ICLC Leads Coalition to Save $81 Million for Homeless Families — and Wins
Inner City Law Center Leads Coalition to Save $81 Million for Homeless Families in the 2025-2026 California Budget — and Wins
Advocates, service providers and elected officials work together to successfully preserve life-saving funding for Bringing Families Home.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (June 30, 2025) — After months of dedicated advocacy opposing a proposed elimination of the Bringing Families Home program’s funding, Inner City Law Center and service providers across the state are celebrating a major victory: the preservation of the statewide program’s full $81 million in the 2025-2026 California budget.
The Bringing Families Home (BFH) program provides holistic services—such as rental assistance, housing navigation, legal aid and case management—to families who are experiencing housing insecurity while navigating the child welfare system. Families that achieve housing stability are much more likely to be reunited with their families through the child welfare system. The program reduces homelessness, increases family reunification and prevents unnecessary foster care placements. From its launch in 2016 through June 2024, the Bringing Families Home program has served more than 9,000 families[i] and helped more than 4,400 become permanently housed.[ii]
“We are incredibly grateful to the California Legislature for recognizing the importance of Bringing Families Home,” said Shane Henson, Public Policy Advocate for Inner City Law Center. “Cutting this program would have had devastating consequences—more children in foster care, more families torn apart and more people homeless. This is a win for compassion, common sense and the children of California.”
The initial budget released on January 10 for California’s 2025-26 fiscal year called for the elimination of all Bringing Families Home funding, which would have effectively ended the program and been catastrophic for the thousands of precariously housed families depending on these services.[iii]
When the threat to BFH became clear, Inner City Law Center immediately sprang into action by organizing a statewide coalition of over 37 organizations and service providers to vehemently oppose defunding the program, while educating lawmakers on the program’s importance. Eventually, Inner City Law Center secured the support of Assemblymember Mark González to champion the BFH program within the Assembly and Senator Sasha Renée Pérez to advocate for the BFH program within the Senate.
After countless meetings with legislators, Inner City Law Center’s efforts paid off; on June 9, the California Senate and Assembly released a new budget proposal — one that preserved the vital $81 million in funding for California’s Bringing Families Home program.[iv] The preservation of BFH funding safeguards a vital resource for struggling families across the state.
Inner City Law Center is the only organization in Los Angeles directly contracted to provide legal services under BFH and do this critical work with precariously housed families and children in the child welfare system.
Inner City Law Center thanks Governor Gavin Newsom, Senate President pro Tempore Mike McGuire, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, Senate Budget Chair Scott Wiener and Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel for their leadership. The organization extends special thanks to Assemblymember Mark González, Senator Sasha Renée Pérez and the entire Bringing Families Home funding preservation coalition for their unwavering commitment to supporting struggling and unhoused families.
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About the Bringing Families Home Program
Since its inception in 2016, Bringing Families Home program has been a vital, cost effective and humane safety net that provides services to parents and guardians who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness, helping them to secure and maintain safe and stable housing for their children and prevent or reduce foster care involvement.
Recent evaluations from the California Policy Lab show that children receiving BFH services are 68% more likely to reunify with their families within 180 days, compared to non-participating families.[v] Additionally, BFH exited 52% of participants into permanent housing, while other local homeless response systems only exited 35% of participants into permanent housing.
About Inner City Law Center
Inner City Law Center is a nonprofit, poverty-law firm based in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles. As the only legal-services provider with offices in Skid Row, Inner City Law Center fights for housing and justice for low-income tenants, working-poor families, housing insecure veterans, people experiencing homelessness and people living with disabilities or HIV.
Media Contact: Jacqueline Burbank, Communications Manager, Inner City Law Center, jburbank@innercitylaw.org or (213) 947-7902
[i] Hanna Azemati, California Department of Social Services, Housing & Homelessness Division Legislative Briefing (Nov. 2024) (presentation), https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/cdss-programs/housing-programs.
[ii] S. Budget & Fiscal Rev. Comm., Agenda: CDSS—Housing, Immigration, Adult Programs, and Licensing 5–6 (Mar. 20, 2025), https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/system/files/2025-03/03.20.2025-cdss-housing-immigration-adult-programs-licensing-agenda.pdf.
[iii] Press Release, Governor Gavin Newsom, Governor Newsom sends 2025-26 budget plan to Legislature (Jan. 10,
2024), https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/01/10/governor-newsom-sends-2025-26-budget-plan-to-legislature/.
[iv] https://abgt.assembly.ca.gov/system/files/2025-06/floor-report-of-the-2025-26-budget-june-24-2025.pdf
[v] Krista Ruffini, Et Al., California Policy Lab, Bringing Families Home Project Evaluation 7 (2024),