In 2020, Alameda County voters passed a 10-year, half-cent sales tax to generate new funding for homelessness. The measure has generated an estimated $800 million in funds so far, but that money was held up in court until last spring. Now, nearly year since the funds were cleared for release, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors has been busy trying to get the money out the door. In March, they announced investments in new affordable housing projects in five Alameda County cities, and created new, ongoing rental assistance subsidy programs.
In recent years, the county has invested its own funding for homelessness and housing programs, which has amounted to roughly $20 million annually. Measure W—which is expected to raise approximately $1.4 billion for housing and homelessness over 10 years—changes the funding landscape for Alameda County, which is preparing for significant federal and state funding cuts due to recent policy changes from the Trump administration.
Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas has been an advocate for making sure Measure W funds are invested in homeless services and prevention. Last month, we got on the phone to talk about where the money has gone so far, and how to ensure it is allocated in programs that have a meaningful impact on homelessness in Alameda County. Our conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.
Alastair Boone (AB): A lot has happened since we spoke about Measure W last year. For those who haven’t been following along, can you put the measure into context?
Nikki Fortunato Bas (NFB): The county has never had a local funding stream like this before. While [we] did have a budget on homelessness, it was never at this level, and it was sort of cobbling together state funding, federal funding, and general fund allocations. So this really is the first time we’ve had a multi-year dedicated funding stream [for homelessness].
The fact that we can count on $1.4 billion for homelessness, and program that in collaboration with our cities, and getting input from people with lived experience of being unhoused—that’s all happening for the first time.
AB: How has the spending been going? What has been funded so far?
NFB: There’s basically three buckets of funding that we have already approved and allocated. The first is what we’re calling a flexible housing subsidy pool.
This is a really big investment to distribute rental subsidies for permanent housing for folks who are experiencing homelessness. It’s about rental assistance, landlord engagement, tenant services, you know, just really making sure that people can [get into] housing.
Over five years, this is a commitment of $150 million, and $60 million of that is coming directly from Measure W.
AB: Wow. Okay. How can people apply for those funds?
NFB: The way to get rental assistance for Permanent Supportive Housing continues to be through the Coordinated Entry System, which folks can access through a housing resource center.
AB: Okay, so that’s the first bucket.
NFB: The second big budget allocation we have approved was a commitment of $33 million for interim housing. We’re creating 296 new shelter beds, including beds for people who have high medical needs. So this is non-congregate shelter with supportive services and health services.
AB: Got it.
NFB: And then the third budget allocation for Measure W, which we recently announced, is the capital fund for [the development of] permanent supportive housing.
So that was $53 million supporting 10 affordable housing projects that are creating a total of 946 units of housing, 310 of which will be for people experiencing homelessness.
And these are projects that were shovel-ready: They were already funded, but leveraging Measure W funds to apply for state tax credits will hopefully get shovels in the ground quickly, because [the cities were already] so close to securing the rest of their financing to start construction.
AB: So those will be the new housing developments in Berkeley, Oakland, Livermore, Alameda, and Newark.
NFB: That’s right. And then there’s also a Request for Proposals (RFP) that is currently out for housing resource centers. As you know, these are the front door to our homeless response system.
AB: Yeah, like the Towne House in Oakland or the North County Resource Center in Berkeley.
NFB: This is where people can access things like housing navigation [and] homelessness programs. So new contracts with housing resource centers will do things like help expand hours of operation, or the type of services that people can access there. It may or may not expand the number of locations, but it will certainly help to expand hours and services.
AB: So those are the big budget allocations that have already been approved. How does the board plan to get the rest of the Measure W funding out the door?
NFB: There are a handful of upcoming Request for Proposals (RFPs) that are coming out later this year.
This summer we’re going to release an RFP for shelter beds. So shelters that currently receive county support will be invited to reapply for funding, for contracts starting in January of next year. And in order to apply, they actually have to adhere to a new set of shelter standards.
AB: What will that look like?
NFB: County staff are convening a working group and a very extensive outreach process to get input from people about updating our shelter standards, in partnership with providers as well as people with lived experience being unhoused. In some instances, people with lived experience have received grants to support community engagement. What we’re doing there is just really making sure that as we invest in shelters, those shelters are [consistent], safe, and dignified. The new standards are going to be published this summer, in concurrence with the new RFP for shelters.
To support those higher standards, the county is going to be increasing our provider reimbursement rates. Those are called our “bed night rates.” Right now the rates are $30-something dollars a night, and we’re going to be increasing that to $90-something dollars. So hopefully that will allow for having high-quality staff who are able to really stay and build relationships, as well as better services.
That’s something I think is really important. Part of what we were hoping to do with Measure W is try to improve the services across the entire system, which in turn will hopefully improve the outcomes.
AB: So you’re asking existing shelter programs to apply for funding alongside new programs, so that everybody will be held to the same standards?
NFB: Exactly.
AB: What are some of the other upcoming opportunities to apply for funding?
NFB: The county is also creating the first countywide homelessness prevention program, and so this is going to provide financial assistance and sustaining services for people at risk of becoming homeless. This is different from general rental assistance to low-income households, which does exist in a number of places across the county. This is really targeted to people who are at the greatest risk of becoming unhoused. This will hopefully stem the inflow into homelessness.
And, there will be an RFP for primary healthcare. The county is looking to fund another health clinic for people who are experiencing homelessness either in South or Mid County.
There is also an RFP in development for workforce development. The intention here is to support both the provider workforce—so there’s a high-quality, stable workforce providing services—and people with lived experience to expand and support employment opportunities for folks who are exiting homelessness.
There will be some funding opportunities to expand resources for services, for things like outreach, safe parking, and hygiene.
And then lastly, there will be another capital fund opportunity for things like housing acquisition, rehab, or shelter preservation. So this one is also very exciting. This is where we can increase the number of units that are available for people experiencing homelessness.
‘We’re hoping to improve services across the entire system’
AB: It sounds like there are a lot of funding opportunities coming up. With so much money in the pipeline, I want to talk about the transparency around the Measure W spending.
When we spoke last year, you voiced a desire for increased transparency in the form of regular updates from monthly Measure W work sessions. How has this been going?
NFB: You know, [Measure W] may not get a public update every single month, honestly, given that our work sessions are covering a range of topics. In February, we did get a Measure W Home Together update, and this month we had a Measure W Essential County Services update.
We also heard about some of the needs related to H.R. 1, the federal budget bill affecting Medi-Cal and healthcare access. And we are starting to look at how the state’s Proposition 1 is going to impact funding for mental health prevention. All of these issues really intersect. So while Measure W may not officially be on our agenda every month, we are having frequent work sessions, and also talking about these other related issues around reduced federal and state funding that impact people who are unhoused.
AB: What kind of input has the Board has been getting from the county’s unhoused advisory boards, like the Youth Advisory Board and Community Consumer Advisory Board?
NFB: That’s an excellent question. I know that input that has been collected through these groups has been a big part of the county’s work at the staff level, for example with the Healthcare for the Homeless team and the Continuum of Care.
AB: The Measure W framework initially included capacity-building funds for smaller nonprofits and organizations that haven’t worked with the county in the past. Is that still on your radar?
NFB: Yeah, that is definitely still on my radar. The capital fund that is going to be for things like acquisition, rehab, preservation, and possibly new interim shelters. I think that’s really an opportunity, because with new housing coming online, that’s potentially an opportunity for partnership between the county’s existing providers and partnering capacity building resources with organizations that might not yet be working with the county, and don’t have capacity to meet the county’s complex administrative and financial requirements.
Right now, county staff are looking at capacity building as an opportunity to provide trainings around evidence-based practices to providers, making sure that staff understand housing first, trauma-informed, and culturally-informed care. There will also be an opportunity for workforce development for people who want employment to support the homeless response system themselves. A specific grantmaking process for capacity building is not currently in the works.
Especially for groups who have leadership with people who have been unhoused, the capital fund is a place where my office is trying to make connections between some organizations that don’t yet have a relationship with the county and our staff, and those that do.
AB: How can people get updates about funding opportunities and other Measure W news?
NFB: Check out the county’s housing and homelessness website and sign up for our email listserv. Certainly we are all going to try to make sure that we announce any opportunities for people to get more services.
AB: What is the timeline looking like for the next months and years? Are there any other important dates or opportunities people should know about?
NFB: This is a 10-year tax, and we’re almost halfway through the period that the tax has been collected. I personally have a lot of urgency around getting the money out the door and also making sure that we’re spending it on projects and programs and services that will really have an impact. We’re trying to balance deploying these resources with also identifying high shelter standards and programs that will really deliver the outcomes that we want, which is helping to house people permanently and help them stay housed.
Alastair Boone is the Director of Street Spirit and a beat reporting fellow for KALW covering homelessness.