On Tuesday, Antioch Mayor Pro Tem Don Freitas requested that the city reconsider moving forward with the HomeKey+ project.
The controversial project comes at a time where the city of Antioch doesn’t have the budget, the property owner also is in loan default while the state recently awarded the project.
The city agreed to move forward with the HomeKey+ application (CSH Mahogany Housing) last May in a 4-1 vote with Mayor Ron Bernal voting against. It was stated at the time, 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—estimated at $19 million total.
Fast forward to May of this year, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the City of Antioch, in partnership with California Supportive Housing, announced the city would receive $34.9 million in HomeKey+ funds to acquire and rehabilitate a hotel into 85 homes, including one manager’s unit. The project will set aside 21 units for veterans and 21 units for transitional age youth.
According to Contra Costa Health, Antioch’s Point in Time homeless count over the past few years:
- 2026 – 251
- 2025 – 246
- 2024 – 413
- 2023 – 334
- 2020 – 238
The request came during future agenda item request.
“Mr. Mayor, I would like to request uh for the June 23rd meeting an action item be placed on the agenda for reconsideration of Antioch’s involvement in the HomeKey project. I would also like to have staff articulate some of these issues that just lots of rumors, lots of gossip about you know where we are at in this entire process. But I’m requesting reconsideration of the HomeKey project be actually the action item that the city council can council cancel the home key project in its entirety.”
Fiscal Year 2026-27 Budget Development
On May 13th, City Council directed that $230,000 be reduced from the Economic Development budget. At the May 26th meeting, approximately $1M in further budget reductions for Fiscal Year 2026-27 were identified in the Public Safety and Community Resources Housing and Homelessness division budget related to the HomeKey+ project, and homeless services that were duplicative of services provided through CDBG and PLHA funding. As a result of productive City Council and staff deliberations, a total of $12,189,979 has been reduced from the Fiscal Year 2026-27 budget.
- 2025/26 – deficit of $1.729 which includes using $5 million from budget stabilization
- 2026/27 – $0, however, they are using $4.778 million from budget stabilization
- 2027/28 – $9.96 million deficit, however, using $5 million from budget stabilization
For more on the budget, click here
