SAN FRANCISCO–Commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call to service and as part of the Presidential Inaugural Committee’s “United We Serve: A Celebration of the National MLK Day of Service,” Governor Gavin Newsom Monday joined volunteers at St. Anthony’s in San Francisco serving meals to individuals experiencing homelessness and families in need.
Newsom joined volunteers at St. Anthony’s, a non-profit in San Francisco that supports low-income and homeless individuals in the Tenderloin neighborhood. St. Anthony’s serves thousands of meals each day and offers programs to provide medical care, free clothing, computer access and addiction recovery services.
“Dr. King urged us all to step up in service of others and today we carry that call to action forward,” said Governor Newsom. “As our nation prepares to turn the page with a new presidential administration, we have faith that our country can again show the world that we lead with compassion, inclusiveness and optimism. Our best days still lie ahead of us.”
The Presidential Inaugural Committee is collaborating with service organizations across the country on this annual national day of service, calling on individuals to volunteer or host service projects in their communities on MLK Day and throughout the year.
The governor has made addressing homelessness a top priority for his administration. All told, since Newsom took office in 2019, the state has provided over $1.2 billion in direct, flexible funding to local governments to assist them in ending homelessness. He also dedicated the entirety of his 2020 State of the State address to finding solutions to homelessness. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor launched innovative, nation-leading efforts to protect people experiencing homelessness from public health risks. Building on the success of Project Roomkey, a first-in-the-nation initiative which moved over 23,000 people experiencing homelessness into hotel and motel rooms,
Newsom in June launched Homekey, the largest and fastest expansion of housing for people experiencing homelessness in California history. Through Homekey, the state has awarded $846 million to 94 different projects to secure over 6,000 units of permanent housing, on-time and under budget, for individuals and families who had been homeless.
The governor’s proposed 2021-22 State Budget includes a $1.75 billion one-time General Fund for Homekey, to purchase additional motels, develop short-term community mental health facilities and purchase or preserve housing dedicated to seniors. The budget also proposes changes to the state’s Medi-Cal system to better support behavioral health and housing services that can help prevent homelessness.