After years of legal delays, Alameda County is moving forward with a sweeping $1.8 billion plan to tackle homelessness and support other essential services. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the spending strategy in July, marking the first time voter-approved Measure W funds can be used since the tax passed in 2020.
The half-cent sales tax, intended for housing, homelessness programs, behavioral health care, and other community services, began generating revenue in 2021. But a lawsuit from the Alameda County Taxpayers Association stalled spending until a court ruling in April cleared the way. The county has collected about $810 million so far and expects to raise another $1 billion before the tax expires in 2031.
Under the adopted plan, about $1.4 billion will go directly toward homelessness and housing, $260 million will support other county services, and $170 million will be set aside in reserves to protect against economic downturns and potential state or federal funding cuts. Most of the housing and homelessness money will feed into the “Home Together Fund,” projected to collect $136 million annually for prevention programs, shelter expansion, and permanent housing.
The urgency is clear: between 2019 and 2024, the county’s homeless population rose 18% to nearly 9,450 people, with Oakland accounting for more than half. The number of residents living outdoors or in vehicles nearly doubled during that time.
Community members and advocates packed the meeting to share support and concerns. Some argued the reserve should be smaller, pushing for more direct spending on homeless services. Others defended reserve funds and stabilization measures as necessary to keep affordable housing providers afloat.The board will revisit certain contested items, including a proposed $15 million fund to assist struggling nonprofit housing groups, at a later date.
Everything I read gives me different numbers about how much money is in Alameda county from the measured w and then exactly what’s going to Oakland California for homeless services. With the gross mismanagement of previous funds that escalated in Oakland’s homelessness tax base of being just $3 million for 5,000 people back in 2015 all the way up to the amount that they are offering at this point that is over 160 million but I thought it would be in the billions that’s a lot of money. and I expect there’s going to be more shenanigans across the boards they are just basically kick the people and the nonprofits to the back of the bus that were involved in the last 6 years in city of Oakland and the mismanagement of all of those funds people have died there has been prejudice and hate crimes committed upon the own house there has been a myriad of things that have happened and none of it has been to the positive for unhoused people living in these streets not everybody wants the kind of housing that they’re being offered either they don’t do any surveys they don’t ask people what they want what they need or what’s going to make their life get back on track everybody’s been on hold since 2020 back when the campus for Wood Street was supposed to go down and then boss came in took it over and took all the funds this was supported by the governor this plan was supported by locals a campus for education and housing in an entertainment zone surrounding it couldn’t be a better gift to Oakland’s public with a historic center and job training not the typical kind of nonprofit stuff that you’ve been seeing for years because that would be like banging your face against a concrete wall this is completely new innovative project and program and I really hope the people as it starts to evolve will be looking for it listening for it and don’t buy into Mike Pyotak homeless academy for God’s sake that’s not with the campus is so if you see an architect pushing housing that he wants to put up immediately it’s because he probably has some financial issues and he’s doing this as a conflict of interest. . like I sure doesn’t have any qualms about stealing I. P that’s intellectual property from creative geniuses that happened to be in the unhoused community trying to make plans for the rest of us. Can’t we all just get along it’s starting to become pretty competitive in this particular market and with more money on the table there’s going to be more thieves at the door. Don’t be tricked