California’s Homekey Program

The State of California developed and established the Homekey program during the Covid-19 pandemic to rapidly purchase and rehabilitate vacant lodging and apartment buildings to create homes for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness and increased exposure to and/or exposing others to the virus. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) administers the Homekey program while Enterprise Community Partners (Enterprise), along with a bench of talented consultants, provided select technical assistance to HCD and Homekey applicants from 2020-2024. 

This report is intended to describe HCD’s Homekey program, tell the story of its genesis, provide data on some of its outcomes, highlight its successes, and make recommendations on methods by which HCD can build on what has been learned. The report also describes the role of Enterprise in providing technical assistance to Homekey applicants. Four case studies feature examples of how a range of grantees throughout the state have used Homekey funding to address homelessness in their communities