Long Beach and Los Angeles are among the first five agencies to win millions in grants from a new California program to help curb the homeless crisis, the state announced Tuesday.

The Homeless Emergency Aid Program, which Gov. Jerry Brown approved in June, set aside $500 million to give to cities throughout the state.

In the program’s first wave of awards, Long Beach received $2.9 million and Los Angeles collected $85 million. But that’s just the beginning – both cities can expect even more as the program continues to dole out money over the next six months.

If their applications are up to snuff, Long Beach can expect another $9.4 million and Los Angeles will secure $80 million more, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority.

Long Beach counted on the cash in its 2019 budget discussions, citing the ability “to potentially receive $12.3 million in one-time funds from the State” to address homelessness. Diana Tang, the city’s manager of government affairs, said on Wednesday that Long Beach “is on track to receive the full $12.3 million.”

The city’s biggest priority for the funding will be building a permanent, year-round homeless shelter, Mayor Robert Garcia said.

While Long Beach currently has 259 shelter beds, the city has estimated that a year-round homeless shelter could add enough beds to serve another 125 people every night.

Garcia said the city doesn’t yet have a timeline or exact budget for building that shelter, although he noted it will be the “biggest expenditure” coming out of the state funds.

“It can’t happen soon enough,” he said. “We want it to be open now, but it’s a matter of acquiring the right land and doing the construction.”

Garcia said the city is assessing “a couple sites” at the moment.

“I really hope, in the next couple months, we’ll have something,” he added.

But the shelter isn’t the only thing Long Beach is eyeing. Garcia said the rest of the money from the grants will go to “housing vouchers and ensuring that people have places to live.”

Unlike the longer-term shelter plan, he said that with the vouchers, “we think we can have an impact pretty quickly.”

Los Angeles representatives did not respond to requests for comment on their plans for the money.

The program requires cities to spend the money on “immediate emergency assistance” to people who are either homeless or “at imminent risk” of becoming homeless, but the guidelines state that “cities are encouraged to be creative and craft programs that meet specific needs that have been identified in their communities.”

The other agencies to receive money in the first batch of awards are:

San Diego, $14.1 million,

Oakland, $8.7 million,

Bakersfield/Kern (County) Continuum of Care, $2.6 million.

Potential uses for the funds include street outreach, criminal justice diversion programs, housing vouchers, eviction prevention strategies, tiny houses, and public shower and toilet facilities, among other ideas, according to the state’s Homeless Coordinating and Financing Council, which operates the program.

“Our goal has been to get this funding out the door as quickly as we can,” Council Chair Alexis Podesta said in a statement. “We are very excited that we’ve already approved more than $116 million to help address homelessness in these communities.”