California cities and counties still don’t know how much they’ll have to pay for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic program to house homeless people in hotel rooms.
When California took the unprecedented step in spring 2020 to move thousands of homeless residents into hotels to protect them from the ravages of COVID-19, it did so believing the federal government would foot a large chunk of the bill.
California cities and counties still don’t know how much they’ll have to pay for Newsom’s pandemic program to house homeless people in hotel rooms after FEMA said it was limiting the number of days eligible for reimbursement.
California cities and counties still don't know how much they'll have to pay for Gov. Gavin Newsom's pandemic program to house homeless people in hotel rooms after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said in October that it was limiting the number of days eligible for reimbursement. State and local officials say they were stunned to learn via an October letter that FEMA would only pay to house homeless people at risk of catching COVID-19 for at most 20 days — as opposed to unlimited — starting June 11, 2021, which is when Gov. Gavin Newsom rescinded the sweeping stay-at-home order he issued in March 2020.