Redwood City — The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors received staff recommendations today for a $34.5 million aid package aimed at bolstering support in three vital areas identified by the community as priorities.
The recommended package proposes spending $15 million for housing and homelessness initiatives, $16 million for children, family and senior services, and $3.5 million for emergency preparedness efforts. The $34.5 million comes from Measure K, a countywide, voter-approved sales tax extension.
Today’s presentation to the Board follows a comprehensive year-long process, which involved extensive community engagement through listening sessions, surveys, and outreach in multiple languages.
“Measure K allows us to target our local public resources to address local needs,” said Warren Slocum, president of the Board of Supervisors. “We asked the public what they need to thrive. The answers we received are clear: programs and services focused on those most in need of a lift as well as improving our ability to plan for and respond to emergencies.”
With the community feedback in hand, the County asked local nonprofits and community-based organizations to propose ways to address the three priority areas. This prompted 315 applications with funding requests topping $250 million annually — or seven times the available funding.
Eleven evaluation panels comprised of 60 County staff and subject matter experts scored the community-based applications based on program impact, experience and qualifications, performance measures and cost, among other factors. The County Executive Team reviewed and scored applications by County departments.
The Board of Supervisors will consider the $34.5 million in community-led recommendations at its March 26 meeting alongside an additional $75.5 million in Measure K revenues to support programs and services that are currently operating throughout the county. The new contracts, once approved, are slated to commence in July.
Michelle Durand
Chief Communications Officer
mdurand@smcgov.org