Housing is health care

This is where California’s Project Roomkey and Project Homekey come in. Project Roomkey was created as a temporary housing initiative to provide shelter to thousands of Californians experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the travel industry suffering, many hotels and motels were willing to accept California’s Project Roomkey assistance. Project Homekey evolved out of Project Roomkey as a rare opportunity to rapidly create affordable, supportive and transitional housing for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

At the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, we often highlight that creating affordable homes requires more than just good feelings. It requires land, money and political will. San Mateo County easily remains one of the most expensive areas in the entire country. Land is extremely expensive, scarce and often restricted with different zoning rules. And while the political will for affordable housing has improved, it is still an uphill battle, especially with the stigma and misconceptions around supportive and transitional housing.

It is not hard to see why putting together the trifecta of land, money and political will is so difficult when creating shelter and why the effectiveness of Project Homekey is so grand. Project Homekey provides most of the funding, the hotels provide the land with existing infrastructure, and local agencies, like the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, provide the political will and services.

On Nov. 5, with the final certificate of acceptance Dec. 1, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors approved two Project Homekey proposals in Redwood City, totaling 170 homes for those experiencing or at-risk of homelessness. It required securing two sites, negotiating sales, applying for California’s competitive Homekey funding and other substeps that normally take years. Permanent, supportive and transitional housing is highly needed in our county, so it can’t be overstated how significant of an opportunity this is. Our county leaders, both the board and staff, deserve high praise for their acts of courage and compassion, at an unprecedented pace. But what does this mean for the people who will be receiving shelter at these future locations? I received part of that answer at the grand opening of Colma’s Veteran’s Village last year.

The grand opening was an affair of celebration. Veterans, policy makers, builders and future residents all stood around to celebrate the opening of new supportive homes. As the grand opening wound down, a new resident decided to speak. They were not on the agenda. What preceded was an unscripted story of ups and downs, of deep human struggle, of past imperfection and ultimately a return. The overall theme and emotion were hard to forget. The ending, forever etched into my memory, concluded with the resident announcing a restoration of dignity, perceived lost ... and feeling seen as a human being again. Can you imagine?

Homelessness is honestly hard for the human mind to fully comprehend unless experienced in some form. To lose something as basic and necessary as shelter. To have mistakes both in and out of one’s control be the reason, the very basis for one’s classification as human. Your humanity has never really left you, but your shelter has and the perception and stigma make it so. Then to have a home to be one’s self and to be recognized as human once more. That’s it.

There will soon be 170 other stories just like it thanks to San Mateo County’s Board of Supervisors.

Beyond the extraordinary speed and the opportunity of it all, it is the human impact of these policy decisions that matter most and lead to creating homes for our most vulnerable populations. The manifestation of housing as health care.

Make no mistake, thousands, if not millions of people are still at-risk of homelessness, either through looming eviction, programs ending or facing COVID-related economic debt. It is why we must continue from this example to address our housing and affordability crisis. We need more funding like Project Homekey, more unique opportunities to use land, and leadership exemplified by the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and county staff.

Alex Melendrez works as a digital organizer with the affordable housing nonprofit Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County.