Mission Statement

The Human Services Department (HSD) promotes the health, education and well-being of Oakland families and adults by providing free programs and building strong communities through grassroots leadership and civic engagement. We collaborate with a diverse group of local organizations to eliminate racial disparities and to address the emerging needs of the community.

Learn more about who we are and what we do here.

SERVICE IMPACTS &

EQUITY CONSIDERATIONS

Enhancements

Clean, Healthy, & Sustainable Neighborhoods

1. Add 1.0 FTE Housing Deputy Director to focused on system performance and programmatic outcomes. Increasing Human Services Department (HSD) leadership capacity will create the ability for departmental oversight to move past only being able to do the transactional and grant driven compliance and strengthen the department’s ability and capacity to monitor and design system improvements that can more directly address racial equity issues in HSD operations, policymaking and service delivery.
   • Equity Consideration: HSD provides program services to community members who are largely BIPOC and live in neighborhoods experiencing the highest levels of racial disparities in social and health outcomes. This investment will provide capacity for the department to develop and implement strategies to advance racial equity and to assess their outcomes.
2. Add $9M to sustain operations of the Lake Merritt Lodge as a Roomkey/ Covid Hotel for 12 months. Sustains housing and wrap around supports including housing navigation for 92 households (115 individuals) who are formerly unsheltered and at risk of death or serious health consequences of Covid due to age and/or chronic conditions.
   • Equity Consideration: The focus community – unsheltered individuals who are elderly, and/or with health conditions living on the street– are predominately Black/African American (70+%) having been disproportionately impacted by policies related to economic, housing and health car access. Approximately 72% of clients served are Black/African American.
3. Add $500,000 in O&M for an equity focused evaluation revealing best human services strategies for eliminating racial disparities and support for HSD to drive policies and services using a Results Based Accountability framework. Improve data collection, quality, and analysis to drive better service and policy decision making to address racial disparities in outcomes. Having strong program evaluations can help us identify our best investments as well as determine how to establish and sustain them as optimal practice.
   • Equity Consideration: Without robust evaluation resources and data analytics, Human Services cannot adequately measure the impact of program services on closing racial disparities in outcomes and inform funding / policy changes needed to improve/change outcomes.
4. Add 1.5 FTE Office Assistant I, PT and 2.0 FTE Recreation Specialist I, PT in Aging & Adult Services. Add 1.0 FTE Program Analyst I in Early Childhood & Family Services. Add 1.0 FTE Administrative Services Manager I and 1.0 FTE Administrative Analyst I in Community Housing Services.
   • Equity Consideration: These positions will allow HSD to implement and manage programing across multiple divisions, which all serve people of color who have a history of being underserved, and experiencing income disparity, health issues, or technology access challenges. The addition of these positions will streamline service and communication with the public and partner agencies.
5. Adds $1M in food cards for families to use with small grocery stores in flatlands neighborhoods including East, Central and West Oakland. These cards will provide 2,500 families with $75 for 12 months to buy their groceries from local stores.
   • Equity Consideration: Oakland's low-income BIPOC communities have experienced the highest rates of COVID-19 and other disparate outcomes which have destabilized household incomes. Providing food security to the community can support economic stability and support health outcomes through good nutrition. These cards also support local small businesses largely owned and staffed by BIPOC residents.
6. Council Amendments add $3.2M in funding for various grants supporting food programs, employment & training, homelessness.
   • Equity consideration: This is a council amendment approved at budget adoption and an equity statement was not developed for this item.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGETARY CHANGES

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

POSITION INFORMATION