn’t have to."

Assembly member Gregg Hart, a Santa Barbara Democrat, said his community has embraced the concept. The pandemic left officials searching for a quick solution, and he praised DignityMoves for bringing its skills and working with county staff to build an interim home site in a historic district.

Neighbors were concerned at first, he said — but six months later, former critics have become supporters.

Senate Bill 1395 is pending a vote in the Assembly. If it passes, it’ll return to the state Senate for a final vote before reaching the governor’s desk.

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