Alameda County mayors urge supervisors to use millions in tax revenue for homelessness

by Kiley Russell, Bay City News July 22, 2025July 21, 2025

FILE: A homeless encampment on East 12th Street in Oakland on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. Alameda County has collected more than $650 million since voters passed a half-cent sales tax in 2020. Now county supervisors must decide how to spend the money, which a coalition of cities want to see used to provide housing and homeless services. (City of Oakland via Bay City News)

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.

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Kiley Russell, Bay City News

Kiley Russell writes primarily for Local News Matters on issues related to equity and the environment. A Bay Area native, he has lived most of his life in Oakland. He studied journalism at San Francisco State University, worked for the Associated Press and the former Contra Costa Times, among other outlets. He has covered everything from state legislatures, local governments, federal and state courts, crime, growth and development, political campaigns of various stripes, wildfires and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

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