A coalition of elected officials and community groups is urging the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to spend hundreds of millions in recently freed up sales tax revenue on homelessness programs and services.
At a special meeting Tuesday, supervisors will discuss how they should spend money from Measure W, a half-cent sales tax proposal voters narrowly approved in 2020 but which was stalled by litigation until April.
At stake is $650 million that has already been collected over the past five years and an additional $190 million that will come in annually until the measure sunsets after 2030.
Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas, whose district includes large portions of Oakland, is among those calling for most, if not all, the money to be spent on addressing homelessness throughout the county.
“I think it’s important for the public to know that the county does have a plan for addressing homelessness, it’s called our Home Together Plan, and that plan shows that we need to spend $2.5 billion dollars over five years to address homelessness,” Fortunato Bas said Monday.
That’s well above what Measure W will raise over the course of its 10-year lifespan, but it can still “go a very long way in making sure that people who are living on the streets or in their vehicles or in shelters have a dignified place to live,” Fortunato Bas said.
Creating more housing
The county’s plan to address homelessness includes using rental subsidies to keep people from losing their homes, creating more interim and emergency shelters and helping cities that are facing a “funding cliff” to build and maintain shelters as well as permanent housing, Fortunato Bas said.
In addition to Fortunato Bas, local advocacy groups and the mayors of all Alameda County’s 14 cities are echoing the call to prioritize homelessness prevention and response programs.
“First, we wish to affirm support for 100% of Measure W to be devoted to homelessness solutions, as was promised to our voters,” according to a letter from the Alameda County Mayors’ Conference and signed by its president, Hayward Mayor Mark Salinas, and Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii, chair of the conference’s working group on homelessness.
“Furthermore, Measure W investments should prioritize reducing racial disparities and meeting the needs of populations that are over‐represented in homelessness,” according to the letter.
“Furthermore, Measure W investments should prioritize reducing racial disparities and meeting the needs of populations that are over‐represented in homelessness.” Alameda County Mayors’ Conference letter
The mayors are urging the board to give cities money in proportion to their homeless populations, include city officials early in the decision-making process, prioritize interim and permanent homelessness programs and to build and sustain nonprofit capacity.
Many of the county’s mayors and city managers — including those from Berkeley, Hayward, Fremont, San Leandro and Oakland — also sent letters independently to the supervisors supporting similar policies.
“Oakland unites with cities across the County to reinforce this priority, as it was promised to the voters,” wrote Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. “As elected officials, we cannot retain the trust of our voters if we do not commit to truth in advertising.”
Blacks homeless in disproportionate numbers
In her letter, Lee said Black people represent 10.5 percent of the total population but 54.8 percent of all new entries into homelessness, that Black people return to homelessness at double the rate of the homeless population at large and that 58 percent of the county’s homeless population lives in Oakland.
“In sum, Oakland asks that Measure W funds be reserved for homeless housing and services, and that an equitable share be devoted to Oakland, guided by data on homelessness need and a racial equity imperative,” Lee wrote. “Measure W funds for unhoused Oaklanders should be deployed in coordination with City homelessness leadership and targeted to prevention services, outreach, interim housing, and permanent affordable housing.”
At Tuesday’s meeting, which starts at 3 p.m. in the supervisors’ chambers at 1221 Oak St. in Oakland, county staff will present a few different options for how much Measure W money should be spent in different areas, including on homelessness programs.
Supervisors will then give staff direction about what they’d like to see in a final plan, which could be voted on at a regular meeting later in the month.