On Thursday, the Antioch City Council agreed in a 4-1 vote to adopt a resolution to move forward with the approval of a Homekey+ Program.
Citing the city budget deficit and the need to still cut $13 million from the budget, combined with the $19 million commitment HomeKey+ would require over 15 years, Mayor Ron Bernal voted against the application. However, with the rest of the council in support, the application will be submitted. If the city is awarded the project, it would execute a commitment from the city to match up to $750k and operating subsidy up to $1.2 million annually for 5-years with two 5-year extensions contingent on the property meeting the required HomeKey+ guidelines.
According to the staff report, the city is proposing a co-application with a develop that seeks funding to acquire the Comfort inn (2436 Mahogany Way) in the City of Antioch and undertake the necessary for the motel rooms to serve as permanent housing for homeless families/individuals with prior behavioral health issues.
The CSH Mahagony Housing Project will be a rehabilitation project which will turn the current hotel into 60-85 affordable units and one two-bedroom manager unit. Each apartment will have a kitchenette, living room, bathroom, and bedroom. Non-residential conversion of the interior will include a community lounge, property management offices, resident supportive services and case management offices. One existing laundry room and the electrical room will maintain those functions, while rooms will be converted to resident services/case management and property management offices. It is also planned to keep the existing security fences, gates, and trash enclosure. Additional fencing will be added to property.
After public comment, which were in support of the application, the council discussed the item.
Mayor Ron Bernal confirmed the commitment of a five-year term with two five-year additional options. It was stated that for the application, the city simply had to show it would be viable for 15 years at positive cash flow. There would also be performance measurables with committed wrap around services. In year six, it returns to show what had happened.
“So, the city is really committing to up $18 million then, $1.2 million for 15-years, that is correct,” asked Bernal who also asked about the number of rooms.
The $18 million number was confirmed, and the rooms were 60-85 rooms with other rooms become officers/meeting spaces—there would also be common rooms. There would be 20-30 rooms remaining to see if it could be run as a normal hotel or be used for other temporary needs. Or, apply for other federal resources.
Bernal also asked if this program would be for “Antioch only” residents.
He was told, “no” and that they would work with the county to prioritize Antioch. They would also work with CORE to get people into housing—similar to Delta Landing. HomeKey+ comes as “housing first” on a regional level and cannot say don’t give it to others outside of Antioch but it was assumed it would be predominantly Antioch residents. With a regional solution, other cities could also contribute.
“So who makes the final decision on who is in these units or not?” asked Bernal.
It was stated, CORE at the county level in conjunction with the service provider on a first come, first serve basis—similar model for Delta Landing.
“Ya, I think that is a little bit of a problem,” said Bernal.
Councilmember Don Frietas said many people have reached out to him telling him to “just say no” and Antioch has a fiscal crisis and this was $2 million Antioch can’t afford.
Freitas shared all candidates who went door to door found the top 3 issues to be police services, face and do something on homelessness.
“I will tell you, this is probably the worst timing to come forward to the city at this particular time,” said Freitas. “But understand, the voters of California approved the proposition in November 2024 to address the homelessness issue. So this is a $30 million application. If we turn our back on this, we would not be a part of this funding so yes, $30 million. Our first year commitment is $2 million. Frankly, it is very difficult to face the community, the residents, the voters and say, yea, your number two issue was homelessness, and here was a $30 million opportunity for us and we said no. It doesn’t make sense to me as difficult as it will be to find financing for us to say no.”
Freitas said some people will be shocked that he was not being fiscally responsible, but called $2 million to get $30 million was a no brainer.
“Our obligation is to the community, and we need to start doing things that are constructive and not destructive. I see this as an opportunity. Your request is to submit an application and even if it is approved, the city still has the opportunity to say no,” explained Freitas noting they still have to go through the budget issues they are facing—noting their $54 million deficit and have already deleted $22 million, but they still have $32 million in deficit for next two fiscal years. “I realize we are compounding that problem by moving forward, but frankly, if we don’t do something the problem is going to get greater and greater and the demand is going to get louder and louder. So this provides us for 55-years a permanent solution to try and help people who are homeless and have behavior problems.”
He called it a difficult decision and compounds their problem, but hoped this would be a benefit to the community and will be supporting it as an application.
Councilmember Tamisha Torres-Walker thanked Andrew Becker for being “relentless” and admitted this was a budgetary risk. She highlighted how this had been a long time coming for the City of Antioch—noting she had brought it forward for rounds one through three even with ARRPA funding, beginning in 2021.
“We actually do spend a lot of money on moving people from corner to corner. We use Antioch Police Services. We use public works services. The city of Antioch has funded its own CORE team just in Antioch because the need was so high,” said Torres-Walker. She added the majority of people at Delta Landing are from Antioch and the majority at the Executive Inn are from Antioch. “The City of Antioch then entered into a contract, for a contractor to go out to the encampments with APD, with public works, with the CORE team all showing up on the scene at the same time. You actually spend more money that way trying to address the issue, rather than in the future spending less on a permanent solution. Its clear I am going to support this.”
She called it a regional issue and they still needed to work with the county, state and other partners.
Mayor Pro Tem Louie Rocha said he believed Antioch has always taken care of one another to hep each other out.
“For me, this is a new chapter,” said Rocha. “We need a long term investment because this problem is not going away and going to become a larger problem. Look at what is going on in San Francsico, Oakland, San Jose, we are the last stop on BART. We are going to be faced with having to address not only our unhoused, but potentially our neighbors to come as we move forward.”
Rocha wanted to move forward while looking at long-term investments and suggested they work to investigate all resources and try to pull them all together for the betterment of the community. He was in support of the project for a long-term solution.
He called the $1.2 million per year a worthwhile investment.
Councilmember Monica Wilson stated sweeps were not working and they would save money by moving forward. She said Contra Costa County played a big part in this and they had footed the bill because “Superman wasn’t coming” and they needed to do something.
“I would like our city manager to connect with Supervisor Diane Burgis and Shanelle Scales-Preston because those are the two who represent our city and make sure they are involved in this process as well,” said Wilson.
She continued, “I think this is a good investment for us. We do hear a lot from our community around unhoused and what we are doing. What we are doing is trying to help and uplift and empower them, not criminalize them. I think this is a good investment.”
Bernal opted not to support the HomeKey+ application but heard a lot of people claim this would stop the “sweeps” around the city, which would not be the case, the will still be the need for folks to be moved from places not deemed acceptable to camp.
“As Councilmember Freitas stated, this could not be happening at a worse time. We had a $12 million deficit that we were talking about a couple nights ago and now it would become a $13 million deficit without any real good alternatives to trim that down. So this is adding a lot of cost,” explained Bernal. “The difference between this and other things is this adds cost for another 15 years. It is not a one or two year commitment we are making so its really an $18 million dollar commitment plus the $750k so it’s a $19 million commitment to this project. So, its not going to be popular but because of our budget deficit and we are not in a position to afford this right now, I am not going to be able to support this application.”
The council then voted in a 4-1 vote, with Bernal dissenting, to approve the submission of a HomeKey+ program application.
California Supportive Housing (CSH) is the Project Developer. CSH is a mission-oriented 501 (c)(3) nonprofit California corporation dedicated to bringing affordable housing to people in need, including homeless, seniors, youth, people with disabilities, and families. The CSH team has over 35 years of experience in affordable housing development and is currently working on a HomeKey project in Oakland which is the conversion and renovation of a motel into 104 permanent supportive housing units for the homeless.
Related to Homekey:
- Feb 1, 2025 – Antioch Crisis Response and Homeless Hotel Could End This Year
- Jun 17, 2024 – Pittsburg to Enter Into Agreement With County for Homeless Services (HomeKey)
- Dec 22, 2023 – Homekey Program Brings Innovative Permanent Supportive Housing to Contra Costa County
- Aug 21, 2023 – Antioch Set to Award $2.3 Million Homeless Encampment Cleanup Contract
- June 14, 2023 – Richmond and Antioch See Largest Gain in Homeless Population in Contra Costa County
- Aug 21, 2022 – Antioch City Council Approves Homeless Hotel Lease and Providing Services: The 2-year lease is estimated at $1,168,000 per year for a total not to exceed value of $2,336,000, to be paid from the allocation of $2.6M in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA funds) specified for this purpose by the City Council on April 12, 2022.
- May 16, 2022 – Antioch Agrees to Pursue $12.3 Million Homeless Motel Program
- Dec 6, 2021 – Interim Housing Center for Homeless Contra Costa Residents Opens in Pittsburg
