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

Good jobs and vibrant economy

1. Adds 24.0 FTE for Oakland’s Head Start & Early Head Start program. Head Start & Early Head Start provides free education & child development services for up to 674 children, 0-5 years old, and expectant mothers from low-income families to prepare them for kindergarten. Six Early Head Start Centers will open 10 hours a day and will operate within underserved neighborhoods of Oakland. Adding these additional positions also qualifies the program to meet the service expansion needs as outlined by the CCTR Grant administered by the State of California.
   • Equity Consideration: While Centers hours have been operating full days from 8:30am-4:30pm, many of the parents and caregivers of Head Start children are considered “blue-collar” and/or essential workers who work at jobs with schedules that are not during standard business hours. Expanding existing Center hours to 10 hours a day and the days of service to 240 days out of the year will provide the flexibility that families who work past 5 pm need in order to see that their children receive early education and attentive childcare while they’re at work. This expansion of Head Start and Early Head Start supports the City in advancing racial equity in Oakland’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities through giving eligible families access to early childhood development educational programming.

Housing Security & Homelessness Solutions

1. Adds 3.0 FTE to the Community Housing Services division . This additional staffing is required to improve overall data quality and accountability, fiscal management, and effective contract monitoring of providers.
   • Equity Consideration: Housing market failures, homeless system challenges, and long-standing discrimination have produced a crisis in affordable housing and homelessness, which has significantly impacted low-income people and communities of color in Oakland. An estimated 70% of people experiencing homelessness in Oakland identify as Black compared to 47% of the overall County’s population experiencing homelessness and 24% of the City’s population . These positions are intended to better gather and collect data around the City’s homeless services. The main role of these positions will be to provide accurate information to better portray the homeless situation and the impacts of the services provided to Oakland’s unhoused residents.

Reductions

Housing Security & Homelessness Solutions

1. Reduces Lake Merritt Lodge’s funding by $1.1 million in FY 2023-24 and $850,000 in FY 2024-25. Lake Merritt Lodge serves as an emergency homeless shelter for some of Oakland’s most vulnerable residents. A reduction in funding would potentially result in less beds and services being available to unhoused residents.
   • Equity Consideration: Lake Merritt Lodge provides 92 Year-round shelter beds for those who are homeless, typically Black seniors and those with serious medical conditions from the city’s over 5,000+ homeless population.
2. Reduces Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention (HHAP) funding for FY 2024-25. The City is slated to receive $26.8 million in HHAP funds for FY 2023-24 from the State of California. However, there is currently no additional round of funding identified for FY 2024-25 related to HHAP. This funding is instrumental for the City to provide homeless assistance and prevention services for the city’s over 5,000+ homeless population.
   • Equity Consideration: Housing market failures, homeless system challenges, and long-standing discrimination have produced a crisis in affordable housing and homelessness, which has significantly impacted low-income people and communities of color. An estimated 70% of people experiencing homelessness in Oakland identify as Black compared to 47% of the overall County’s population experiencing homelessness and 24% of the City’s population. HSD will leverage this $26.8 million in one-time grants to provide a variety of homelessness interventions to unhoused residents, who are overwhelmingly from Oakland’s BIPOC communities. Additional funding will need to be identified in Fiscal Year 2024-2025 or the City will need to make significant cuts to homeless assistance and prevention services.

Clean, healthy, sustainable neighborhoods

1. Reduces the Kids First allocation for FY 2023-24 by $1.8 million based on a decrease in General Purpose Fund unrestricted revenues per the City Charter and reduces funding for FY 2024-25 by by approximately $875,000. The reduction of the Kids First contracts to outside organizations will reduce available funding for these organizations to provide services to children.
   • Equity Consideration: This reduction impacts vulnerable children in Oakland's BIPOC low-income communities. Oakland Kids First works with 125 core youth leaders and 3,400 additional high school students each year across programs. Kids First programs advance safe and caring school cultures, support youth to advocate for their needs and priorities, and improve educational equity, racial justice, and academic outcomes for low-income students of color. A reduction in funding could potentially cause these programs to be reduced, paused or eliminated within the community organizations that rely on Kids First funding.
2. Freezes vacant 1.0 FTE Program Analyst II, PT position for Aging & Adult Services Division. The Program Analyst II, PT is responsible for executing and managing professional service agreements, grant agreements, and purchasing. Freezing this position will impact existing staff who will absorb the work typically assigned to the Program Analyst II , PT. Without this position, Aging Services may not have the capacity to facilitate community grants, contracting outside of internal grant programs, or purchasing equipment and supplies for Senior Centers.
   • Equity Consideration: This impact will slow down the contracting process for community partners that provide support services to low-income Oakland Seniors, who are primarily Black and Asian residents.

SIGNIFICANT BUDGETARY CHANGES

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

POSITION INFORMATION