California’s ‘No Place Like Home’ Program Faces Legal Challenge To Use Of Mental Health Services Act Funding

The State of California plan to implement a new permanent supportive housing program for homeless people, called the No Place Like Home program, has been stalled by a lawsuit challenging the legality of the funding arrangements. The program, created in 2016, intended to issue $2 billion in bonds to develop new permanent supportive housing for homeless people. The state intended to secure and repay the bonds with funding borrowed from the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA).

The legal question in the lawsuit concerns anti-borrowing language in MHSA, and the fact that the MHSA funds are earmarked for treatment and . . .