About 100 homeless advocates gathered at the California Capitol on Tuesday to plead that the governor and legislators preserve funding to fight the state’s homelessness crisis as they consider budget cuts.

In February the state Legislative Analyst’s Office released an updated budget deficit projection of $73 billion.

The event was organized by Bring California Home, a coalition of advocates and organizations attempting to solve the homelessness crisis, and The Corporation for Supportive Housing, which tries to facilitate programs that combine affordable housing and support services.

“We are here because homelessness is a crisis that has been building for years, and for far too many years our leaders haven’t done enough about it to invest in solutions we know work to end homelessness,” said Alex Visotzky of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

A top priority of the advocates is preserving $1 billion in annual funding for the state’s Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention grant program, also known as HHAP.

“We need permanent funding or else we’ll end up with a permanent crisis,” said Assemblyman Luz Rivas, D-San Fernando Valley.